Spring may not be in the air quite yet, but this weekend still marked the start of the season for Harvard’s women’s lacrosse team. After compiling a 9-7 record last season—its best since 1994—the Crimson (1-0), making its earliest start in program history, came out strong.

“It was great starting a week earlier this year,” senior attack Kaitlin Martin said. “Getting another game under our belt before going into the league games will be beneficial.”

Harvard once again opened its season against Holy Cross (1-1) Saturday afternoon in Worcester, Mass., beating the Crusaders, 13-10. This was the Crimson’s fifth-straight win against Holy Cross.

“It felt amazing to finally get to play,” Martin said. “We’ve been practicing hard all fall and have had a tough preseason the past three weeks.”

Last season, the Crimson met the Crusaders in its season opener and flew through the game, earning a 19-2 win.

Sophomore Jess Halpern showed no mercy on Holy Cross for the second year running. Last year, Halpern made her collegiate debut with four goals against the Crusaders, and came back this year to score a career-high six goals, all of which were unassisted, this time around.

“Jess was driving all game,” junior tri-captain Sara Flood said. “She was taking on people left and right, really dominating the entire time.”

Halpern scored the first two goals of the game, and freshman Katie Doherty put another tally on the scoreboard with 17:41 left in the first half, putting Harvard up, 3-0.

Minutes later, Holy Cross midfielder Megan Fenton put up a goal for the Crusaders, only to be answered by another pair of Halpern goals, bringing the score to 5-1.

But Holy Cross didn’t surrender, and managed to put up three goals in the final three minutes of the half, tightening the score at 5-4.

The Crimson came out strong in the second half, adding a goal from Martin in the first 30 seconds. Not long after, the Crusaders found their rhythm and put two more goals in the back of the net, tying the game up at 6-6.

After Harvard’s short setback, Martin and Doherty teamed up to get the Crimson back in the game, putting up four quick goals for Harvard.

Martin tallied the first and third of the series unassisted, and Doherty scored first from a free position shot and then off a pass from Martin.

“[Doherty] stepped it up in this game,” Flood said. “She really proved herself today.”

With only 6:45 remaining in the game, Holy Cross managed to get within two. But, after another goal from Halpern, Harvard sealed its victory against its hometown rival, with the final score 13-10.

Fenton led the Crusaders with a career-high five goals, and also added an assist.

In the net was freshman Kerry Clark, making nine saves to record her first win of her collegiate career. Clark and her classmates impressed the team with their collective quick adjustment to the high level of play in collegiate lacrosse.

“Coach [Lisa Miller] told them from the beginning that they don’t have time to be freshmen,” Flood said. “With such a large amount of rookies on the team, they had to step it up right away, and that’s exactly what they did.”

Harvard has welcomed ten new players, including nine freshmen and former Crimson tennis player Catriona Stewart, and has returned ten players from last season.

Six of those freshmen—Clark, Doherty, Kathryn Sall, Tyler Petropolous, Chelsey Bowman, and Ellen Gleason—started in their collegiate debut, and Lauren Ianni also saw playing time.

“We feel prepared coming into the season,” said Flood. “We had a such good season last year, and now we can build off of that.”

Harvard has its first home game of the season against Massachusetts on Saturday on Cumnock Turf at 1 p.m.