Terriers Dominate Crimson in Rout

As the Harvard women’s lacrosse team entered yesterday’s game against No. 11 Boston University, the Crimson had not won a game since March 13. Within ten minutes, it appeared that the game was not to be the drought-ending victory Harvard (2-6, 0-1 Ivy) had sought, and the Terriers sent the Crimson back up the river with a 17-9 loss, its sixth in a row.

Three Terriers, Laura Morton, Alyssa Trudel, and Lindsay Lewis, scored four goals each, as Harvard demonstrated both ongoing problems in its defense and a capacity to maintain resolve while on the bottom of a wide margin.

Down but not out, The Crimson narrowed even more disavantageous scoring margins with offensive bursts late in both halves. Down 14-6 with 12 minutes left in the game, freshman attack Caroline Simmons converted a pass from freshman attack Tara Schoen into a tally on the scoreboard.

Junior midfielder Allie Kaveney scored a pair of unassisted goals in the last five minutes, the first from the crease and the second after a fast break.

Kaveney shot 2-for-7 in the game and assisted in senior midfielder Elaine Belitsos’ first-half goal, the Crimson’s first.

BU scored four straight to open the game, but Harvard warmed up later in the first–enough to make a presence on the scoreboard, if never enough to rally beyond three points from the lead.

Freshman attack Natalie Curtis bagged two goals in the first half, the first from free position and the second from the far side after picking up a pass from Sproul. Schoen contributed a goal of her own, and Simmons wrapped up scoring less than a minute before the buzzer from point blank range to close the gap to 8-5, the closest the Crimson came in the game.

“I think we found a group of players that started working really well together, and once we got on a roll it was easy to maintain that kind of momentum,” co-captain Catherine Sproul said.

Three frosh, Simmons, Curtis and Schoen, combined to account for five of the team’s nine goals as well as posing a powerful presence in the Harvard offense.

As has been the case, the Crimson’s woes began early in the game, and it was hard-pressed to answer the 4-0 margin behind which it found itself in the first ten minutes of play. It didn’t help that BU allowed the Crimson to post consecutive goals only once, or that the Terriers made two three-goal runs in the second half.

“They were very good at getting open in the eight,” Sproul said. “They had a lot of goals that were just pass-pass-pass-shoot, and it was harder for us to defend that.”

The game was fought largely in the midfield–where Harvard was harder pressed to control the fast-breaking BU squad.

“Early on, I think one of the reasons we weren’t coming up with goals early on is we were making turnovers in the midfield,” Noon said.

The repercussions extended to the Crimson defense as well, pressuring sophomore goalie Kristin Demorest.

“Our goalie had a lot of open shots close to the goal, which is something you really want to try to work on,” co-captain Kelly Noon said.

Demorest made eight saves through 60 minutes of game time.

BU’s strongest strikes came in the first minute of the second half, as the Terriers scored two goals in seven seconds, the second on a fast break enabled by the team’s passing ability and control of the midfield.

Three of BU’s second-half goals came on assists from Lewis, an All American first-teamer for the North Region, who scored two of her goals in the second.

Yet while the Crimson had trouble in the midfield, its attack was beset by its own problem.

At the end of each drive for the Harvard offense lay stalwart BU goaltender Anne Sheridan, who allowed eight while making 18 saves in just over 55 minutes played. Jenna Golden closed the game by permitting one goal and making two stops.

“The goalie did make some saves that I would have liked to have gone in, but at the same time we were also taking a lot of shots directly at her,” Sproul said.

The Crimson shot 9-for-33 on the whole.

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