Laxmen Smother Elis, 6-3, Nabbing First Ivy Win...

While the Harvard men's lacrosse team still hasn't regained the offensive spark it showed last year, it seems to be doing fine, think you, with a defense that's been pretty sharp of late.

With miserably cold, rainy and muddy conditions making it difficult for either team to create much sustained offense, Harvard outdefensed Yale Saturday on the Business School field, 6-3.

It was the second straight win for the Crimson (now 3-5, 1-3 in the Ivies) in its attempt to climb out of its early season slump, and the third straight game in which fewer than 10 balls flew past Harvard goalie Tim Pendergast.

In a first half in which slipping bodies and errant passes were the rule, it seemed the only place balls were flying was out of bounds Late in the first quarter. Eli freshman Bill Harley finally broke the ice, scoring on a man advantage Harvard's Peter Follows retaliated less than a minute later, but the only other goal before halftime was a Bulldog tally with 1-56 left in the second quarter.

It took two spectacular individual efforts by attack man Rob Hawley to get the Crimson going after intermission less than three going after intermission. Less than three minutes into the third period, Hawley carried the ball from behind the net and with Eli defense-man Rob Anderson hacking at him, whipped one past goalie Dan Liu from a sharp angle to tie it at two.

Four and a half minutes later, Hawley came around the other side of the goal, turned and shot in mid air, moving away from the net, and victimized Liu again.

Ninety seconds later. Follows unleashed a pass from midfield to Steve Bartenfelder near the net, who drove home Harvard's fourth goal.

With the rain falling harder, the Elis had the most trouble moving the ball as the game progressed, the Crimson pressure increased. Steve Voelkel and Follows scored in the late going. Gigantic Yale defender Jim MacLaren tackled Chris Pujols while the 5-ft., 9-in attackman tried to nab a bouncing ball in front of an open Eli net late in the third quarter.

THE NOTEBOOK: Harvard has a week off before it's next game, Saturday at Princeton. Yale fell to 0-5 in the Ivies with the loss...The Bulldogs still hold an overwhelming 43-16 edge in the history of the rivalry.