Harvard should not pose problems for men's lax

The men's lacrosse team will travel to Mass. to play Harvard this Saturday, Apr. 13.

How will the Tigers perform against the Crimson? Normally it would be assumed that the defending national champions, currently ranked No. 11 in the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll, would have no problem against Harvard (4-4 overall, 0-3 Ivy League), which is in the basement of the Ivy League right now.

But the Tigers' dead-average record (4-4, 1-1) and the erratic nature of their successes this season might lead some to be wary of jumping to conclusions.

Furthermore, despite Harvard's last-place standing in the Ivy League, it had an impressive season heading into Ivy League play. Most recently, it lost to league rival No. 2 Brown by only one goal.

Harvard also boasts having the scoring abilities of Matt Primm, who leads the Crimson with 10 goals and 12 assists. He is ranked 6th among the league's top overall scorers, three behind Princeton's leader, sophomore attack Ryan Boyle. Boyle has 11 goals and an impressive 15 assists on the season.

Another threat is Harvard goalkeeper Jake McKenna. He is ranked second in the Ivy League in save percentage at .623, a fair distance ahead of Princeton junior Julian Gould (.606).

Before holding a grudge and claiming that the Tigers "are not the team they used to be," however, it needs to be said that the Tigers are literally not the team they used to be.

They lost two first-team All-Americans to graduation, defenseman Ryan Mollett '01 and goalie Trevor Tierney '01, as well as two first-team All-Ivy midfielders, Rob Torti '01 and Matt Striebel '01.

To add to their instablity, when the Tigers went into the season, there was pressure to maintain the momentum of the past season. Princeton was ranked No. 1 in the country in the preseason according to the Face-Off Magazine coaches' poll, and the entire lacrosse community expected them to make the transition from last year's championship game against Syracuse to the 2002 season without so much as a flinch.

Opening the season with an 8-5 loss to Johns Hopkins did not help to calm the Tigers' nerves, nor did their 13-11 loss to Virginia. These early losses set a bad tone for the season that still has not completely worn off from the team's mentality. But the losses are nothing to cry about, seeing as how Johns Hopkins is currently USILA No. 3 and Virginia is No. 2.

The Tigers won their first game of the season against current No. 10 Hofstra on March 16. The eight-point margin of victory was a much-needed confidence-booster, as was the team's 16-6 win over Rutgers on March 26.

Separating these two wins was a discouraging 11-8 loss to Syracuse in a replay of the 2001 championship game. The final score, however, does not do justice to the closeness of the game. Syracuse only managed to pull ahead midway through the fourth quarter.

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The game against Syracuse, who is currently ranked No. 1 in the USILA poll, demonstrated that the Tigers are still able hold their own against the nation's best teams.

In the Tigers' first Ivy match-up of the season, Yale clinched a stunning 15-13 victory and dashed Princeton hopes of beating Cornell's record setting 37-game Ivy winning streak. But Yale's win shocked itself and its fans just as much as it shocked the Princeton side. It is safe to say that the Tigers were definitely not playing their game, while the Elis were playing at the very top of theirs.

In its very next game, fans caught glimpses of the championship team they know and love, as the Tigers pounded Penn, 18-4. Most recently, the then No. 12 Tigers defeated eighth-ranked Duke in an overtime thriller.

This review of the Tigers' season to date shows that the main factor working in Harvard's favor is Princeton's unpredictability.

The Tigers could go out against Harvard like they went out against Yale—shaky with the pressure of setting records and being the "team they used to be."

Or, Princeton could do to the Crimson what it did to Penn—annihilate them in a clear demonstration of its well-earned status as defending national champion.