Laxwomen Brace For Potent Terps

No one can accuse the Harvard women's lacrosse team of scheduling cream puffs.

A week after falling to Loyola, the second-ranked team in the nation, by a score of 14-6, Harvard is back for more. Today at noon, the Crimson hosts the top-ranked Terrapins of Maryland, a team that is by all accounts the superpower of the NCAA.

This is a team that hasn't lost since the 1994 NCAA Championship game, a streak of 28 games. This is a team that is now 11-0, has outscored its opponents by a gaudy 13.55 goals a game, and is coming off a 20-2 decimation of Rutgers on Wednesday.

This is a team that's real, real good.

And what about Harvard? The Crimson come into the game with a 1-4 record (0-3 Ivy), with all of its losses in the last four games.

However, three of those defeats came at the hands of top-ten teams (Loyola, No. 5 Princeton and No. 8 Yale). Moreover, only the 15-4 loss to Princeton was really a blowout, as Harvard stayed close to Yale and Loyola in the first half before letting those games slip away.

But does the Crimson think it can win? Well, yes.

"What the hell," junior defender Mary Eileen Duffy said. "We have nothing to lose at this point....If anything's going to beat Maryland, it's going to be us."

Of course, a Crimson win is not going to be easy. The Terrapins possess perhaps the nation's fastest team, so the Crimson has to be much more careful with the ball than it has been, especially on transition.

Second, Harvard has to be impeccable on offense. Maryland is going to score on a very high percentage of its possessions; so to keep pace, Harvard must be patient when it has the ball and wait for only the best opportunities.

But the toughest task that the Crimson faces is a psychological one. Harvard hasn't really played a good game all year, while the Colossus of College Park certainly has. Consequently, it will be very easy for the Harvard players to become emotionally defeated this afternoon--especially if Maryland gets off to a quick lead.

"It's really just mentality," sophomore Keren Gudeman said. "[In past games] we have a tendency to let down when the going gets tough."

The Crimson will probably begin the game in a zone defense, a set which gave the Loyola offense fits last weekend. Practically every collegiate team uses man-to-man defenses, so even if the Terps know to expect a zone it's not something they can easily practice against.

Another key today will be the play of senior goaltender Shana Barghouti, who has done a good job in holding off bombardments in past games. She, along with the rest of the defense, has to keep Maryland from scoring a goal a minute.

Then, maybe then, will there be the biggest upset of the 1996 season.