No. 13 Syracuse Deals W. Lacrosse First Loss of Season

By SAMUEL C. SCOTT

Crimson Staff Writer

Syracuse owned the first ten minutes of yesterday afternoon’s women’s lacrosse game, and despite a close second half, Harvard never managed to offset the Orange’s early onslaught.

No. 13 Syracuse (3-2) scored four goals in less than eight minutes to seize the early lead, as they went on to deal the Crimson (2-1) its first loss of the season a 10-4 margin.

Senior Caitlyn Dragon struck on a fast break in 28 seconds to begin the Orange’s streak. Syracuse was best able to dissect the shaky Harvard defense not on breaks, however, but from a set offense. It posed a major offensive threat in the crease—and the most puissant weapon in their arsenal was Dragon.

“I think [Dragon] has a lot of height, and she’s a really strong attacker. She definitely beat us around the crease a lot,” co-captain defender Kelly Noon said. “She definitely took advantage of our weakness in the first half.”

Dragon led scoring for the Orange with four goals in the game, including two in the first five minutes of play. She also assisted on two more.

“We just let in a couple of really quick goals that gave them a head of steam we couldn’t recover from,” co-captain attack Catherine Sproul said.

The Crimson found its legs later in the half—a reversal of last week, when Harvard came out strong but slipped in the second half against Quinnipiac.

“I think in the beginning Syracuse came at us really hard and we weren’t as ready for that as we should have been,” Noon said.

The Crimson gained a foothold in the game when Sproul scored with 21:28 left in the half, with sophomore midfielder Caroline Hines assisting.

For the rest of the game, Syracuse held a substantial lead but did not control play as effectively as they did for the first few minutes.

“If you take the last 45 or 50 minutes of the game, it was only 6-4,” Sproul said. “I think we were scared early, but we’re not worse than this team.”

Sproul led scoring for Harvard with two goals, also sinking one from a free position shot in the midpoint of the second half.

Crimson freshman Natalie Curtis made a fierce showing in midfield and picked up a goal from free position late in the first. Attack Tara Schoen scored the final goal of the game on an assist from junior midfielder Allison Kaveney with 10:43 left.

While the scoreboard may not have shown it, the Crimson did tie up some old loose ends, playing a midfield game that at times seemed tighter and more careful than Syracuse’s. Yet while Syracuse turned the ball over more in the first half, they also dominated Harvard on picking up draw controls, with seven to the Crimson’s two. After halftime, Harvard put up less impressive turnover statistics, giving up 14 to the first half’s six, but they also picked up five draw controls to the Orange’s one.

The difference in the game was palpable, as Syracuse outscored the Crimson by only one goal in the second.

Harvard’s performance in the second half lent a silver lining to the loss, as it came against one of the top teams in the nation. Syracuse took the field fresh from defeats by No. 3 Georgetown and No. 6 Virginia.

“We learned definitely that we need to come out stronger in the first half and be ready to play from the first whistle, and also that we can play with some of the top ten to fifteen teams in the country,” Noon said. “It’s especially important going into the Ivy League season going up.”

The Crimson will see their first action on the road Wednesday at Connecticut at 3 p.m.

Starting goalie, sophomore Kathryn Tylander, who spent all but 48 seconds in goal for Harvard, may be missing. Tylander was injured with less than a minute left in the game and walked off the field with assistance.

—Staff writer Samuel C. Scott can be reached at sscott@fas.harvard.edu.