Laxmen Pray They Gainsay Reh Today

Dave Kramer wants revenge.

When the Harvard men's lacrosse team takes on Adelphi today at 3 p.m. at Ohiri Field, the senior attacker will be thinking about the 13-5 drubbing the Crimson suffered last year in Garden City, N.Y.

This time, Harvard's leading scorer would like to see a dramatically different result.

"There is definitely a pay-back factor," said Kramer, who pumped in seven goals when the Crimson (6-0 overall, 2-0 Ivy) recorded a 16-3 rout of Vermont on April 4. "It would be very good to get back at them."

Last year, Harvard travelled to Adelphi ranked seventh in the country, but reeling after a heartbreaking last-second loss to winless St. John's. The subsequent rout in Garden City marked the second of six straight Crimson losses that ruined Coach Scott Anderson's squad's chances for a national ranking.

Adelphi finished as one of the nation's top-ranked squads last year, but has not received Top 20 votes this season.

One thing, though, has not changed for Adelphi.

His name is Jeff Reh.

Reh is the senior attacker who led the nation in scoring last year. In his last effort against Harvard, Reh came off the injured list to contribute two second-quarter goals in 15 seconds, beginning a string of 10 unanswered Adelphi tallies. He is not a pleasant memory for the Crimson.

Although Reh's high-scoring brother Scott has graduated, containing the still-strong Adelphi attack will be no easy task for the Crimson.

"Adelphi is a very aggressive, hard-hitting team," said Harvard Co-Captain Mark Donovan, a midfielder who will handle the Crimson's faceoff duties this afternoon. "We have to shut them down."

The task of defending against last year's top scorer is not one that goaltender Chris Miller is relishing--but he is not intimidated.

"You can't worry about only one guy," Miller said. "I'm sure he's tough, and he picked us apart last time. But it's a new season."

Handle the Pressure

Faced with an aggressive Adelphi squad, Anderson said, "The key is handling that kind of pressure and creating scoring opportunities out of it."

If Harvard cannot control Adelphi's offense, Adelphi might gain the sort of momentum that allowed it to overwhelm Harvard in the second half last year.

"We can't lose our composure," said Kramer, who is averaging more than four goals a game. "They're a momentum team. Hopefully, we can stifle them."

With five games in the next two weeks--including matchups against the highly touted Brown and Yale teams--today's contest should be a real test for the number-seven Crimson. So early in the season, Miller said, Harvard cannot put too much faith in its high ranking.

"Anyone can be anywhere in the rankings," Miller said. "Anyone can beat anyone, and things can change in just one game."

"We started off the season realizing what games we thought would be hard," Anderson said. "This will be one of them."

And Kramer wants it bad.