It does seem as if there is a point spread working against the Harvard men's lacrosse team. UMASS  8 Harvard  6

If you have gotten to one of its most recent games five or 10 minutes late, you probably will have seen the scoreboard reading 3-0 for the visitor.

The problem is that Harvard has really been the underdog in those games and that the scoreboard wasn't automatically set like that--the Crimson has been awful in the opening minutes of its last four games.

Each game has been against Top-20 competition, and each result has been a loss. No. 18 Harvard (4-5, 2-2 Ivy) fell behind 3-0 to the 14th ranked University of Massachusetts (4-3) in the first 7:42 of yesterday's rain-soaked game at Ohiri Field and never was able to come back, losing 8-6.

The losing streak seems to have taken its toll on at least some of the players. Several team members uttered expletives after the match concluded, and a couple others like senior Jamie Ames threw his helmet and stick down in frustration.

Whether Harvard starts out flat or thinks "Here we go again" once the opposition scores first or not, the players have had a tendency to let down and fall behind by several more before they can pull themselves together.

Yesterday was no exception.

"I don't know what happens to us in the beginning of games," co-captain Steve Gaffney said. "It probably stems from our not picking up ground balls and possessing the ball, and then they capitalize and we get down early."

Minuteman Brendan Glass, who scored five goals on the afternoon in the quagmire, opened the scoring 2:21 into the game when he finished off a pass from Mike Valente. UMass had controlled the ball for practically two full minutes before the goal, and that may have worn down Harvard's defense.

Jeremy Murphy made it 2-0 on a behind-the-back shot that sailed by sophomore goalie Rob Lyng (17 saves), and Glass increased the deficit to 3-0 less than two minutes later.

"Glass has to have the quickest release of all the attackers I've seen this year," Lying said.

Would the deluge continue?

The UMass scoring deluge didn't, although Mother nature took much longer to run out her course.

The Crimson got right back into the contest with a pair of goals--the first coming off the stick of senior Jamie Ames with 5:21 left in the first quarter and the second by junior Mike Eckert with only 25 ticks left on the clock.

Getting out of the first period down by one after the disastrous opening would have been a big plus.