WEB UPDATE: Harvard Drops Shootout to Great Danes

The Harvard women’s lacrosse team dropped its second road loss of spring break on Wednesday, falling to Albany in an offense-heavy battle. The Great Danes defeated the Crimson on its home turf in upstate New York, outscoring Harvard, 19-15.

Senior attack Kaitlin Martin led the Crimson offensively, recording seven tallies during the contest. But Albany’s Jodi Battaglia—who found the Harvard net six times—and three additional Great Danes with multiple goals in the matchup thwarted the effort of the Crimson’s attacks.

The afternoon contest began with a torrent of goals from Albany. After only eight minutes of play, the Great Danes led a visiting Harvard 5-0.

“We started off slow like we’ve been doing in the past couple games,” said senior tri-captain Shannon Flynn said. “We got ourselves into a hole in the beginning and it was kind of hard to fight out of that.”

The Crimson finally began to retaliate with an unassisted goal from freshman Tyler Petropulos at 21:23, which was soon answered by Albany.

Harvard began to pick up its momentum after its initial tally. The Crimson scored twice in quick succession, as freshman Chelsey Bowman found the net at 18:40 from sophomore Jess Halpern and Martin recorded her first point of the day with an unassisted goal at 18:00.

The offensive momentum alternated between the Great Danes and Harvard for the remainder of the half. Martin scored off of a Halpern assist at 12:05 and registered two more unassisted tallies at 9:00 and 5:03. Halpern also found the net herself as the clock wound down in the first, scoring unassisted.

As Harvard left the turf at halftime, it trailed Albany 7-13. But the Crimson would come back with a vengeance in the second half.

Junior tri-captain Sara Flood—who recorded a hat trick during the contest—opened the scoring in the second half with an early unassisted goal. After the Great Danes scored for the 14th time, Flood shot another rocket into the back of the Albany net, again from the Crimson’s go-to assister, Halpern.

Martin followed Flood’s second goal, scoring at 19:47 and again at 17:41. Minutes later, senior tri-captain Sarah Bancroft added her name to the list of Crimson offensive threats, finding the net for the first time in the game.

Albany’s replied with three consecutive goals, bringing the home team’s lead up to 19-12.

But Harvard would not go down without a fight, scoring three times in the final minute of play. Martin recorded her final tally of the day at 0:46 from a Flood assist, and freshman Katie Doherty beat the Great Danes goalie for a 0:18 unassisted score.

Finally, with only one second remaining on the clock, Flood completed her offensive trifecta, with an unassisted goal.

“We were playing a lot better in the second half,” Halpern said. “We had more of a sense of urgency then we did in the first half. If we can get two halves together, we’ll do a lot better.”

The Crimson will have another chance to hit the ground running, as it faces Yale tomorrow.

“We’re going to be a lot more fired up,” Flynn said. “The key is just coming out really strong with a lot of heart and hustle.”

The match is set to begin at 1 p.m. at Harvard Stadium, where the Crimson hopes to claim its first Ivy League victory of the season.