Women's Lacrosse Dominates Brown

The Harvard women’s lacrosse team jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, besting Brown, 16-8, Saturday afternoon at Harvard Stadium.

The final score does not tell the full story of the Crimson’s dominance. Led by six goals from junior attacker Jennifer VanderMeulen, Harvard (5-6, 2-2 Ivy) took an early four-goal advantage and never trailed in the contest. The Bears (5-5, 1-3) showed signs of life with a pair of goals from sophomore Bre Hudgins midway through the first half, but the Crimson was able to score four more consecutive tallies to give Harvard what proved to be an insurmountable 8-2 lead.

“This game we were ready to come out hard and come out fast, and that’s what we did,” said VanderMeulen, whose six goals matched a career high.

Harvard was able to control the ball for much of the game and dominated the draw controls, 17-9. Sophomore Kyleigh Keating lost only one draw in the first half, which put the Crimson in control of the game.

“Kyleigh just did amazing,” said VanderMeulen of the sophomore, who finished with a career-high six draw controls. “We’ve been working on different people in the draw circle, and she just stepped up today and did an amazing job.”

The Crimson spread the ball around on offense and managed to find a number of open looks, converting 16 of 25 shot attempts. Juniors Micaela Cyr and Danielle Tetreault added three goals apiece, and Keating chipped in with two goals of her own.

“The offense is finally producing,” co-captain Melanie Baskind said. “We’re not just taking shots, we’re taking good shots.”

Harvard’s patience on offense played an important role in the Crimson’s ability to find open looks. After winning the game’s opening draw, Harvard held possession for nearly five minutes. While the Crimson was unable to convert on its first possession, the strategy eventually paid off.

“We wanted to be sure we weren’t going to take a shot that we didn’t think had a very good chance of going in,” said Baskind, who finished with a goal and a game-high five ground balls. “I’m proud of us for waiting for a good opportunity.”

While Harvard was frustrated on its first possession, it did not take long for VanderMeulen to add her first tally of the game, an unassisted goal at 21:51. Within 74 seconds, she added two more goals to complete the hat trick.

“We moved off ball really well, which can confuse defenses,” VanderMeulen said. “I thought we did a really good job creating space for each other.”

Baskind and VanderMeulen both pointed to a particularly successful week of practice as a catalyst for Harvard’s most lopsided win of the season.

“I thought we had a really good week of practice and worked really hard,” Baskind said. “We’re not just going through drills anymore; we’re being productive in them, and I think that really carried over to the game today.”

After Hudgins’ two scores made it 4-2 with 12:17 to go, the Crimson got back on track with a goal from Baskind, who beat her defender one-on-one and was able to sneak a shot by Brown goalie Isabel Harvey.

Harvard tacked on three more in the first half and went into the break up, 8-3, after Brown freshman Alexandra Crerend finished a pass from senior Julia Keller for an open-net goal.

The Bears scored first in the second half, as Abby Bunting beat freshman goalkeeper Kelly Weiss (three saves, eight goals allowed) to bring the Bears to within four.

But the contest was never closer than that again. Harvard responded with an 8-1 run fueled by scores from five different players to take a 13-5 lead. With the game out of reach, the Bears found the net three times in the final four minutes.

“This is a great Ivy win, and I think it builds confidence for us,” VanderMeulen said. “We have Holy Cross on Wednesday, but then we have Princeton next Saturday, so this is a great platform to build off of for the rest of our Ivy games.”

Baskind also noted the significance of the win going forward in Ivy League play.

“We’re building expectations for ourselves,” Baskind said. “We play a hard schedule for a reason, and we are looking forward from here on out.”

With the win, Harvard took sole possession of fifth place in the Ancient Eight standings. The Crimson will need a top-four finish to earn a berth in the postseason Ivy League tournament.