Lacrosse Cruises to Easy 19-4 Victory

Coming off of a one-goal loss to Brown, the Harvard women’s lacrosse team (4-4, 1-2 Ivy) took out some of Saturday’s frustration on Bryant University (1-8, 1-2 NEC) in a 19-4 trouncing at Harvard Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The 15-goal differential was the Crimson’s largest margin of victory this season.

“I think we kind of used the Brown game as fuel to come out and show that we can play better than that,” freshman Jennifer VanderMeulen said. “I think that it was a good effort all around...We wanted to prove that we know what we need to do.”

The team’s focus was apparent in the beginning of the game—despite opening up a 10-0 lead in the first 17 minutes of the contest, Harvard hardly celebrated after each goal.

The Crimson controlled the direction of the game for most of the first half, rarely retreating into defense and allowing only one goal in the first 20 minutes. VanderMuelen led Harvard’s initial surge, completing a hat trick seven minutes into the game and scoring five goals in the first half.

“There was a little bit of a feeding frenzy early, a lack of structure, but we just out-athleticized them,” Harvard coach Lisa Miller said.

The Crimson led at halftime, 13-2. The two Bulldog goals—one of which came on a free-position shot—came at a point when the game was already out of reach.

“It’s just hard [for Bryant] because there’s such a discrepancy in terms of upgrading from Division II—it’s a different world,” said Miller of the Bulldog’s recent transition into Division I athletics.

In the second half, the Crimson took fewer shots and could not match the multitude of goals that it had to start the game. Still, freshman Micaela Cyr opened the half with a score in the second minute—her fourth consecutive goal going back to 6:41 in the first half.

Harvard did not relent altogether—of its six second-half goals, three came in the last two minutes of the game. Freshman Mariel Jenkins scored on a free-position shot with 1:41 left, and VanderMeulen scored her sixth goal of the game with 1:13 left in regulation, though it was her only goal of the half.

“I had a little bit more pressure in the second half—they decided to faceguard me,” VanderMeulen said. “First half, I happened to be open, [but in the] second half others were working to get open too.”

No Crimson player scored more than one goal in the second half.

Harvard’s rookies were paramount to the team’s victory over the Bulldogs. Of the 19 goals on the afternoon, 17 came from the team’s first-year players.

“It’s a trial by fire [for these newcomers], and we’ll be better for it long term,” Miller said. “I just think this year we live with peaks and valleys and some young decision-making.”

VanderMeulen and Cyr led the team with six goals and five goals, respectively. Jenkins scored twice in the game, and freshmen Alexis Dal Col and Danielle Tetreault each added one goal of their own. Sophomore Melanie Baskind, playing her first season of lacrosse, had two scores.

The two remaining goals came from sophomore Tyler Petropulos, who scored with 7:43 remaining, and co-captain Sara Flood, who accounted for the other goal.

Though Bryant was limited to two goals in the second half, the team had possession more often and had more scoring opportunities. The Bulldogs took 14 shots in the second as opposed to only seven in the first.

“Second half, I thought [Bryant] just did a better job just staying in structure, getting the ball, getting some good clean looks,” Miller said.

Despite a better offensive performance, Bryant converted poorly. Beyond its twelve missed shots, the team was also only 1-of-5 on free-position shots in the second half. Senior goalie Katherine Martino had six saves, four of which came in the final frame.

“I think we were pretty angry about yesterday—we didn’t stay in our system, we didn’t stay in our structure [against Brown],” VanderMeulen said. “I think we were all just ready to go.”