Laxwomen Crush Cornell, 8-2

What happens when you match up a team that hasn't won a game yet and a team that hasn't lost a game?

Harvard wins; Cornell loses.

The Harvard women's lacrosse team (9-0 overall, 5-0 Ivy) slashed Cornell (0-9 overall, 0-5 Ivy), 8-2, Saturday in Ithaca, N.Y.

It was a perfect warm-up for tomorrow's contest against Dartmouth for sole possession of the Ivy League title.

However, Harvard Co-Captain Lisi Bailliere might call "warm-up" a misnomer.

"It was freezing," Bailliere said. "I couldn't believe it. It was snowing practically the whole game."

Still, the Crimson stayed hot enough to stretch a 5-2 halftime lead to an 8-2 scorching, shutting the Big Red down in the second half.

Cornell tried to frazzle Harvard with a zone defense, but that's an old trick by now and the Crimson remained unnerved.

The University of Massachusetts shook the Crimson with a zone--the University of New Hampshire's zone rattled Harvard as well. But Harvard didn't swing the third time and wouldn't budge for Cornell.

"They had a tough defense," Co-Captain Katie McAnaney said, "a zone with pressure on the ball. It really made it difficult for us to run our attack."

But Julia French had little trouble, netting two goals for the Crimson. Bailliere, Julie Clifford, Sue Carls, Char Joslin, Karen Everling and Jenny Walser also chomped on the Big Red defense with a goal apiece.

"Most of our goals came off the break or off free-position shots," McAnaney said. "We only generated one or two off of a settled offense."

"We had practiced for that since we've been having trouble with it [the zone]," McAnaney continued. "We sent multiple cutters to clear up the space, definitely tried a new concept."

The attack earned its keep by outhustling Cornell's zone, but the Harvard defense kept its side of the bargain as well.

Patience is, so they say, a virtue.

"The defense was very patient and moved the ball around so [Cornell] wouldn't be able to get their shots off," Bailliere said.

"Our defense was really strong," McAnaney agreed. "[Cornell] played so many back on defense that they gave up a lot of their offense. We had like six defense handling five of their attacks, so we didn't have a problem at all."

The Big Red did sneak two goals through, and the defense claims full responsiblity.

"The two goals they did get were from very sloppy defensive mistakes," Bailliere confessed. "They shouldn't have happened."

Mea culpa. Mea culpa.

But the defense more than redeemed themselves by shutting Cornell out in the second half.

After feeling the reins slip from their hands in the past few games, it felt good for Harvard to take their game back unconditionally.

"We were definitely getting back on track," French said. "We played a lot better than we have for the last few games."

The Crimson used the Big Red to practice new tactics that could come in handy against Dartmouth, and against the remaining non-Ivy League teams.

"We probably should have beaten them by more, but we were trying out some things," Bailliere said. "We weren't just trying to build up the score."

THE NOTEBOOK:The win over the Big Red pushes Harvard up another notch on its climb for the Ivy championship. But Princeton, with only one Ivy loss, can share the title if Dartmouth can knock off undefeated Harvard tomorrow at Soldiers Field.