It may have been spring, but it wasn't a break.

The Harvard women's lacrosse team got a rude awakening this past week, dropping two consecutive Ivy games to Princeton and Penn. Thanks to poor play on the offense and transition, the Crimson (1-2) starts the season with an 0-2 Ivy record for the first time ever.

And with upcoming games against Yale (tomorrow) and Loyola (Saturday), Harvard knows that it must get better, and there's no time to waste.

The 9-8 loss to Penn marks the first time in over a decade that the Quakers have beaten the Crimson. Princeton's 15-4 win, meanwhile, was the Tigers' fourth straight win over their rivals.

"Practice[s] now are critical," junior co-captain Daphne Clark said. "We really have to turn it around now. We have to come together as a team."

Against Princeton on March 23 at Ohiri Field, not a whole lot came together. After maintaining a 0-0 tie with the No. 5 team in the nation for 15 minutes, Princeton's Carter Marsh opened the floodgates with a goal. By the first intermission, it was 7-2, and it didn't get any better for Harvard.

At the end, two Tigers had four goals (Lisa Rebane and Abigail Gutstein) while no one on the Crimson scored more than one.

The loss to Penn eight days later was equally disheartening. Harvard held a 7-4 lead at halftime, but Penn led the second half with five consecutive goals and held on for a 9-8 win. In last year's game, the Crimson won 19-4.

"We should have won," junior Liz Hren said. "We had it in the first half--we stopped working as a team."

At the start of the game, Harvard was doing a lot right. Things were even until the end of the first period, when a 5-1 Crimson run fueled by two Clark goals turned a one-goal Quaker lead into a three-goal Crimson advantage at the half.

But then Harvard lost it. Instead of patiently waiting for open teammates on offense, the Crimson rushed everything and took unnecessary risks. Those became turnovers, and the turnovers became Quaker goals.

Compounding this problem was the known fact that Penn is a faster team than Harvard, as are most of the top teams in the nation. The Crimson knew that it couldn't play a fast-paced game but tried to anyway.

"We just have to take care of the ball," Harvard coach Carole Kleinfelder said. "That's a hard lesson, [but] we've got to learn that."

And fast. Tomorrow Harvard travels to No. 8 Yale, who beat everyone in the Ivies last year except Princeton and Dartmouth. And on Saturday, it's off to No. 2 Loyola, whom Harvard beat last year in overtime. Princeton  15 Harvard  4

Harvard  8 Penn  9

PRINCETON, 15-4 at Ohiri Field Princeton  7  8  --  15 Harvard  2  2  --  4

G: Princeton--Gutstein 4, Rebane 4, Coleman 3,

Longsinger 2, Marsh, Cr. Samaras; Harvard--

Gudeman, Cable, Duffy, Schoyer. A: Princeton--

Rebane 3, Cully 2; Harvard--Hall, Hennessey. PENN, 9-8 at Franklin Field, Pa. Harvard  7  1  --  8 Penn  4  5  --  9

G: Harvard--Hennessey 3, Clark 3, Schoyer,

Hall; Penn--Pierce 2, Schemberg 2, Wren 2,

Kelly, Shapiro, Tarr. A: Harvard--Cleary, Duffy;

Penn--Shapiro 3.