Laxmen Ready for Another Lowe Against Tigers Today

This past Wednesday against Brown, the Harvard men's lacrosse team watched as a guy named Darren Lowe he tallied 5 goals and 3 assists.

Today at Ohiri Field, the Crimson (4-5, 1-3 Ivy) hosts fourth-ranked Princeton (7-2, 3-0 Ivy).

To Harvard's dismay, Princeton has a Lowe of its own.

Of course, the Tiger's sophomore sensation Kevin Lowe isn't the Ivy League's leading scorer like his older brother Darren.

He's second.

Right behind his bro.

On the other end of the field, Princeton also boasst the Ivy Player of the Week sophomore goalie Scott Bacigalupo, who has held opponents to an average of 7.73 goals per game.

Harvard, to say the least, comes into the game as an underdog.

But the Crimson player haven't forgetten last year when the then fifth-ranked Tigers hosted a strugling Harvard team and barely pulled out one-goal victory.

"We've always matched up well against Princeton," senior goalie Chris Miller said. "There's not the same aura about them as other teams, and we have nothing to lose."

Miller added that against the Bears, Harvard played tentatively, something it cannot afford to do against Princeton.

To be effective against the Tigers, Harvard must contain scorers like Lowe and his fellow attacker senior Justin Tortolani, who has 19 goals and 5 assists on the season.

If the rain keeps on coming down, the Crimson defense which relies on power may have an easier time with the speedy Tiger attacker.

"It'll be easier to hit slower moving people if the weather is bad," senior defender Pete Welch said.

But Harvard cannot rely on atmospheric conditions alone. If Harvard is to thwart the Tiger onslaught, the team will need the kind of consistently solid play that it has gotten from its defenders, midfielders and Miller in goal.

The Crimson will also have to put together on onslaught of its own on the offensive end of the field.

Although the team only scored six goals against Brown, Harvard took advantage of its opportunities on net.

And sophomore Mike Porter has emerged as an force for the Crimson attack, collecting nine goals in the last two games.

The problem against Brown was that Harvard did not have the ball enough to keep up with the Bears.

"We have to go out there and control the ball," Welch said. "If we had done that against Brown it would have been really close."

The game today will be the Crimson's last home game, as Harvard finished off the 1992 regular season with games at Massachusetts, Yale and New Hampshire.