Francesca DenHartog knew she had two places to be September 20: at the opening day of classes at Harvard and on a lacrosse field in Nottingham, England, 3000 miles across the Atlantic.

The 20-year-old senior didn't hesitate in making her choice, and on that last day of summer, DenHartog was in England practicing with the U.S. Women's Lacrosse Touring Team.

She returned to Cambridge, Mass. last week, a little bit behind on classwork but pleased with the results of her intercontinental field trip. The U.S. team won the First Annual Women's Lacrosse World Games, largely as a result of DenHartog's sparkling play.

Harvard fans are used to DenHartog's dominating style, but the youngest competitor on the national squad surprised some teammates. "She played superbly," U.S. Assistant Coach JoAnn Harper said this week of the tall, slim attacker. "I don't think there's anyone around who is better in front of the net than Francesca."

"I'm really glad I made the trip," DenHartog said modestly. "The victory made it that much sweeter."

Big Gun

A two-time Ivy League Player of the Year. DenHartog led all Americans in scoring with 14 goals and four assists in six games. The U.S. beat Australia, 10-7, on September 25 to clinch the championship.

After training for the entire summer specifically for the World Games, the Phippsburg, Me. native joined her teammates in England for an intitial encounter with the tough Australian national squad.

"We were all pretty nervous," she recalled, describing a two-goal personal performance but 7-4 team loss. "It just took a little time for us to get rolling," she added.

But once the American unit had some game experience it ran over the rest of its opposition like a steam roller. The Americans crushed Canada, England, Scotland and Wales in the four days following the Australia match.

"We had an extremely tough attack that proved to be too powerful for the other teams," DenHartog said. "It was a total team effort."

The four victories earned the 16-member U.S. squad a spot in the final: a rematch with the powerful Aussies.

On a sunny Saturday afternoon in Nottingham, the Americans and Australians played a final that will certainly remain a classic long after the next World Games final, which will be held in 1985 in Philadelphia.

"We wanted to win the game really badly," DenHartog said. "First, for the United States, secondly for ourselves and thirdly because we could not stand the thought of losing to the Australians twice. We wanted to kill them."

However, some other people also came ready to kill, or at least to win. Australia jumped out to a 6-1 halftime lead.