Conjuring Up Some Ol' Memories

Alumni Day for the Harvard women's lacrosse team means more guns than the United States Army.

And for the present members of the Crimson squad, it could mean more trouble than they've seen all year.

Rest assured that when the hired hands who turned Harvard women's lacrosse into Harvard's women's lacrosse ride into town for this afternoon's Alumni Game, they'll pose a few more problems than the Big Dead Machine that strolled through yesterday.

The Ivy League's perennial doormats, bathmats and placemats, Cornell, couldn't pose a semblance of a challenge in yesterday's Soldiers Field showdown. And Harvard (8-1 overall, 3-0 Ivy) couldn't help but score its most goals of the year in an 18-5 Ivy League win.

But the 1984 laxwomen could very well be in for a few lessons come today on Soldiers Field.

Out of their grey flannel suits and into their lacrosse skirts, the biggest names in Harvard women's lax history will try to conjure up a few memories when they try to conjure up a win in the all-afternoon reunion.

Francesca DenHartog and Maureen Finn--the holders of every Harvard record--will team up again with the graduated members of last year's finest-ever Harvard women's lacrosse squad.

Kate Martin, Jeanne Piersiak and Jennifer White--who, with DenHartog and Finn, led last year's squad to a 12-4-1 record and an NCAA quarterfinal berth--are all expected back for a game that's not on the official schedule and won't count in the standings.

Yet, the names from years gone by will also be the key figures in a contest that "might just be our hardest game of the year," Harvard Coach Carole Kleinfelder says.

Ranked fifth in the nation, riding an eight-game win streak and playing their finest lacrosse of the year, the 1984 laxwomen are on their way to their fifth straight NCAA appearance. Today's opposition could be the toughest they face, though, until they get there.

Certainly the oldtimers ought to make yesterday's opposition look like the 15 Stooges. Harvard struck for three goals in the game's first five minutes, and then settled into shooting practice on Big Red netminder Suzanne Hsiskin.

The Offensive

By the time it was all over, the Crimson's finest offensive display of the year had accounted for Harvard's most goals of the year. The Crimson's league-leading defense had also turned in another stellar performance.

Junior Lisa Black led the Harvard show with six goals, while senior Captain Maggie Hart and sophomore Blair Wardenburg each added four.

As the team filed into the locker room at game's end, the missing link on a team that's not missing much made her way in, Lili Pew, the Harvard women's lacrosse link who was elected captain of this year's squad but is currently on leave because of a knee injury she suffered in last year's Cornell game, is in town for today's showdown.

Before she found her way into the locker room, Pew took time out to talk about the differences between this year's and last year's squads.

"It's a different type of talent," she said of this year's tam, which prefers to run around opponents instead of run them over.

Just how different they are should be answered later today.