The Radcliffe lacrosse team opened its season on Saturday where its basketball and field hockey predecessors didn't leave off--on the losing end of a score.

The laxwomen fell to Penn by an 8-5 margin, a fact which is almost as irreligious as that of having to spend Easter weekend in Philadelphia in the first place.

Beatable Penn

"Penn was beatable," Coach Debi Field said last night, "had we been playing a little longer and a little better."

But such is life, and so despite a Carrie Minot hat trick and a pair of early leads, Radcliffe's season got off on the wrong foot.

Minot, one of just three letterwomen on the squad, sanwiched two tallies around an early Penn score for a 2-1 advantage, but the Quakers then ripped off four successive quickies before the half, held off a second-half Radcliffe comeback and emerged victorious as a result.

The Radcliffe surge brought the score to 6-5 Penn midway through this, latter half, as captain Anne Johnson and freshwoman Marcia Goldberg joined Minot in the scoring column.

When Penn soon responded with two goals of its own, though, school was out. (It resumed, incidentally, yesterday morning.)

"We're a young team." Field said, "and we're working to build experience. I look to see improvement as the season progresses."

Like tomorrow afternoon, when the laxwomen entertain the University of Rhode Island at Soldiers Field.