“The fans were thunderously loud,” Kennifer said. “The room that the pool was in is small and causes sound to echo. We basically couldn’t hear very much at all so we had to communicate more than we usually do with each other.”

But Harvard was able to pull away in the fourth behind another double-digit save game from freshman goalie Ariel Dukes.

HARVARD 10, MERCYHURST 4

In the first game of the doubleheader, the Crimson rode a strong defensive effort to a 10-4 victory over the Lakers.

Harvard jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the first frame. Sophomore attacker Shayna Price, also a Crimson sports comper, found the back of the net two times within the first three minutes to put pressure on the Mercyhurst (7-14, 0-5) defense. Kennifer and senior attacker Monica Zdrojewski both added goals in the first frame to further widen the lead.

Zdrojewski, who scored again in the second and third periods for her fifth hat trick of the season, led the Crimson with three goals. Shayna Price and Kennifer chipped in two goals apiece.

While six Harvard players contributed goals to pace the Crimson offensively, seven players contributed two or more steals to set the tone defensively.

As the team did in its second contest of the doubleheader, Harvard again took advantage of the smaller pool to aggressively defend the passing lanes and force many Lakers turnovers.

“Basically, there’s no counter in the game [with the smaller pool],” Purcell said. “You have to be up in the lanes on defense. We just capitalized on that, and we pressed them really hard, and we were able to make those steals.”

Kennifer finished with five steals and Frager with four to lead the Crimson. As a team, Harvard tallied 24 steals, a season high, to hold Mercyhurst to four goals.