New Kids On The Block

Returning the conference’s most prolific scorer, an experienced head coach, and two battle-tested goalkeepers, the Harvard women’s lacrosse team appears to have the experience necessary to be an Ivy League contender.

But if the Crimson hopes to find itself atop the Ancient Eight at season’s end, it will need help from a far more inexperienced group—its freshman class.

With nine first-years featured on its 21-person roster, the class of 2013 will play a major role in determining the success—or failure—of this year’s team.

“The freshmen are going to jump right in,” Harvard coach Lisa Miller said. “[It will be] trial by fire.”

But while most coaches might see a young and inexperienced lineup—Miller expects to start at least four or five rookies—as a disadvantage, some members of the Crimson squad see it as a secret weapon.

“We’re really young,” freshman Jennifer VanderMeulen said. “But I actually think it’s going to be to our advantage, because people aren’t expecting us.”

With that said, Miller’s second recruiting class at Harvard did not fly under the radar. The Crimson’s rookie class is made up of six players from either the U.S. Lacrosse or Under Armor All-America Teams and features members who passed up offers from such powerhouse programs as Northwestern and Princeton.

“It’s a good class,” said Miller, who coached at Syracuse for 10 seasons. “Their skill is good. Their game understanding is good. It’s a class comparable to my recruiting class at Syracuse that had the two All-Americans and Big East Defender of the Year.”

On top of their skills and game understanding, the strongest aspect of the Crimson’s newcomers may be their athleticism.

“They’re fast kids, and they’re going to link the two halves of the field together,” co-captain Delia Pais said. “It’s an area of the game that we’ve lacked in years previous, and now it’s come into place.”

But Miller and her freshmen understand that they cannot simply rely on their speed to create open shots for themselves, as most of them were able to do in high school. In preparation for the much faster and more physical environment of collegiate play, Miller has tried to emulate a game-like environment in practice to get her players up to speed before tomorrow’s opener against UMass.

One freshman who is expected to make an impact from the Crimson’s first game is VanderMeulen, a 5’8” attack out of Liverpool, N.Y. VanderMeulen received interest from top collegiate lacrosse programs throughout her four years at Liverpool High School, where she set the school record for goals scored with 213.

But despite offers from Princeton, Duke, Johns Hopkins, and Northwestern, VanderMeulen chose Harvard because of the chance it offered to help change the program’s direction.

“What I loved about Harvard was that I had an opportunity to make a difference,” VanderMeulen said. “I wasn’t just going to be fed into the machine and kicked back out.”

Now that she’s with the Crimson, VanderMeulen’s teammates are hopeful that she can continue to use her tall frame and powerful shot to light up the scoreboard at the collegiate level.

Joining VanderMeulen are four other rookies from the Empire State who are expected to make an immediate impact. Danielle Tetreault, a native of Guilderland, N.Y., is likely to receive significant minutes at midfield right away.

“[Tetreault]’s a hustler,” co-captain Sara Flood said. “She’s always giving 100 percent.”

VanderMeulen, who battled against Tetreault numerous times throughout high school, remembers playing against the scrappy midfielder well.

“We always kind of butted heads,” VanderMeulen said. “But now it’s so weird because she’s one of my great friends.”

Joining Tetreault at midfield from the freshman class are Alexis Dal Col and Micaela Cyr. While Dal Col possesses a dangerous shot, Cyr uses her speed and quickness to create opportunities.

The combination of a strong freshman class and an experienced core of older players could bring huge rewards for Harvard this spring.

“They have a lot of talent,” Flood said. “We sort of need them to step up really early.”

But any pressure that might accompany the high stakes of being thrown into the fire right away does not seem to bother the nine youngsters.

“None of the freshmen have crumbled under the pressure,” VanderMeulen said. “Luckily we are going to be assets to the team early on, and we wanted to show [Coach Miller] that she can expect a lot from us, and that we’ll perform for her.”