W. Lax Rebounds To Destroy Brown

All right, so it isn't exactly like Othello.

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.

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. That 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 to 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."