Women's Lacrosse Can't Tame Wildcats

"On the bus coming home, everybody had packages of ice," said sophomore midfielder Leslie Moroz.

Such a statement is as fitting a metaphor for the way the Harvard women's lacrosse team's season has gone as it is an appropriate picture of the squad's disappointing 15-12 loss to New Hampshire last night.

Before the game, the Crimson (6-7, 1-5 Ivy), having defeated Columbia at Jordan Field on Saturday for its first Ivy League victory of the season, hoped to add to that win to finish the season strongly.

Unfortunately for Harvard, the Wildcats (11-5, 3-2 America East) gained an adrenaline shot from the fact that it was their Senior Day, honoring their final home game of the season. Even worse for the Crimson, the UNH players were simply bigger and faster than their Harvard counterparts, allowing them to ride their physical play and effective transition game to victory.

"They would just run it in from the midfield." Moroz said. "They came in strong and fast."

"Because they're a scrappy, tough team, you have to play with them for the whole sixty minutes, and we didn't do that," added sophomore midfielder Katie Shaughnessy.

Leading scorer and assistant captain Colleen Christopher put New Hampshire out in front just 72 seconds into the game, but, four minutes later, Shaughnessy beat her defender and drew the Crimson even.

Christopher, though, responded only 46 seconds later, beginning a string of three Wildcat goals.

However, Harvard was able to climb back into the contest, as Shaughnessy intercepted a clear by New Hampshire senior goalkeeper Amanda Warren and tucked the ball into the net from the weak side. Two minutes later, Crimson co-captain Alli Harper scored on a free position shot to bring Harvard within one.

Christopher yet again ended Crimson thoughts of gaining momentum. She scored to spark a three-goal run that spanned six minutes and featured a goal and an assist by Wildcat freshman Christine Anneberg.

Anneberg's former high school teammate, Harvard junior midfielder Heather Gotha, notched a free position goal with 1:09 left in the half, but Christopher got the goal back just fourteen seconds later to give New Hampshire an 8-4 halftime advantage.

At the start of the second half, Crimson senior attacker Lauren Corkery and Anneberg traded goals before a Harper free position score initiated a string of three goals in 22 seconds, the final two of which were scored by the Wildcats.

Shaughnessy, though, responded with a free position goal that sparked a 4-0 Crimson run in which Harvard finally began to show some life and drew within one at 11-10. Junior Erin Kutner, who performed admirably on the defensive end in shadowing Christopher, came down the center and took a pass from Shaughnessy to score the third goal in the run, which was sandwiched between two tallies by junior midfielder Lizzy Frisbie.

With 14:28 to play, Corkery, taking a pass from Moroz on a free position play, answered a New Hampshire tally to decrease the Wildcats' advantage to 12-11, but that was as close as the Crimson would come.

Three New Hampshire goals, including Christopher's fifth, over the next fourteen minutes put the game out of reach for Harvard, despite a last-ditch effort by sophomore attacker Katie O'Brien that resulted in a goal with four seconds remaining.

On Saturday, the Crimson women host No. 12 Cornell in their final Ivy League match-up of the year. Despite Cornell's strength, Harvard is confident in its ability to win.

"It's going to be about heart," Moroz said.

The Crimson will look to set aside its disappointment from last night in time to defeat the Big Red and end its frustrating Ivy campaign