Women's Lacrosse Massacres Brown, 13-2

All right, so they aren't exactly like Hamlet.

Well, maybe the vengeance the Harvard women's lacrosse team exacted yesterday has absolutely nothing to do with the Shakespearian character. But it still felt good.

On a blustery day at Ohiri Field, Harvard (8-3 overall, 3-1 Ivy) thumped Brown (3-7, 1-4) by the score of 13-2.

The result was a lot better than the tragedy last Sunday, when something was rotten at Ohiri Field in an 11-2 loss to Maryland.

"It was definitely a step in the right direction," said senior Kelly Morrison (two goals, two assists). "We came out strong and the defense did the right job."

The Crimson certainly did come out strong. Harvard's offense scored three goals in the first 6:06 of the game and never looked back.

The defense, meanwhile, utterly decimated the Brown attack. Freshman goalie Kate Schutt and her corps of defenders held the Bears to six shots and only two goals for the entire game, one of which came long after the matter was decided.

"[Schutt] played a really good game today," Morrison said.

"I think that everyone's really strong on defense," co-captain Margot McAnaney said. "Even our [forwards] defend well."

In one particularly telling example of that, a Brown attacker found herself with the fortune of having a completely open field in front of her at one point during the game.

But then a senior drag racer with license plates reading "Sarah Downing' roared up behind her and swatted" the ball out of her stick as Paul Bunyan would knock down a tree.

Harvard closed the period with four more goals, the last of which was perhaps the prettiest. After a minute of moving the ball around the brown net, senior Joey Alissi found a hole in the defense, caught a pass and whipped it past Bear goaltender Nancy Kendall.

In the second half, the Crimson again got off to a roaring start. Harvard controlled the opening draw and quickly moved the ball downfield to co-captain Francie Walton, who rampaged toward the net and ripped a shot into the goal.

"We had a couple of beautiful goals on transition," Harvard Coach Carole Kleinfelder said. "But our catching and throwing was not as good as we would like it to be."

The proved to be a problem for the Crimson's transition game all day; either the players scored highlight-reel goals, or else they missed simple passes.

"Some catching and passing was not as good as it could be," McAnaney said.

The victory, nevertheless, was sweet. No one wants remember the Maryland loss too much longer.

"I think we played pretty well," McAnaney added. "It was definitely a nice day to play, everyone feels much better today."

"This was a good game after Maryland," Schutt said. "[The Terrapins] showed us how hard we had to work."

Harvard's next opponent is Cornell, who should prove to be some-what more of a challenge than Brown was. The Big Red comes to Cambridge on Saturday, after which Harvard travels to Dartmouth and Vermont, respectively. In order to make the playoffs, the Crimson are all but forced to win those next three games.

"[We] have a lot more to work out," Schutt said, "and a lot to do, but everyday things are getting better."