The Harvard men's lacrosse team kicks off their season today at 1 p.m. against local rival Boston College.

The game was originally scheduled to be played at Harvard but because of the recent weather it proved impossible to host it here on the snow covered grass fields. The game will be played at B.C.'s astroturf field.

At the moment Harvard, practicing since February 1, is ranked 19th in the nation and would normally be expected to beat BC, who are annually ranked a couple of places behind Harvard.

But the biggest problem for the team right now is it's lack of practice outdoors. Despite having six weeks of practice under their belts, senior Mike Marvin says the team has only been able to practice outdoors four or five times.

"There is only so much we can do inside Briggs," Marvin said.

The aim of this game, Marvin said, is to "get the kinks out" before they play their first Ivy competitor, Penn, next Saturday.

Following the Penn game the team will continue south to Durham for their spring training trip. Here they will play the powerful Duke team. A scrimmage against Team Texaco, a pro team, has also been tentatively scheduled.

With the season already been cut short, following last week's cancellations with Holy Cross and Cornell, each game from now on is going to be important.

The team is confident of winning, but an early loss at this stage of the season would not be crippling. The team's goals for the season are an Ivy Championship and a place at the NCAA championship tourney.

The team's potential has been noted by outsiders as they have been ranked highly in preseason polls. The BC game will hopefully provide the coaching staff and the players with guidelines as to what to work on over the spring break in order for them to achieve their goals in April and early May.