The Crimson will attempt to knock off its second straight ranked opponent Saturday at Penn (Gil Talbot).

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The Storyline
The Harvard women's lacrosse team will head out on the road for the first time this season when it travels to Philadelphia, Pa. to take on No. 9/10 Penn Saturday, March 10 at 12 p.m. The Crimson will be looking to knock off its second straight ranked opponent after taking down James Madison, ranked 13th in the IWLCA Coaches Poll, in double overtime on Tuesday, 9-8.

Last Time Out
Danielle Tetreault found the back of the net with 1:39 remaining in double overtime to lift Harvard to a 9-8 win over No. 13 James Madison Tuesday afternoon at Soldiers Field Lacrosse Stadium.

Jess Halpern led the Crimson attack with three goals, as Melanie Baskind and Tyler Petropulos registered two apiece. Baskind and Tetreault paced the defensive efforts as well, with Baskind picking up a game-high three ground balls and Tetreault recording a game-high five draw controls. Freshman Kelly Weis picked up her second win in goal while making 10 saves.

Harvard won 13-of-21 draws on the day but JMU outshot the Crimson 25-22 and held a 15-7 advantage in turnovers. The victory marked the fourth straight season Harvard has beaten a top 20 opponent, as JMU entered the game ranked 13th in the IWLCA Coaches Poll.

Scouting the Quakers
Penn enters play this weekend ranked ninth in the IWLCA Coaches Poll and 10th in the deBeer Media Poll. The Quakers are 2-1 on the season, having most recently defeated Rutgers, 15-7, on Wednesday behind a four-goal effort from Caroline Bunting.

Erin Brennan leads the team with 17 points on six goals and 11 assists. Meredith Cain has posted a team-high seven goals while Courtney Tomchik, Bunting and Maddie Poplawski have each added six. Poplawski has also recovered 18 draw controls while Emily Leitner has played every minute in the goal, notching a 10.00 goals against average and a 41.2 save percentage.

Harvard trails Penn, 20-18, in the all-time series and has lost 11 straight games to the Quakers. The Crimson's last win in Philadelphia came on April 9, 2000 via an 11-9 score.

National Prominence
The Crimson opened the year ranked 19th in the deBeer Media Poll and moved to No. 16 after defeating Boston University, 11-9, in the season opener. Harvard has since moved out of the poll but could regain a ranking with a win against Penn.

Between the Pipes
Freshman Kelly Weis made 10 saves while helping the Crimson to a 9-8 double-overtime victory over No. 13 James Madison on March 6, marking the most saves a Harvard goalie has made in a single game since Katherine Martino '10 recorded 12 in a 17-9 win over Boston College on May 5, 2010. Weis has made all three starts in goal for the Crimson, posting an 8.88 goals against average and a save percentage of 49.1.

To Be the Best, You Have to Beat the Best
Harvard has knocked off a top 20 opponent in each of the last four seasons, with James Madison, then ranked 13th in the IWLCA Coaches Poll, becoming its latest victim via a 9-8 double-overtime triumph on March 6. The Crimson will have plenty more opportunities to knock off one of the premier teams in the nation this season, as nine of the team's opponents have been ranked in either the deBeer Media Poll or the IWLCA Preseason Coaches Poll including Boston College, Dartmouth, James Madison, John's Hopkins, Penn, Princeton, Stanford, Syracuse, and Virginia.

Sharing the Wealth
Seven different Crimson have scored a goal in 2012 with six having scored at least three. Melanie Baskind, Micaela Cyr and Jess Halpern lead the way with five tallies, while Danielle Tetreault has registered four. Both Tyler Petropulos and Jenn VanderMeulen has found the back of the net three times.

Harvard had 13 different goal scorers last season with VanderMeulen (48), Tetreault (42), Halpern (29), Baskind (28), Petropulos (14) and Chelsea Newman (10) each scoring at least 10.

Two Way Players
Midfielders Melanie Baskind, Micaela Cyr and Danielle Tetreault have led the Crimson on both the offensive and defensive ends of the field in 2012. Baskind (5g, 1a) and Tetreault (4g, 2a) are currently tied for the team lead with six points, while Baskind, Cyr and Jess Halpern have notched a team-best five goals. Defensively, Baskind's eight ground balls are tops on the Crimson with Tetreault ranking first in draw controls (9). Cyr has caused four turnovers, tying her with Alexis Buckley for the team lead.

Climbing the Charts
Senior Jess Halpern and junior Jennifer VanderMeulen currently rank among Harvard's all-time top 10 goal scorers. Halpern has netted 116 career goals, good for seventh in program history, while her 138 points place her ninth in the school record books. VanderMeulen, meanwhile, ranks ninth with 107 goals in just 34 games and boasts 121 points. Her 56 goals scored in 2010 rank fifth on the Crimson's single-season list.

Ivy League Honors
Senior co-captain Melanie Baskind was named the Ivy League's Defensive Player of the Week Feb. 27 after leading the Crimson to an 11-9 season-opening win over Boston University.

Baskind led the Crimson on both the offensive and defensive ends of the field, registering her ninth career hat trick while collecting a game-high five ground balls. The midfielder converted on all three of her shot attempts and also won two draw controls and caused two turnovers.

This was the first weekly award of Baskind's career and Harvard's first defensive player of the week honor since Kathryn Tylander '08 took home the award on March 4, 2008.

Catch the Crimson in 2012
Harvard has announced that 11 home men's and women's lacrosse games will be streamed online from Harvard Stadium during the 2012 season, marking the third straight year fans of Harvard lacrosse will have the opportunity to watch the Crimson live from home.

A total of six women's games will be available to watch, beginning with the Crimson's March 21 showdown with Boston College, its first inside Harvard Stadium. Each home contest for the remainder of the year will be streamed.

A full season pass for either the men's or women's team will be available for just $29.95, while single games can be purchased for $9.95. Click here to sign up for your season pass today.

Tewaaraton Award Watch List
Junior's Jennifer VanderMeulen and Danielle Tetreault were named to the 2012 Tewaaraton Award Watch List, which is comprised of the top 50 women's lacrosse student-athletes from all three divisions of collegiate lacrosse. VanderMeulen and Tetreault are the latest Crimson to be put up for the prestigious award, after current teammates Jess Halpern and Micaela Cyr were nominated in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

VanderMeulen is coming off a season in which she was named to the Synapse Sports All-America second team, IWLCA All-Region first team and All-Ivy League first team after ranking 18th in the NCAA in goals per game (3.0) and 30th in goals (48). She currently ranks 10th in program history with 104 career goals, while her 56 scores in 2010 rank fifth on Harvard's single-season list.

Tetreault was a first team all-region and second team all-Ivy selection a year ago, and ranked 31st in the nation with 2.63 goals per game. Tetreault boasts 62 career goals, 17 assists and 79 points in 31 career games.

Captaining the Ship
Seniors Melanie Baskind, Ellen Gleason and Tyler Petropulos were voted by their teammates as captains for the 2012 season. Baskind and Petropulos also served as captains last season, making them just the sixth and seventh student-athletes in program history to be voted captain in consecutive seasons. Carroll Clark '92 was the first to do so when she captained both the 1991 and 1992 squads, and was followed by Daphne Clark '97 (1996 & 1997), Ali Harper '01 (2000 & 2001), Lauren Bobzin '08 (2007 & 2008) and Sara Flood '10 (2009 & 2010). This is just the sixth time in program history three Crimson had been chosen to lead the team.

Two-Sport Star Baskind Featured by New England Lacrosse Journal
Senior Melanie Baskind, who captains both the women's lacrosse and women's soccer teams and is an All-Ivy League honoree in both sports, was recently featured by Sammi Gorman of the New England Lacrosse Journal.

"In the city of Boston — a breeding ground for both star athletes and top students at some of the world's best academic institutions — Melanie Baskind is different.

"She's not the only student with a 3.8 grade-point average as a neurobiology major at a top school like Harvard, and she's not the only athlete to get league Player of the Year honors in her sport. She is the only one to do those things and be a threat to earn those kind of honors in two sports."

Click here to read the full article.

Historical Perspective
Harvard captured the program's first national championship in 1990 when it defeated Maryland, 8-7. The Crimson won four games that season by a single goal en route to a 15-0 record, with Jenny Walser '90 scoring the game winner in three of those four games, including the national title contest. Julia French '90, Charlotte Joslin '90 and Maggie Vaughan '90 were named first team All-Americans following the season while Susan Carls '91 and Karen Everling '90 were named to the second team. Four-year letterwinners Everling, French and Walser graduated with a career record of 50-8-1, including a perfect 23-0 mark in the Ivy League.

The Crimson has made a total of nine NCAA Tournament appearances and has reached the national championship game three times. Harvard has also won 11 Ivy League Championships, tied with Dartmouth for the most in conference history.