Terriers Hand Harvard Setback

The Harvard women’s lacrosse team (7-3) suffered a crushing 18-6 loss to No. 11 Boston University (9-2) at Harvard Stadium yesterday evening.

“[The Terriers] were just extremely aggressive and played the ball,” senior Tara Schoen said. “We had unforced turnovers and our shots were not falling.”

It was anybody’s game in the beginning of the first half. Neither team scored for the first seven minutes of play. But in the eighth minute BU junior Sarah Dalton quick-sticked a ball past Harvard sophomore goalie Katherine Martino. After that the Terriers took control the offensive game. In the next ten minutes BU scored five unanswered goals. With 12 minutes left Harvard got on the board after an unassisted goal from senior Natalie Curtis. But Harvard could not find momentum and allowed BU to go on another scoring run. Harvard left the half down 11-1.

“We played with them at the beginning of the game,” senior captain Lauren Bobzin said. “But then we started to turn the ball over and not hit our shots on attack.”

In the beginning of the second stanza BU’s offense remained relentless as the Terriers scored within the first minute of play. But Harvard quickly answered with a goal by junior Sarah Bancroft off of a free position. A few minutes later Harvard added another score on a goal by senior Caroline Simmons.

Harvard went onto score three more goals in the half, including tallies from freshman Jess Halpern and sophomore Sara Flood. The last goal came in the final two minutes of play from Schoen. Even being down by 13, the Crimson’s determination to put the ball in the back of the net was not deterred. But this determination was not enough to overcome BU’s aggressive game plan.

One aspect that contributed to Harvard’s loss was lack of offensive opportunity. In past games Harvard’s offense has been a powerhouse, scoring in the double digits of seven of its ten games. But the Crimson could not find the offensive spark yesterday. Harvard only had 19 shots on the day. BU’s defense put intense pressure on Harvard by doubling the ball and playing aggressively.

Coming into this game the Crimson had expected the Terrier’s offensive prowess, but it was BU’s defensive game that took Harvard by surprise.

“We expected them to have a pretty solid attack,” Bobzin said. “We expected their defense to be weaker and we thought we would score in transition.”

On paper, the Terriers were not going to be an easy opponent for Harvard. Ranked nationally, BU had only lost Northwestern, the defending national champions and No. 19 George Mason. Additionally, BU beat No. 14 Yale 10-7. The Crimson lost to the Bulldogs 6-13.

This loss has not discouraged the Crimson, rather it has made it more determined to improve the little things such as taking care of the ball.

“Overall I think losing that way just makes you want to go back to practice and work on things,” Bobzin said. “It is coming increasingly more obvious the thing we need to work on.”

Even though it was down, Harvard never gave up and never lost focus. Even in the last minutes of play Harvard was aggressive and scored a goal.

“I think we gave a good fight and played strong and have to prepare for the upcoming games against UPenn and Princeton” Schoen said.

Harvard is set to play Penn on Sunday April 6 in Pennsylvania. Penn will be a strong opponent for Harvard. With a very good zone-trap defense, the Quakers will definitely push pressure and push the Crimson to speed things up.

“Penn will test all the things we need to work on,” Bobzin said. “Especially speeding up our game mentally and physically.”

—Staff writer Alison E. Schumer can be reached at schumer@fas.harvard.edu.