Laxmen: Close But Not Quite

The tiny little quirk that found the Harvard men's lacrosse squad on top of Penn, 3-0, just six minutes into yesterday's game became the tiny little miracle that found the Crimson tied at five with the Quakers at half.

For Penn is nationally ranked, highly touted and amazingly good.

On those counts, Harvard's oh-for-three.

So it wasn't too surprising when the host Quakers pulled away with four fourth period goals yesterday at Franklin Field to post an 11-7 Ivy win.

What was so surprising, though, was that the vastly outmatched. Crimson squad displayed its finest lacrosse of the season while giving the nation's 13th ranked club one mighty big first-half scare.

Strong Start

In the losing effort, the Cantabs matched Penn shot for shot and even threatened midway through the fourth period. When Harvard's Chris Pujolz scored with just 11.35 to play, that cut the Quaker lead to 7-6.

But those four unanswered Penn goals put any hopes of a Harvard upset out to sea.

In fact, most of Harvard's hopes have been under water so far this year, as the recent snows and subsequent floods have severely limited the Crimson's practice time. And in its first three games, the Crimson--aside from yesterday's first half--couldn't quite match up.

Yesterday's loss made it three straight for the still young season. Though all of the 0-3 Crimson's losses have come against nationally ranked clubs, there's still a feeling that it could be a long season in Cambridge.

It was a long day in Cambridge last Saturday, when Cornell nicely dropped Harvard's record to 0-2. The visiting Big Red shut down the Crimson, 10-5.

Harvard will look for its first win of the year when Springfield visit Tuesday.