Women's Lacrosse Snaps Losing Streak, Takes Down Yale on Road

After taking a commanding lead, the Harvard women’s lacrosse team weathered a furious second-half run by Yale, holding on for a 7-5 victory.

The Crimson (3-4, 1-2 Ivy) reversed its recent trend of getting off to slow starts by taking a 7-0 first-half lead. The Bulldogs (2-4, 0-2) responded with a 5-0 run in the second frame, but Harvard was able to keep Yale off the board for the final 10 minutes of play, preserving the win Saturday afternoon at Reese Field in New Haven, Conn.

“Every single game we have played this year has been a battle, and Saturday was no different,” co-captain Melanie Baskind said. “We are still struggling to play consistently, and it was a testament to Yale’s side that they were able to come out in the second half and battle back. On our side, we weren’t thrilled with the way we played [in the second half].”

While in past games the Crimson has struggled out of the gates, this time around Harvard came out strong, scoring four goals within the first eight minutes.

The Crimson got on the board first when junior Michaela Cyr put an unassisted goal past Bulldog goalie Erin McMullan a little under three minutes into the contest. Harvard proceeded to light up the scoreboard.

Junior attacker Jennifer VanderMeulen found the back of the net for her seventh goal of the year 5:08 into the game. Baskind was able to follow up with a goal of her own 79 seconds later before freshman Jamie Potter capped the run with a score 42 seconds later to give the Crimson a 4-0 advantage.

“I think we came out with energy, and we were moving off the ball well,” junior Danielle Tetreault said. “We attacked [the net] and created opportunities for one another.”

Harvard continued to put the pressure on Yale with a goal from Tetreault. Cyr and Baskind followed with their second goals on the day and their 11th and 12th goals of the season, respectively. Baskind’s goal with a little over a minute left to play in the first gave the Crimson a 7-0 lead.

According to Baskind, the Crimson, despite taking a seven-goal lead into the break, did not lose its focus.

“Because of the way our games have gone in the past, I think we did a good job of not getting ahead of ourselves and realizing that a 5-0, 7-0 score may not be as significant as it might seem on paper,” said Baskind, who finished with two ground balls and a draw control. “I think we did a good job of realizing that, but our execution in the second half didn’t really show it.”

Yale’s Devon Rhodes finally beat Harvard freshman goalkeeper Kelly Weiss, scoring off an assist from sophomore Jen DeVito.

The Bulldogs were then able to put away back-to-back goals off of free-position shots, the second of which brought Yale within four with 14:44 to go.

Rhodes got on the board again, and senior Caroline Crew followed with an unassisted score with just over 10 minutes left in the contest to pull Yale within two.

“I don’t think there was time to be nervous,” Baskind said. “We were just trying to focus on finishing out the game and maintaining a positive attitude. You can’t get too hung up on emotions, as hard as that may be. I was confident. We are a good team.”

The Crimson was able to compose itself as its defense held off the Bulldog attack, forcing three turnovers in the closing minutes.

“I think our defense had a very good game; we caused some turnovers, and we took care of the ball on offense and waited for good opportunities,” Tetreault said. “We had some turnovers [at the end of the game] that put us in trouble, but we had pressure defense that caused Yale to drop the ball, and it allowed us to get the ball back and take care of it for the win.”

The five goals were the fewest Crimson has allowed this season.

—Staff writer Cameron Dowd can be reached at camerondowd14@college.harvard.edu.