Laxwomen Crush Springfield; Mleczko Leads Near-Shutout

A cohesive offense and tenacious defense united yesterday as the Harvard women's lacrosse team devastated Springfield College, 13-1.

Led by senior Sarah Mleczko and freshman Francesca Den Hartog who each tallied four goals, the Crimson never let Springfield into the game as they held the lead from beginning to end and missed a shutout by a mere 70 seconds.

Although the short astroturf field made for a wide open game, neither team scored until 4:32 of the first half, when Harvard's Maureen Finn tallied. Finn came right back three minutes later to assist sophomore Annie MacMillan with another goal, and Mleczko notched three more before the end of the first half to give the stickwomen a commanding 5-0 edge.

Forced turnovers and bad passes marred Springfield's performance as the laxwomen continued their domination of play in the second half.

The defense played especially well with sophomore Annie Velie and freshman Jennie Piersiak leading the way with eight and seven interceptions respectively. Rookie goalie Nancy Boutillier also performed superlatively, recording ten saves and allowing a lone marker in the waning seconds of the game.

The Crimson's man-to-man defense confused the zone-oriented Springfield squad, which let eight more goals slide by and trailed, 13-0. The permeability of the Springfield defense showed especially when Mlezcko sparked a flurry of five goals in as many minutes at 20:30 in the second half.

"Our offense looks great and our defense did a good job marking," Boutillier said after the game. "I think we did a good job of adjusting the field, but I think that we're going to see a lot tougher competition in our upcoming games."

In the junior varsity contest, Dana Warren tallied three goals and an assist and goalie Charlotte Worsley knocked away 11 shots to lead the Crimson to a 7-4 victory.