The Harvard women's lacrosse team defended its Yankee pride and its undefeated record yesterday against 10th-ranked Loyola, the highly-touted Southern team, in a 12-6 pounding at Soldiers Field.

The win most likely assures the Crimson of a spot in the top six of the national rankings and a ticket to the NCAA championships. Harvard will also be exempted from having to play in the ECAC tournament.

Southern Shelling

The Southern belt has claimed a monopoly on the "true-grit" of women's lacrosse teams for the past few years.

For the Crimson, just scheduling the game took guts, but actually winning the game took more.

The usual impregnable defensive wall and the more-stellar-than-usual sharp-shooting of the attack line sparked Harvard's victory.

Maggie Vaughan, Julia French, Lynn Frangione and Co-Captain Katie McAnancy teamed up to counter the speed of the Lady Greyhound's offense, bullying them out of the shooting fan and taunting them with interceptions.

While the Crimson's defense sent Loyola in circles, the Crimson's offense raged onto the scene with four goals in the first five minutes of the game.

Char Joslin netted her third hattrick of the season in the game, which is, in itself, a hat-trick of sorts.

Joslin started the hysteria less than two minutes into the game, and McAnaney, French and Julie Clifford laughed all the way to the goal,

For the fifth goal, Vaughan recovered the ball for Harvard, and Joslin reeled it to Karen Everling, who placed the ball in its final destination--the upper corner of the goal.

The Crimson attack got goals, and the Loyola attack got dizzy.

The Greyhounds rebounded with a speedy shot with 12:02 left in the half. Then, Loyola's Michelle Batza barely let a minute pass before attacking the net again with another goal.

But Harvard wasn't going to let this one slip away.

Joslin personified the Crimson's perseverence. After missing her first shot, Joslin scooped up the ball to fling it over the goalie's head.