Men's Lacrosse Tops 16th-Ranked Vermont, 10-7

It wasn't perfect, but Harvard's men's lacrosse team isn't complaining.

In a game characterized on both sides by rough, physical play, ugly goals and as many infractions as would make the Oklahoma football program blush, the Crimson gave birth yesterday to a teeth-gritting 10-7 win over 16th-ranked and previously-unbeaten Vermont at Ohiri Field.

"Going into the game, we knew that they would be tough," captain Mike Porter said. "We Knew that we probably had more talent than them, but that they would play extremely hard--to be unbeaten at this point in the season is a real accomplishment. I think the win was really a matter of us equaling them in effort and our talent taking over."

In addition to the prospect of playing an unbeaten team, the Crimson was pumped before the game because of what it perceived to be a lackluster effort over Spring Break in a 13-6 loss to ninth-ranked Duke.

"There was the general perception that we just weren't focused enough in the Duke loss," junior attacker Spencer Rice said. "We didn't play as hard as we could have, and we didn't seem to be mentally into it, which was disappointing because we were coming off of a great win over Penn [14-13]."

"The whole team seemed to be ready for a good game after Duke," Porter said. "I think our confidence was a little bit shaken after the loss, and we just wanted to get things back on the right track."

While the Vermont win certainly wasn't flawless, it definitely got the Crimson back on the right track. Throughout the game, Harvard looked like the top-quality team it is supposed to be, mixing prudent shot selection with defensive and offensive aggressiveness.

The Crimson got off to a quick lead in the game, playing the part of the brainy, judicious Ivy League athletic team.

Mixing solid defense with smart passing and conservation shot selection--in short, covering the basics, Harvard got off to a 3-0 lead midway through the first half.

"We got our strong," sophomore defensemen Time Browne said. "We were doing pretty much everything we wanted to."

But Vermont stormed back. Capitalizing on a pair of Crimson defensive lapses, the Catamounts cut the margin to one, 3-2, before evening the score at five at halftime.

"We had problems in the first half with keeping possession of the ball," Rice said. "We made a few dumb mistakes. We were determined at half-time to run away with the game."

And that the Crimson did.

Harvard came out after intermission and put the Catamounts out early. First junior attacker Jamie Ames scored on a man-up play. Then Porter tallied a goal from the left-hand side of the field. And then sophomore attacker Mike Eckert, the Crimson's leading scorer on the season, found net.

Only minutes after halftime, Harvard had the momentum and an 8-5 lead.

"We came out hard in the second half and took the game," Porter said. "It was some of our best lacrosse of the season."

"They just seemed to fall apart," Rice said of the Catamounts. "We seemed to find holes easy and--bam--it was over."

Looking its first loss of the season in the face, Vermont battled hard in the final minutes, but the Crimson matched them evenly--the teams then traded goals until the final whistle blew, signifying Harvard's third and most reassuring win of the season.

"It was a relief to win," Porter said. "Our confidence had been down a bit, but after yesterday, I think we are a very confident team. We've showed that we can play well--and we know we can even play better than that."

The Crimson will need every bit of confidence that it can soak up from the Vermont win as it will face three top 20 teams of the season next week: 14th-ranked Brown, number-one-ranked UMass.

"We've got a rough week ahead of us, That's for sure," Porter said. "it's possible that we could lose all three, but we're pretty confident. We're playing well right now--it will be nice to see where we fit in with some of the best teams in the country."

"All three teams this week are ranked ahead of us right now (the Crimson is unranked as of last week), so it will be nice to see if we can knock one of them off," Browne said. "But it won't be easy--we're going to have to play very, very well."

Especially against Princeton. The Tigers are undefeated on the year (5-0), and by far the best team in the country right now.

"We're going to have to make it look a little better if we're going to pull that one off," Rice said.