New Hampshire Stops Women's Lacrosse Team, 8-4

Things are not looking up for the women's lacrosse team. Yesterday the team traveled to Durham, New Hampshire where the University of New Hampshire Wildcats handed them an 8-4 defeat. That setback, which left the laxwomen with a 3-4 season record, came on the heels pf a heartbreaking 8-7 loss to Brown three days ago.

As if two consecutive losses weren't enough, coach Debi Field's ire was raised even further as a result of some questionable tactics by the New Hampshire coach.

The two squads played dead even until ten minutes remained in the game. With the score deadlocked at 4-4, two UNH defenders converged on Harvard's Ellen Seidler as she was about to receive a feed from teammmate Sarah Mleczko. The three players collided before the ball arrived, and a Wildcat went down with a cut head.

During the injury time-out, Field said, the UNH coach moved among her players on the field, apparently coaching them, which is technically against the rules. "It irritated me to no end," Field said.

From that point on, all the momentum shifted to New Hampshire's favor, and in the words of the Crimson mentor, "UNH went to town." Translate that to mean that the Wildcats pumped in four goals in the remaining minutes, putting the contest out of reach.

While Field allowed that UNH is "probably the best team in New England," and that they were clearly the better team yesterday, the rule-bending only exacerbated the frustration evoked by a fiercely-fought game.

Unfortunately, that incident, as well as the outcome of the game, overshadows several notable Crimson performances.

First, there were two goals by freshman Sue St. Louis, one in the first half which tied the game at 2-2, the other at 10:30 of the second period that made it four-all. Mleczko and Seidler, with one goal each, accounted for Harvard's other scores.

Field also commended the Crimson defense, which held UNH scoreless for the last 13 minutes of the first half.

"They [UNH] said it was the best game they'd had in a while, but that doesn't make losing any easier," Field said, echoing the sentiments of one more accustomed to Ws than Ls.

And though the laxwomen may be suffering a temporary slump, Field warned that the team has had enough of tough breaks, and "We're ready to explode."