Laxmen Fall to Unbeaten UMass, 20-7

There wasn't a whole lot the Harvard men's lacrosse team could do to get ready for yesterday's contest with UMass. They pretty much knew they were going to lose and they went out and lost, 20.

Consider the facts:

*Harvard's record going into the game was 3-6, UMass's 9-0.

*Harvard had lost to Brown and Boston College, and had been drubbed by Cornell, 13-2. UMass had beaten Brown and Boston College and had swamped Cornell, 16-8.

*UMass's top scorer, attack Jim Weller, had a total of 63 points going into the game. Harvard's top four scorers combined had 64. Two other UMass attacks. Chris Corin and Lee Vosburgh, had 50 points and 49 respectively.

*Besides losing Brendan Meagher, perhaps their finest offensive player--out for the season with a knee injury--the Harvard laxmen yesterday missed the services of their best defenseman. Haywood Miller, also sidelined with a knee injury. The UMass forces were in almost perfect health.

So how can you get psyched up for a game like this? What could Harvard coach Bob Scalise tell his troops before sending them out onto the field?

"Don't worry, boys, the bigger they are, the harder they hit?" Nah.

"They may be quicker on offense, but we're slower on defense?" It just doesn't work.

Maybe some tired cliches about heart and pride and "on any given day." Or maybe just "go out and do the best you can."

Which they did. For a little more than a period. Harvard went out and did the best they could, holding the Minutemen to only two goals. But then UMass's Corin decided to make a run at teammate Weller's team-leading scoring mark by knocking in four of his game-high seven goals--he also had three assists--in quick succession, and raising the Minutemen's lead to 6-0.

Despite a two goal performance by middle Rich Dovle, the Crimson after that could never approach the Minutemen's lead.

Harvard has nothing to be ashamed of, certainly, in their performance yesterday. The odds were stacked against them. Nothing at all to be ashamed of. Yesterday simply wasn't a given day.