Harvard Battles Indians For Lacrosse Cellar Exit

The Harvard lacrosse team will battle Dartmouth for the penultimate rung in Ivy League ladder Saturday at Soldiers Field.

Both teams have tried a combined total of seven times without winning an Ivy game. Harvard has acted true to pre-season form. The lack of an experienced goalie and an effective scoring punch has been too much to overcome in such fast company as the Ivy League teams.

Dartmouth, however, was picked to be in the midst of the battle for first place. The Indians, who were very Ivy co-champions for the past two years, just haven't been able to score at key moments this season. Harvard's attack gained needed confidence with Monday's 16-2 win over Holy Cross. Until the massacre of the Crusaders, the Crimson offense was experiencing its mid-seasonal drought.

Now that the attack has shown some spark, perhaps the Crimson's overworked defense can straighten itself out. The defense has not been able to put four good periods together and has undergone frequent lapses.

Dan Calderwood, Rick Loomis, and Dave Davis, Harvard's three starting defensemen, will have their hands full guarding the Indians' high-scoring Bruce McKissock. Opposing teams found that double-teaming hardly does the job on McKissock, an all-Ivy last spring.

All Harvard's players are relatively healthy except for Wally Grant. If Grant doesn't play, he'll probably be replaced by Al Timberlake, who played exceptionally well in the Holy Cross game.

Dartmouth Favored

On paper Dartmouth easily rates the edge. The Green has been in close contention in all its Ivy games. It lost by only one goal to Yale, and by only three to Brown, probably the best team in the East.

Harvard on the other hand, has played in only one close Ivy game all season. That was the 7-5 loss to Cornell when Coach Bruce Munro really roused the team.

Munro will have to do the same job today if Harvard is going to escape the cellar.