Laxwomen Shoot Past Wellesley, 12-4

The Harvard women's lacrosse team, snapping a two-game losing streak, got its offense in gear yesterday and demolished a lackluster Wellesley College squad on its home turf, 12-4.

Sarah Mleczko and Cat Ferrante shared high scoring honors for the Crimson, each connecting for three goals amidst a shooting barrage on the unfortunate Wellesley goalkeeper. The laxwomen peppered the ragged opposition with 49 shots, facing only five shots in retaliation from the non-offensive Wellesley team.

Crimson coach Carole Kleinfelder said yesterday the Wellesley zone defense made scoring somewhat difficult, adding that freshman Annie MacMillan whizzed 14 shots on goal, but only had one tally to show for her strong effort. MacMillan notched a game-high two assists for the laxwomen.

The Crimson drew first blood in the contest when Mleezko tossed a pass to MacMillan on the right side of the goal. and she fed it diagonally to Lisa Kent for the quick-stick goal. Kent's first of two for the afternoon.

Harvard proceeded to build up a 3-0 lead, but Wellesley fought back to 3-2 before burning out. Crimson netminder Charlotte Worsley said the Wellesley attackers penetrated the defense early in the game because the laxwomen "weren't warmed up yet." After getting loose, the offense clicked together nicely, Worsley said.

Coming off a 7-3 halftime lead. Harvard tried to settle the game down. "We tried to pass the ball around a lot to set up some ground shots from the outside," Kleinfelder said, adding that it was difficult to get the ball inside.

MacMillan said the laxwomen tried to whip wing-to-wing passes across the field and either set up ground shots from the outside, or give the ball to a feeder behind the net who would toss the ball out to one of the four-corner attackers.

"The zone was much too tight for any one-on-one shots by as, so we had to stay outside," MacMillan added.

MacMillan credited the double-teaming efforts of defensive tandem Chris Sailer and Cynthia Jensen with halting Wellesley's feeble attempts at penetration, and in Kleinfelder's words, "totally dominating" Wellesley.

The Crimson resume their schedule Saturday at 11 a.m. with a contest against another zone-playing foe, Brown, in Providence.