The Harvard men's lacrosse team turned some heads last week, delivering an impressive split with Top 20 foes Pennsylvania and Duke.
The Crimson (2-3, 1-0 Ivy), which has been plagued by inconsistent play in the early going this season, put itself back on the right track with an impressive 8-7 overtime victory over the No. 15 Quakers (5-3, 0-2) at Ohiri Field on Mar. 27.
"We attribute our slow start to two things," sophomore midfielder Roger Buttles said. "First of all we are a young team, so as we gain confidence you can see our improvement. And second, we haven't been able to practice outdoors as much as we'd like, so it puts us at a disadvantage against some of the other teams." PENN 7 HARVARD 8 "But now that we are playing outside we are clearly gaining confidence and improving." Leading the way for Harvard was Buttles, who clinched the game for the Crimson by firing a bullet over Penn goalie Matt Schroeder's right shoulder in overtime for the victory. "This was a really important win for the team, because it was within the Ivy League," Buttles said. "It was our first big win of the season, so it was a good confidence-builder." Buttles opened up the scoring for Harvard by putting the Crimson on the board with an unassisted tally at the 10:06 mark. After a Quaker score at 4:48, Buttles struck again for his second goal of the day on an assist from freshman midfielder Michael Baly for a 2-1 lead. Despite starting off strong, the Crimson allowed Penn to knot the score at two after the first quarter and found itself behind 4-2 at the half. Baly opened up the second half with a goal tocut the lead to 4-3 with 11:49 left in the third,but Harvard allowed back-to-back goals to theQuakers, as Penn opened up its biggest lead on theafternoon, 6-3. Harvard did not wilt, however, as Buttlesscored to cut the lead to two at the end of threeperiods. Baly then added another score fiveminutes into the fourth quarter bringing Harvardto within one. Penn answered the Crimson scores with anothergoal of its own, making the score 7-5. But onceagain Harvard fought back, as junior midfielderGeoffrey Watson scored an unassisted goal with6:05 left in regulation. With the Penn lead at one goal, the Crimsonturned up the offensive pressure, and finallybroke through as Buttles scored his fourth of fivegoals on the day on a feed from sophomore attackerDana Sprong. Buttles's goal sent the game to overtime, wherehe netted the game-winner. For his five-goaleffort against the Quakers, Buttles was named IvyLeague Player of the Week. After its exciting come-from-behind victoryover Ivy foe Penn, the Crimson had to gear itselfup for a battle against No. 2 Duke (6-0, 2-0 ACC)on Saturday. But despite a gutsy effort against thepowerhouse Blue Devils, Harvard came up short,falling to Duke 14-9 in New Canaan, Conn. The unranked Crimson came out of the boxsmoking, as it surprised the Blue Devils with twofirst-period scores to take a 2-0 lead into thesecond quarter. Freshman attacker Colin Leary andBaly provided early scoring for Harvard. The early score served as a wake-up call forDuke, however, as it answered back with five goalsin the second period against just two for Harvard,to take a 5-4 lead into the intermission. Read more in SportsRecommended Articles
