Laxwomen Blow By B.C., 8-4

After playing three key games in the last week, the Harvard women's lacrosse team--ranked second behind Penn State in the Brine Poll--had just about reached its saturation point.

But the Crimson had enough solute left to powder Boston College, 8-4, yesterday in its final game of the regular season.

Still, the combination of mental and physical fatigue can make any potentially exciting game pretty blase.

"It was a very non-descript sort of game," Co-Captain Katie McAnaney said.

"It wasn't crisp or anything," Char Joslin agreed. "It was just sort of there."

McAnaney and Julia French each picked up a pair of goals, and Joslin, Co-Captain Lisi Bailliere, Jenny Walser, and Karen Everling all found a way past the goalie once.

The Eagles landed the first goal of the game, but Harvard rushed in to return the favor. Harvard freshman Sarah Leary replaced Kelly Dermody in the nets after about 10 minutes.

The two teams continued to trade goals back and fourth for the rest of the half, with the Crimson only leading 4-3 at the half.

A one point lead? Against B.C.?

Harvard was biting its nails.

"It's the same problems over and over again," McAnaney said. "The defense sags in and takes away our fast break and that gives us problems."

The Eagle flood in the shooting zone didn't help the Crimson's settled attack either.

"B.C. dropped some people down and clogged up the offensive zone," Joslin said. "We had trouble finding shooting space."

The offense wasn't the only one watching the Eagles with surprise. The Crimson defense was taken aback by B.C.'s fierce double and triple cutting.

The defense also failed to shift to cover any open B.C. players. The Eagle attack wing sneaked by twice in the first period because the Crimson slid over to challenge her too late.

"The first two goals were big defensive mistakes," Bailliere said. "We basically stood still and they kind of went through us."

The second half was another story.

The Crimson attack swam through the flood of B.C. players and opened the lead to 7-3 before the Eagles could sail one by Leary.

And the defense got its game together as well.

"Second half we realized that we had to pressure the ball and slow down their clear and their transition game," McAnaney said.

Harvard found itself looking back at its three tough wins last week, and looking ahead to the NCAA Final Four, scheduled for May 20 and 21 in Westchester, Pa., instead of looking at the game at hand.