M. Lax Drops Third Straight to Yale

After recent losses to Princeton and UMass, the Harvard men's lacrosse team looked to this weekend's Yale game as a chance to pull itself out of a mid-year slump that was slowly creeping into the season's final third.

But in the rain, the Crimson continued to slide.

No. 13 Harvard (6-5, 3-3 Ivy) fell to the unranked Bulldogs (8-4, 3-3) 14-5 on Saturday, and with only two games remaining, the Crimson's postseason prospects are up in the air.

"We beat them on ground balls--the first time we'd done that in a few games--so the loss was not a complete break down of any sort," freshman attackman Matt Primm said. "We were playing hard, but everything seemed to be going their way. We just didn't seem to move the ball that well and get through all the passes we needed to get the shots."

The Crimson started slowly in New Haven, getting only three shots in the initial frame to Yale's nine.

Sophomore midfielder Mike Baly scored first for the Crimson at 3:13 in the first period, but by that time Yale had three goals on the board and would register two more by the end of the frame to make it 5-1.

Harvard's second goal from senior attackman Lawson DeVries with 27 seconds left in the half made the score 9-2 in favor of the Bulldogs, as Harvard had dug itself into a first-half hole for the second straight time in Ivy League play.

As happened against the Princeton, when the Crimson went on to lose 12-6, Harvard could not pull itself out of its offensive slump to fight back in the second half and give the Bulldogs something of a game.

After registering only eight shots in the first half, the Crimson tested Yale goalie Eric Wenzel only 14 times in the second.

Yale got 39 shots on the day. It was the third straight game in which Harvard's opponent outshot the Crimson by 15 or more.

"I guess defenses that we have run against in the last week or so have given us problems," Primm said. "Once the defense has scouted our system and seen it before running against us they seem to know how to get the team out of our rhythm by pressuring the ball and cutting off the passes."

Around the cage, the Crimson has had difficulty running through its cycle of passes and getting a strong, open shot on the opposing net. Against Princeton last weekend, the Crimson was rushed around the cage and rarely found the uncontested shot.

"We're not getting the passes that we need to all the time; we're not really moving the ball as quickly as we need to all the time, "Primm said. "We have not adjusted that well to the pressure by other defenses."

Freshman attackman Jay Wich started the second half after a pass from Primm, but Yale answered with a scream, beating Harvard senior goalie Keith Cynar five times before the Crimson scored again.

At that point it was 15-3 with 5:05 left, and junior attackman Roger Buttles' goal only slowed the imminent loss. Buttles' classmate and linemate Dana Sprong finished the game's scoring with a strike at 2:29 left in the fourth.

To Yale's credit, the Bulldog defense has been very stong as of late as the team from New Haven has managed to put together a respectable season following a 3-4 start.

After a loss to Brown on April 15, Yale has now won five straight, including a 19-16 win over Rutgers and a 10-4 thrashing at Dartmouth.

After starting with five straight wins, the Crimson has dropped five of its last six games and must now regroup for its match with No. 12 Notre Dame (8-3) this Sunday. The Irish have won six straight, and will be looking to improve any post-season seedings in their final game of the year.

"We have a full week of practice this week which we have not had in a while and should be nice for the team," Primm said. "We are going to address some of the offensive problems and perhaps do something new to make these scouting reports not as effective. I think we would like to just go through the simple things and get them clicking and then I think things will fall into place again."

The Crimson, new look or not, will play Notre Dame this Sunday at 1 p.m. on Jordan Field.