BRIEF: Women's Lacrosse Handles Yale, 11-8

Facing its third Ivy League opponent of the season, the Harvard women’s lacrosse team was able to solidify a winning conference record in a match up against Yale.

The Crimson (4-3, 2-1 Ivy) were triumphant against the Bulldogs (5-2, 1-2) Saturday in New Haven, taking home its second win against an Ancient Eight opponent this season with the 11-8 victory. The win also brought Harvard above .500.

Once again, the Crimson’s offense was propelled by freshman goal scoring with attackers Marisa Romeo and Megan Hennessey leading the pack. Romeo had a career-high five goals in the game. The freshman leads Harvard with 22 tallies on the season and 26 points through the first seven games. During the contest Romeo also scored all three of the team’s free position shots. Hennessey put up two goals in the victory, her fourth multi-goal game this season. She added five draw controls, a season high.

The sophomore class was also well represented, with attacker Audrey Todd netting two and Alexis Nicolia adding a score of her own.

Although the Crimson was down, 2-0, to the Bulldogs early in the game, consecutive goals by Romeo and Hennessey brought them back even. Goals were traded twice before Harvard gained a 5-3 edge and went on to take 6-5 advantage into halftime.

The game remained a close competition after the half, although Harvard gained its largest lead of the game on a free position shot from Romeo with 23:45 left in the game for a 9-6 advantage. Yale battled back with two consecutive goals, but that would be all the offense the Bulldogs could muster in that half, as they were shut out for the final 11 minutes of play.

Defensively for the Crimson, sophomore goalie Kelly Weis continued to have success in the net. Weis was able to save eight of Yale’s 16 shots that made it through Harvard’s defensive line.

Harvard had the advantage in ground balls and free position shots, while also pressuring the Bulldogs to turn the ball over ten times throughout the contest. The Crimson converted more free position shots, going 3-for-6 while Yale went 2-for-7 from behind the line.

The Bulldogs did have a slight edge in draw controls, handling 11 while the Crimson was able to control ten.

—Staff writer Ariel Smolik-Valles can be reached at asmolikcalles@college.harvard.edu.