Photo of Chelsey Bowman coutresy of Gil Talbot.

Story Line
Harvard returns to Harvard Stadium for the first of three straight home games Wednesday. The Crimson takes on Holy Cross in one of its final non-conference tilts.

Scouting the Crimson
The Crimson is 4-6 on the season and 1-3 in league play after falling to Yale and No. 4 Virginia just over a week ago. 

Jennifer VanderMeulen scored six goals over the weekend to increase her team lead to 35 goals. She also has a team-best 41 points after handing out six assists. Sophomore Melanie Baskind is second in scoring with 16 goals and assists with five. Baskind leads the team in ground balls (20) and caused turnovers (20), while VanderMeluen has a team-best 20 draw controls.

Katherine Martino sports a 9.9 goals-against average. She has 60 saves and a .420 save percentage. Kerry Clark has played in two straight games,

Last Time Out             
Harvard trailed No. 4 Virginia by just one goal at halftime, but a strong second half by the Cavaliers allowed Virginia to pull away to a 14-9 win Monday night.

Melanie Baskind scored three goals, grabbed four ground balls, won two draw controls and caused two turnovers in the loss for the Crimson (4-6).  Freshman Danielle Tetreault scored two goals, assisted on another, won a draw control and caused a turnover.   Senior co-captain Sara Flood and freshman Jennifer VanderMeulen had a goal and two assists each.

Harvard scored first before falling behind 3-1. The Crimson came back and tied the game four times during the first 30 minutes of play. Caity Whitely scored with 27 seconds left in the half to give the home team the lead at the break. She scored again to start the second session. Rookie Nina Kucharczyk scored her first collegiate goal to close the game to 9-8, but that was as close as the Crimson would get as Virginia scored five of the next six goals to seal the win.

The Crimson went 10-for-11 on clears and won 11 of 25 draws on the night. Harvard and Virginia both had 15 ground balls and 12 turnovers.

Kerry Clark played 32 minutes in the net and stopped two shots in the loss. Katherine Martino played 28 minutes in the cage, making two stops as well.

Scouting the Crusaders
Holy Cross brings a 4-9 overall record into Wednesday's game after a tough 14-7 loss to conference rival Lehigh Saturday.

Three Crusaders have scored 20 or more goals this season. Kat Sutton leads the way with 26 tallies, while Katie Gardner and Taylor Zebrouwski have 21 goals each. Gardner also has a team-best 14 assists, which gives her a team-high 35 points. Sutton and Annie Boylan each have 24 draw controls to lead the team, while Meg O'Leary paces the team in ground balls with 20 and caused turnovers with 12.

In the net, Amy Martin has stopped 145 shots and sports an 11.00 goals against average.

The Series
Harvard has faced the Crusaders five times in school history. Harvard is 5-0 against its rival from Central Massachusetts. Last year, the Crimson used a 13-10 victory to keep its streak alive.

35 and Counting
The Harvard women's lacrosse program will celebrate 35 years when it welcomes it's alumni back on Saturday, April 17. Harvard will recognize all the alumni and the 1990 National Championship team that will be celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Compared to the Rest
Entering the week, Jennifer VanderMeulen leads the league in scoring with her 34 tallies thus far. She is seventh in the nation in goals per game (3.5) and 30th overall in goals scored. She is second in the league and 25th in the nation in points per game (4.1) Melanie Baskind paces the league in caused turnovers with 17 (2.0 per game) and ground balls with 23 (3.00), which rank 13th and 17th in the nation, respectively.  Katherine Martino's 9.9 goals-against average is 29th in the nation.

Game-by-Game
Jennifer VanderMeulen has scored at least one goal in all 10 games this season. She has seven games with three or more goals and seven games with four or more points.

First Year Touch
All 10 Harvard goals in the Crimson's season opening win over Massachusetts were scored by freshmen. In fact, all the points in the game were scored by first year players. Alexis Dal Col had five goals and Jen VanderMeulen had four goals and an assist.

On the Horizon
Harvard remains at Harvard Stadium for its next two games, both against league opponents. First up is Princeton on April 17, followed by No. 7 Dartmouth April 21.