With nine freshmen on the roster, the Harvard women's lacrosse team lives and dies on the fortunes of its younger players. Thanks to Char Joslin, the Crimson is living mighty well.

Joslin, already one of the finest three-sport athletes in Harvard history, recorded six goals yesterday to lead Harvard to a 14-8 victory over Brown in Providence, R.I.

Many lacrosse observers--including some Crimson players--saw yesterday's game as a battle of the Ivy League's top teams. With all due respect to a still undefeated Cornell squad (which the Crimson will face Saturday in Ithaca, N.Y.), Harvard proved itself to be the top squad.

For the Crimson, it's three Ivy games down (Penn, Princeton and Brown) and three more to go (Cornell, Yale and Dartmouth). Harvard will carry its 3-0 Ivy mark (6-2-1 overall) to Ithaca this weekend. But, more important, the laxwomen will take with them newfound confidence.

Brown, behind the solid goalkeeping of Whitney Robbins, kept the game close throughout the first half, trailing by a 6-4 margin at the intermission. But the Crimson ran off six unanswered goals at the start of the second half. Brown attack Sue Cutlass matched Joslin goal for goal, but couldn't lift her team to victory.

"Brown did exactly what we expected," Harvard Captain Kelly McBride said. "They're not a running team. They set up and worked the ball around."

Freshman Loreen Costa started in the Crimson net for the second time this season and earned her first victory to improve her record to 1-0-1. She got credit for a tie against Loyola over spring break and saw clean-up time in the Crimson's 24-9 victory over Northeastern last Saturday.

"It's hard to get used to [Harvard Coach Carole Kleinfelder's] system," McBride continued. "In the past, you sat on the bench for awhile before you got to play. That way you could get used to the system. But this year the freshmen have to play."

Joslin has had to learn three systems this year--in three sports. In the fall, she plays field hockey. In the winter, she plays ice hockey. And now, she's playing lacrosse.

Joslin led the hockey team in scoring with an average of more than two goals per game. Apparently, she's carrying some of that goal-scoring magic onto the lacrosse field.

"She played fantastic," McBride said.