By BARBARA R. BARRENO

CONTRIBUTING Writer

The Harvard women’s lacrosse team got off to a brisk start in Wednesday’s game at Connecticut, scoring within the first three minutes of play. The early lead was short-lived, however, as the Crimson fell 15-6 to the Huskies (5-1) to even its record at 2-2.

“It was disappointing because we had a good shot at beating them. We weren’t aggressive,” captain Catherine Sproul said. “Hopefully this is a wake-up call. You have to be on your game, every day.”

After senior midfielder Casey Owens netted the first goal for Harvard, UConn fired back with five unanswered goals of its own.

Victory was not out of the Crimson’s grasp as Sproul and junior midfielder Elaine Belitsos scored to narrow the gap, but Harvard could not rally past the 5-3 deficit. The Huskies’ Dana Stewart and Shannon Burke dismantled an unsynchronized Crimson defense, combining for three more goals to cruise into halftime with an 8-3 lead.

“Each person wasn’t pulling her weight as much as she should have been,” Owens said. “There’s a team responsibility in defense as well as offense.”

Harvard cut into UConn’s lead at the start of the second half, but the relentless Huskies had an answer for each goal the Crimson scored.

After UConn put up another 5-0 scoring run on unassisted goals, Harvard was past the point of recovery, despite a few end-game scores.

Senior attack Molly Bodel also got one in for Harvard to wrap up the game at 15-6. Sproul was the only Crimson player to get two goals in the game, extending her streak of scoring at least one goal in a game to 14.

Harvard had trouble focusing its offense or getting its defense on the same page.

The Crimson struggled to contain Husky offensive threats Dana Stewart and Tracy Mullaney. Stewart tallied four goals, while Mullaney, a preseason All-American, contributed three goals and two assists.

“We were disappointed that our execution of skills was not up to par. We are capable of a lot cleaner passing and catching,” Owens said.

The problems that the Crimson faced started before the team even took the field. Harvard was missing its starting keeper, sophomore Kathryn Tylander, who tore her ACL against No. 13 Syracuse on March 16. Junior Kristin Demorest guarded the net and made seven saves.

“It always throws a team off to change that midway through the season,” Sproul said. “We were all shaken about it.”

Tylander is not the only women’s lacrosse player to sustain a knee injury this season, as junior attack Emma Millon tore her ACL a week earlier. For players like Sproul, who have been on the team for four years, this is a rare event—and one from which the team is recovering.

“I have never seen an ACL injury [on the team] before, and now we have two,” Sproul said.

The injuries pose a setback, the Crimson is nevertheless determined to make the necessary adjustments to win games, starting on the practice field.

“We’re going to reevaluate how seriously we’re taking practice and try and make this a strong rest of the season,” she said. “It’ll be interesting to see what our coaches have in store for us.”

Owens is confident that the team can draw on its potential and depth to bounce back from the loss.

“We are the only thing holding us back,” she said. “We’re just going to try and get it done. We’re going to keep our focus in a positive mindset, knowing we can do it.”

With this match, the Crimson has completed one quarter of its season. The players cite a crucial need to step up against its competitors, starting with matches against California on March 27 and Bucknell on March 30.

“We’re a strong team and we’re really determined,” Owens said. “We have great coaching staff that won’t let us accept less than what we’re capable of, and we’re ready to take it to California.”