W. Lax Soars Past Eagles

The snow hasn't even melted, but the Harvard women's lacrosse team is already red hot.

The Crimson (2-0) stayed perfect on the season with a 14-11 victory over Boston College yesterday.

Captain Alli Harper was in on 10 of the Crimson's 14 goals, scoring a career-high eight and assisting on a pair.

"She just played so well today," said senior Lauren Corkery. "If she is going to be able to score like that, we are just going to give her the ball and let her go."

Harvard took a 7-5 halftime lead but was not able to pull away. The Eagles kept the game close into the final minutes and surprised the Crimson players a little bit with their resilience.

"B.C. was definitely tougher than they were last year," Corkery said. "We had heard that a couple of the girls on their team had quit and didn't really know what to expect. But we pulled ahead and were able to hang on."

The Crimson faced B.C. in its inaugural game on Jordan Field last year, sending the Eagles down to defeat by a four goal margin, 13-9.

The story on the field yesterday was Harper, however, who was able to remain in man coverage for most of the day and exploit the Eagles' weaknesses.

"We were working hard to isolate Alli on the right side and it worked," Corkery said. "She was able to go one-on-one for most of the day. The strange thing was that they didn't really adjust. Eventually they put someone else down there, but she kept scoring."

Corkery herself added a pair to bring her total on the season to three goals and two assists, while freshman Ashley Harmeling scored her first collegiate goal and then added a second later in the match.

Sophomore Leslie Moroz and junior Lizzy Frisbie rounded out the scoring for the Crimson with one goal a piece.

Harvard was able to use its superior speed to its advantage against the Eagles, breaking out quickly and scoring on the fly.

"The best part of our game was transition," Corkery said. "We were able to get up the field quickly and put the ball in the net."

The Harvard's quick start is even more impressive in light of the recent constraints on the teams ability to practice outdoors.

"We haven't been outside practicing much," Corkery said. "We've been practicing inside instead and haven't had the advantage of playing on a full field."

Although partly pleased with their performance and the teams early success, the players still see plenty of room for improvement.

"Draw control was a problem for us today," Harper said. "It is definitely something that we want to improve."

Harper also felt that the Crimson let the Eagles hang around and keep the game close for too long.

"We felt like we were the better team," Harper said. "At times, however, we played down to their level."

The teams schedule gets slightly tougher this weekend when Notre Dame comes to town Sunday.

"We kept the intensity up through the whole game against B.C. and need to do that this weekend," Corkery said. "Coming to play Notre Dame at home is really big and then we have an Ivy game against Brown next week which is always key."

Last year in Southbend the Crimson trailed 10-8 but came back with four unanswered goals to defeat the Irish, 12-10.

Harvard hopes that the luck of the Irish will again be on its side this weekend.

Until then, however, the Crimson deserve to take a little while and congratulate themselves on a solid start to the season.

"Being 2-0 is huge," Harper said. "Fighting through the games in which we aren't playing are best and then winning, however, is even bigger."

For the Crimson to build upon its hot start, however, it will need Harper, the reigning Ivy Offensive Player of the Week, to be at her best.

If the first week is any indication, Harper is already in mid-season form.