The Crimson easily took care of business in the first game of its three-game road trip, storming out to an 11-goal lead in the first half to take down Notre Dame College (1-12) by double-digits. Martinelli led Harvard’s offensive explosion, notching a hat trick in the first half to propel her team to eight first-quarter goals.

“Sometimes when you play teams you know aren’t as good as you, you tend to play down to them,” Hendrix said. “We’ve been doing that over the course of the season, but we finally came out and played hard.”

Sophomore defender Zoe Osborne also stepped up for the Crimson, netting two second-quarter tallies.
The Crimson took its foot off the pedal in the second half, netting only three goals. But its defensive effort left the Falcons unable to beat Dukes at all in the second half, allowing the Crimson to glide to a victory.

After starting off the season 13-5, the team has dropped five of its last nine, albeit often to ranked competition. Nonetheless, the team remains confident that it is poised to play well at the CWPA Eastern Championships later this month.

“We’re very excited,” Dukes said. “Now we have time to work on the things that you can work on before…postseason play.”

—Staff writer Kurt T. Bullard can be reached at kurt.bullard@thecrimson.com.