Laxwomen Zap Terriers, 21-3; McBride-Felsen Combo Shines

"Okay, that was good," Harvard women's lacrosse coach Carole Kleinfelder told her team after yesterday's game.

"Good," however, is a slight understatement.

The Crimson demolished the visiting Boston University Terriers, 21-3, thereby capturing Boston's Big Four Lacrosse Championship. Over the course of the season, Harvard has defeated B.U., Boston College, and Northeastern to win lacrosse's version of the Beanpole.

The 21 points marked the Crimson's highest goal production of the season, and left the Laxwomen, who are currently ranked 10th in the country, with a 9-2 record.

Harvard's leading scorer this season, junior Kelly McBride, padded her point totals with an impressive seven-goal, four-assist performance, while the squad's second-leading scorer, sophomore Kate Felsen, chipped in three goals and two assists.

McBride and Felsen proved to be a deadly scoring combo, assisting each other on four goal-scoring occasions.

McBride led off the Crimson scoring barrage with 2:48 gone in the first half, when she received a pass from sophomore Anne Dowling and shot the ball past B.U. goalie Pam Mudway.

In the next 115 seconds, Harvard scored twice more to add to a lead it would never relinquish.

But with 12:14 to go in the first half, the Crimson outdid itself by two seconds; McBride scored the first of the team's three goals in a 113 second period.

By halftime, the Crimson held an 11-1 advantage.

The Laxwomen put on their flashiest scoring display, though, with 14:21 remaining in the second half. Anne Needham, after receiving a pass over the middle from McBride, notched the first of Harvard's three goals in a 75 second span.

The Terriers never really had a chance. After virtually every goal, the Crimson won the ensuing face-off, which prohibited B.U. from passing the ball into Harvard territory.

"It was just a matter of Harvard's being an extremely well-coached and disciplined team," said B.U.'s leading scorer, Keke Leand. "They have good game smarts."

Coach Kleinfelder was pleased with her squad's performance. "It was a good game," she said. "It's hard to play against teams that don't offer much competition, but we played hard and never let up.

"I can't pinpoint any players [who did particularly well], it wasn't that kind of game...everybody contributed. I thought the attack did some nice things."

Two of Harvard's three remaining games are against Dartmouth and Loyola (Los Angeles, Calif.), teams ranked higher nationally than the Crimson. But the lack of serious competition in the B.U. contest was helpful for Harvard because "we worked on some zones [and some plays that] we'll need for the teams we're still going to face," noted Kleinfelder.

"One game at a time," she cautioned. "If we play up to this level, we should beat Yale" next Saturday.

THE NOTEBOOK: The Laxwomen hadn't scored 21 points since 1984, when they beat B.U., 21-5...McBride fell four short of the Harvard individual single-game scoring record of 15, set by Francesca DenHartog.