Floodgates Open For Crimson Offensive Attack Against UMass

The Harvard women’s lacrosse team (2-0) swiftly and soundly defeated Massachusetts (1-3) 20-11 in Amherst this past weekend.

“I think the game went really well,” junior Kaitlin Martin said. “We came out really hard because we knew that UMass was a team we could not take lightly.”

The game started off bleak for Harvard as the Minutewomen got on the scoreboard first. UMass scored in the 39th second of play.

This would be the first and last time UMass had a lead in the competition. The Crimson answered quickly three minutes later. Off of a free position, freshman Jessica Halpern put the ball in the back of the net.

Harvard scored the next three goals to take a 4-1 lead. The Minutewomen answered with four more goals throughout the half, but that was not enough to tame the Crimson as it went into the break with a 12-5 advantage.

In the second half, UMass attempted to come out strong again, scoring the first goal of the stanza. But this would only be one of three goals the Minutewomen would have in the half. Harvard went onto to score eight more goals in the last 30 minutes of play.

Eight Crimson players had scores on the day, six of which had multiple goals. But the two most impressive performances of the day came from Martin and Halpern. Martin had five goals and three assists on the day. Halpern had four scores for the afternoon, the second four-goal game in row for the freshman. She put up four tallies against Holy Cross last weekend and was named Rookie of the Week on WomensLax.com for her performance against the Crusaders.

UMass came into the game with consecutive losses against nationally ranked teams, having fallen to both No. 3 Maryland and No. 15 Boston University. Harvard knew that UMass, wanting to end its losing streak, was going to play an intense game.

“We knew UMass was a very physical team,” Martin said. “They were coming off losses and wanted to really win. But we were just going to play our game.”

It was not just an offense-filled day for the Crimson, the defense stepped up as well. Throughout the competition, the defense put relentless pressure on UMass.

“I give our defense a lot of credit,” senior Caroline Simmons said. “They did a great job stepping up to attackers and forcing them to use their weak hand.”

Another element that contributed to Harvard’s victory was the new coaching staff. It is the first year coaching at Harvard for both head coach Lisa Miller and assistant coach Sarah Albrecht. Together the two have completely changed the team for the better.

“They have just done an incredible job turning our team around,” Simmons said. “They have put everyone in a specific role in the field. They just give us so much guidance.”

Even with such a sizable victory, the Crimson can still improve on perfecting the little things such as catching, throwing, and groundballs.

“We had some unforced errors at the end of the game,” Simmons said. “I think we definitely still need to work on our midfield transition.”

Harvard came into this game with an impressive win on its resume. On Feb. 24 the Crimson crushed Holy Cross, 19-2.

Looking forward, Harvard will play Albany on Mar. 5 at Jordan Field. Just like UMass, Albany is not a team to be underestimated.

“Albany is a very fast and athletic team,” Martin said. “We are going to have to make sure we catch and throw really well. We are going to have to take care of the ball and just play our game.”

—Staff writer Alison E. Schumer can be reached at schumer@fas.harvard.edu.