Women's Lacrosse Welcomes Cornell to Harvard Stadium Saturday

Photo of Danielle Tetreault courtesy of Kevin Burns.

Feature of Melanie Baskind

Story Line
Harvard hosts Ivy League foe Cornell in its first game at Harvard Stadium and second at home this season.

Follow From Home
Live statistics will be available for Saturday’s game at GoCrimson.com.  Live audio and video will also be available at GoCrimson.com via a subscription.  Fans can purchase the video and audio stream of the game for $6.95.

Scouting the Crimson
The Crimson is 2-3 on the season after to No. 11 Boston University, 13-9, Wednesday afternoon. A quartet of newcomers lead the Crimson offensive with 36 of Harvard’s 48 goals this season. Rookie Jen VanderMeulen leads the way with 17 goals and 19 points. Sophomore Melanie Baskind (playing in her first season of lacrosse) has eight goals and a pair of assists, while Alexis Dal Col has seven goals. Danielle Tetreault has four goals and two assists.

VanderMeulen has a team-best 13 draw controls and is 11-for-15 on free position shots this year. Baskind leads the way in caused turnovers with 12 and ground balls with 15.

Katherine Martino has 36 saves in the net and sports a 11.47 goals-against average and a .396 save percentage.

Last Time Out               
A second-half surge by Harvard wasn’t enough to overcome a strong first half by No. 11 Boston University as the Crimson fell to the Terriers, 13-9.

Jen VanderMeulen led all scorers with four goals in the game while Melanie Baskind chipped in two goals and an assist. Katherine Martino made nine saves in net for the Crimson.

BU extended its lead to 8-1 less than a minute into the second stanza but Harvard rattled off four consecutive goals, two straight by Baskind, to close the gap to 8-5 with 20:17 to play. VanderMeulen netted two more goals down the stretch for the Crimson, but BU was able to match their efforts to secure the 13-9 final.

Scouting the Big Red
Cornell comes to town with a 2-3 record after falling to Loyola at home last Saturday. The Big Red is on coming off a three-game homestand. Today’s game is the first of two on the road for the Big Red.

Jessi Steinburg leads the team with 14 goals, 15 points and 14 draw controls. Libby Johnson has a team-best seven assists, 10 ground balls and nine caused turnovers.

Kristen Reese has spent the most time in the net for the Big Red. She has a 10.12 goals-against average, 15 saves and a 1-3 record. Kyla Dambach has also seen time at goal. She has one win where she made 13 saves and has stopped .520 percent of shots. She sports a 7.79 goals-against average.

The Series
Harvard leads the all-time series, 20-10, but Cornell has controlled the series recently, winning 10 of the last 11 meetings. The Crimson snapped its 10 game losing streak against the Big Red with an 11-7 win against 20th ranked Cornell in Ithaca last April.

Ivy Player of the Week
Freshman Jen VanderMeulen has named Co-Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week on Monday.  VanderMeulen led the Crimson with eight goals and an assist in two games for Harvard last week. She had five goals, two draw controls, two caused turnovers and a ground ball in Harvard’s upset win over No. 15 New Hampshire Tuesday afternoon. She led the Crimson with three goals, five draw controls, two ground balls and an assist in loss to No. 4 Penn.

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
The Crimson hosts Brown and Bryant on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Harvard’s game against the Bears is the first game of a doubleheader with the Harvard men’s team.