Lacrosse travels to Harvard seeking first Ivy win

The women’s lacrosse team will travel to Harvard this weekend looking for its first league win of the season. Columbia (6-6, 0-5 Ivy) is coming off a 19-11 win over nonconference foe Bryant on Saturday. Harvard (4-9, 1-4 Ivy), on the other hand, is coming off a 13-6 drubbing at the hands of No. 13 Dartmouth in a midweek game played on Wednesday.

The win for Columbia over Bryant ended a six-game losing streak, which included five Ivy League matches. Before that, the Lions’ last win came on March 10 against American. In its win against Bryant, Columbia got off to a quick start, leading 5-2 early in the first half and maintaining its lead at 10-6 until halftime. The Lions scored four unanswered goals to put the game out of reach in the second half.

The Lions were led by Gabrielle Geronimos, who had a game-high seven points, including four goals and three assists. Senior Holly Glynn had six points, including five goals, and two Lions had four points each to give the Columbia a balanced scoring attack offensively.

Harvard is led by Kaitlin Martin, who has a team-high 37 goals as well as eight assists. Second to Martin is Jess Halpern, who has 35 goals and 11 assists. Kerry Clark, who has started all 13 games for the Crimson, has been Harvard’s goalie all spring, although she has split time with Katherine Martino at certain points in the season. Clark has 13.17 goals against average this spring in the 13 contests and a 4-8 record in those games.

The Crimson stands at 1-4 in the Ivy League and has lost its past four games, although all have been against nationally ranked opponents. Harvard, however, has been 10-1 against Columbia since the two started playing in 1998. The only time the Lions won was in 2005 when they beat Harvard 11-9. Despite the lopsided record, their recent matches have been tightly fought, with Harvard winning 14-12 in 2007 and 12-8 in 2008.

The game is set to begin at 1 p.m. at Harvard Stadium in Cambridge, Mass.