Crimson Laxwomen Crush Princeton; Mleczko's Four Goals Pave the Way

The Crimson laxwomen gained their first Ivy League victory of the season at Soldiers Field Saturday afternoon, when tight defense and a team-oriented offense propelled them to an 11-3 romp over Princeton.

Coach Carole Kleinfelder had prepared her squad for a close contest against the highly-touted Tigers. The stickwomen were unable to penetrate Princeton's tight man-to-man defense early in the contest and found themselves trailing, 2-1, in the middle of the first 20-minute session.

Sarah Mleczko's individual scoring efforts rallied the Crimson to a 4-2 lead at the end of the first half. Mleczko notched four goals on the afternoon.

Despite limiting the Crimson to only four tallies in the first stanza due to tenacious man-to-man defense, the Tigers opened the second half in a rather surprising zone defense.

Kleinfelder's heavily--drilled squad reacted quickly as it was able to capitalize on numerous Tiger mistakes to increase its margin to 7-3 after only a few minutes of second-half action.

Sparse and Spare

The stickwomen picked apart the sparse zone with quick interior cuts and sharp passing in the offensive end. Francesca Denhartog and Maureen Finn keyed the barrage in the second half, each rocketing three goals past a rather frustrated Princeton netminder.

The final Crimson score, late in the action, proved to be one of its finest. Initiated on a brilliant stop by goalie Nancy Boutillier, the squad moved the ball upfield until it landed in Denhartog's stick. She then carried the rubber with a series of startling moves into close range and fired it past the Princeton netminder.

Harvard goalie Boutillier did not see much action on her end of the field, but the surprising freshman was up to the task as she made some sensational stops on Princeton threats. Boutillier picked off six enemy bullets after her shaky start in the early going.