Women's Lacrosse Routs Hofstra In Season Opener

The Harvard women’s lacrosse team scored three goals in the first three minutes Saturday against Hofstra, and before the Pride could even manage an offensive possession, it was already staring at a 3-0 deficit.

In a preview of how the rest of the game would play out, sophomore midfielder Julia Glynn netted two solo goals and junior attacker Marisa Romeo added one of her own in a successful return from injury.

The two combined would go on to outscore Hofstra by themselves, pacing the Crimson to a comprehensive 16-8 victory. Glynn finished the day with six goals, a career high, while Romeo had four.

With the win, Harvard (1-0, 0-0 Ivy) wins its season opener for the second year in a row. The team has not strung together consecutive such wins since 2007-2010, when it won its opener in four straight years. At that time, current coach Lisa Miller was only just getting started at the helm of the program.

The Pride (0-2, 0-0 CAA), meanwhile, was handed another defeat after losing away at New Hampshire last weekend. The team’s fans at James M. Shuart Stadium could not inspire Hofstra to victory in its home opener against the Crimson.

Just as in its first game, the Pride fell in a quick hole at the beginning. The closest it drew to Harvard was when it cut the deficit to 4-2 on a free position shot at the 7:41 mark of the first half. Crimson junior attacker Maeve McMahon hit back with a goal two minutes later, however, and Hofstra was never within less than three goals again.

“We won most of the draw controls at the beginning of the game, and that helped us a lot,” said senior midfielder and Harvard co-captain Audrey Todd. “Then, on offense, we focused on looking for really good opportunities and setting the pace of the game ourselves.”

The Crimson dictated the pace for the first ten minutes of the game, holding possession and racing out to an 8-3 lead. The Pride responded by pulling junior goalie Alexis Greene, who had up until that point made only one save, and replaced her with freshman netminder Maddie Fields.

Hofstra put together a 3-1 run following the switch in goal, closing the margin to 9-6, but Harvard senior goalie Kelly Weis buckled down to make several great saves and hold the Pride scoreless for the final 14:57 of the half.

“We got beat a couple of times where we probably shouldn’t have,” Weis said. “But then, our defense clamped down; we took more of their attackers one-on-one and were able to stop them that way.”

The Crimson’s experienced back line of juniors Marina Burke and Emma Ford, and senior Tory Waldstein, were integral to the strong defensive stretch that made sure their team went into halftime with a comfortable 11-6 lead. All three players have two or more years of starting experience, creating mismatches against Hofstra’s two freshmen starting attackers.

The second half played out at a considerably slower pace, with only seven goals compared to the first half’s seventeen.

Fields made several strong saves to keep the Pride in the game at the beginning of the second half, but four straight goals by Harvard spanning the middle 10 minutes of the half put the score at an insurmountable 15-7.

Several of these goals were the result of better team play, as the Crimson assisted on three of their five final tallies after assisting on only one of the first 11.

“We have a pretty dynamic attacking unit, and everyone is confident with the ball,” Todd said. “We always look to pass, but they were sending some early slides at the start of the game and we found more opportunities one-on-one.”

During this time, Weis added to her save total. She finished with a total of 10 for the afternoon. Glynn also tacked on two more goals and an assist, bringing her to a total of seven points on the day.

“[Glynn] played a great game but it was also the entire team that made the win happen,“ Weis said. “It’s definitely good to get that first win out of the way.”

–Staff writer George Hu can be reached at yianshenhu@college.harvard.edu.