M. Lacrosse Falls to Minutemen

It only gets easier for the Harvard men's lacrosse team.

After falling to No. 1 Princeton, 15-1, over the weekend, the Crimson lost to No. 4 UMass yesterday at Jordan Field, 11-5.

The Crimson (6-5, 1-3 Ivy) got three goals from sophomore attackman Matt Primm, but the Minutemen (10-0, 4-0 ECAC) jumped out to an early lead and maintained a cushion to record their tenth win of the season.

With the Yale game this weekend, the Crimson should be able to get some respite from top-five teams.

Both John Madigan and Chris Fiore had two goals and an assist for UMass, but the Crimson defense limited Rick Kunkel, the Minutemen's top scorer, to a single goal. Kunkel had six goals against Yale this weekend and has four hat tricks on the season.

The 10-0 run is the best start for the Minutemen since 1981, and it is the first time in 10 years that UMass has been able to sustain a winning streak into the double digits. Only Quinnipiac, with 12 straight wins, has a longer streak going.

Should the Minutemen win this weekend against No. 7 Georgetown, the team will make a strong bid for the No. 1 ranking. UMass was the only team besides Princeton to receive a vote for the top ranking in this week's STX/United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll.

The Minutemen jumped all over the Crimson in the first half, outshooting Harvard 17-10.

The Minutemen opened the scoring just over a minute into the first frame when sophomore Kevin Leveille notched an unassisted goal at 1:12.

Primm got an unassisted strike of his own three minutes later at 4:12, but it was the closest the Crimson would come on the afternoon.

UMass rattled off three more goals before sophomore midfielder Doug Logigian took a feed from senior attackman Roger Buttles at 10:31 of the first period to get within 4-2. The Minutemen got one more when Madigan found Dan Paccione to make it 5-2 at the end of the first frame.

The Crimson got one more before the half when junior midfielder Derek Nowak found senior attackman Dana Sprong for his only strike, but only after the Minutemen poured in another pair of goals to make it 6-3 at the intermission.

The Crimson have had trouble on the restart all year, and yesterday's game was no exception. UMass dominated the face-off in the first half, taking eight of the 11 draws in the period.

UMass, and primary face-off man senior Jeff Seals, have been dominant at the stripe this season with a .627 winning percentage going into yesterday's game. Seals is ranked eighth in the nation in the face-off, taking 125 of 200 draws for a .625 average.

With the Crimson down only three at the start of the second half, the door seemed at least partly open for a Crimson comeback. But having been in a number of tough games already this season, the Minutemen seemed to have a knack for slamming that door shut.

"We were only losing by three so we wanted to get back in the game, but at the same time we did not want to lose the ball by making bad decisions," Sprong said. "But you can't force it at that point in the game, and we were forcing shots when they were not there."

With Harvard shaky on its own possession, UMass controlled the third frame, outshooting the Crimson 12-3 and dominating possession.

Marc Morley scored first on an unassisted goal at 1:48 of the third, and Kunkel got his only tally at 13:10 to make it 8-3.

Don Little extended the UMass lead to six in the fourth with an unassisted goal at 1:48, but Primm answered with his second and third goals of the game to cut the lead to 9-5.

Fiore and Madigan each got their second of the day to cement the win at 11-5.

Primm's hat trick aside, it seemed that the rest of the Crimson had trouble finding a rhythm around the cage.

"We had the same problems today as we've had the last few games," Sprong said. "We're not getting good looks at the goal and when we do get looks we're not converting all the time. We're just not scoring right now."

Jake McKenna played a complete game in the cage for the Crimson. The sophomore faced 45 shots, making 20 saves on the day.

Chris Campolettano minded the net for the Minutemen, making 14 saves while facing 37 shots from the Crimson.

Although the Crimson will not take the Ivy League this year, with four games remaining, all is not lost. Harvard upset No. 12 Duke earlier this season and faces No. 5 Notre Dame on Apr. 28. Should the Crimson upset another ranked team and improve its record to 10-5, a possible bid to the NCAAs is not completely out of the question.

"A win against Notre Dame would be nice, but right now we're worrying about Yale, who we play on Saturday," Sprong said. "That's all we're worrying about right now."

For UMass, the focus is now on postseason seedings. Besides Georgetown, the Minutmen play No. 2 Syracuse on Apr. 28.

Should the Minutemen topple the Orangemen and walk over Brown and Rutgers as expected, UMass could be looking at a No. 1 seed.

The Crimson next plays Yale at Jordan Field on Saturday at 7 p.m.