Looking Ahead: A National Title?

There's been a lot of talk recently about some big games this weekend. It seems some national championship is on the line. And incredibly, they say. Harvard will play a key role in deciding it.

While it might be a bit premature to talk national championship just yet, though it seems a safe bet that Saturday's Harvard Penn confrontation should go a long way in deciding the title. Sorry, hockey fans--this one's for women's lacrosse.

Both the perennially tough Crimson and Quakers will bring 2-0 marks into the early season lacrosse showdown, which matches two viable contenders for the national title.

Last year, the two squads finished as co-Ivy champions, while Harvard went on to take the Eastern title and a sixth place finish in the nationals.

And while Saturday's match-up comes extremely early in the season and will be the first real test for both squads. Crimson Coach Carole Kleinfelder explains that it could easily set the season's tempo for her squad.

"Penn is always the start of our season," she says. "And sometimes it's the end."

"All next week will be the key to the season," she continues referring to the Crimson's spring trip to the Baltimore and Philadelphia areas, which will began just two days after the Penn game. "This'll be our chance to find our where we really stand."

On paper, the Crimson stands right at the top. The team, talent-laden with seniors is led by All-Americans Francesco DenHartog and Maureen Finn. Both four-year starters. DenHartog and Finn lead the Harvard attack.

Back on defense, seniors Jeanie Piersiak (who co-captains the squad with DenHartog) and Kate Martin are the stalwarts on a Crimson squad that has allowed only two goals in its first two games. The laxwomen defeated Towson State. 27-2 last weekend, and shut our Stanford yesterday, 17-0.

Add attacker Jennifer white to that group and you've got a quintet that ranks among Harvard's best ever. "The seniors are really going to gave to carry the rest of the team for a while until the rest of the players find our how good they can be," Klemfelder says.

If the squad's season prospects are still up in the air after Saturday, it should surely know after next week's binge through the East. On the trip, the laxwomen will face Maryland and Temple, two squads which figure to be in the race with Harvard and Penn for the national title.

"We always play them away," Finn says of Maryland and Temple. "Psychologically they have the home field advantage, but these games help prepare us for the rest of the season and the national."

As Kleinfelder points our, however, it'll be important to take each game one at a time. And that starts with Penn and Saturday. For the past three years the winner of this game has gone on to take for the for the Ivy title. The Quakers did it three years ago while the Crimson has done it the past two. Interestingly each of those three games has been decided by a one goal margin. Just think one goal this year could go a far way towards deciding who has the upper leg on the drive for the national title.