Take Three: Bad Weather Deep-Freezes M. Lax Game

The Harvard men's lacrosse team tried to play Cornell this weekend. But the long and winding road to Ithaca, N.Y. found the Crimson battling a much stronger opponent: this weekend's "storm of the century."

Harvard's season-opening contest against the Big Red was originally scheduled to take place Saturday afternoon, but was cancelled due to the severe blizzard.

"We tried to play on Friday to beat the snows, but that didn't work out because the turf had frozen over," senior Mark Blake said.

This was the second time Harvard's season opener has been postponed because of the weather. Last weekend, a game against C.W. Post had to be called off because of snow.

But this was worse--Harvard was stuck in the middle of the New York State hinterland. Unable to play, the team left Cornell Saturday morning only to be faced with further obstacles.

"We tried to head home, but we could hardly see they road," Co-Captain Eric Bentley said. "There were cares on the sides of the road, no one was driving, there were no tracks for us to follow and we couldn't see any headlights, so we had to pull over."

The team ended up spending the night in a motel in western Massachusetts and only made it back to Cambridge yesterday.

"Playing is a kind of a thrill and we had been waiting for this [game] for a long time, so we were excited," Co-Captain Chad Prusmack said. "The cancellation was definitely a disappointment and I'm feeling pretty down, but the team's spirits were high and they kept their heads up."