On Tuesday night, the UConn women’s lacrosse squad took on the Harvard Crimson, evidently losing 19-12.
The game started with both teams waiting for a scoring opportunity to arise. Harvard would take advantage first with the first goal coming six minutes in the game by Charlotte Hodgson.
A minute later, Hadley Bethke would respond for the Huskies to even the score, but shortly after, Hodgson would answer for her second goal of the game.
McKenna Merkel would then assert herself scoring back-to-back goals for the Huskies to give them the first lead of the game.
The first quarter would end 3-3 but not before Emma Dacey and Merkel picked up green cards, giving the Crimson an advantage to begin the second.
The golden opportunity would become a breakthrough as Hodgson completed her hat trick for her eighth one of the season, and 20 seconds later she netted her fourth.
Hodgson would continue her hot streak with an impossible shot to score her fifth and extend their lead.
The penalties would continue to hurt the Huskies as another green card for UConn would lead to yet another goal for the Crimson continuing to take advantage on penalties.
The Huskies would go into the half down 11-5.
A free position shot for Kelsey Neary would start the scoring in the second half for the Huskies trying to climb back in the game.
Emma Dacey would net her first goal of the game for UConn with five minutes left in the third to cut the lead to seven.
Unfortunately for the Huskies, the offense wouldn’t click, and there was too little too late. Harvard’s defense was able to throw off their attack and disrupt the flow of the game.
On the opposing side, Hodgson would continue to thrive with her record tying ninth goal coming with seven minutes left in the game. This tied the Harvard single game scoring record and helped the Crimson extend their lead.
Two late goals from Megan O’Brien would put the Huskies into double-digits, but it wasn’t enough as the final score would be 19-12 with Harvard claiming their sixth win of the season.
The Huskies would drop to 6-9 (2-3 Big East) on the season with Senior Day coming up next.
Their final game of the season against Marquette can help their conference rankings as the Huskies look to squeeze one more into the winning column.
The key for the Huskies is to focus on penalties and limit the number of cards they receive. They ended the game with nine green cards that consistently turned into opportunities and goals for the Crimson, which only hurt any shot at a momentum shift.
Harvard’s zone defense also proved to be a big problem for the Huskies as they wasted time on the shot clock trying to break down the zone along with not taking full advantage of any shorthand opportunities. When Harvard found themselves in the penalty box, UConn would often take a premature shot at the net which led the Crimson to kill the clock and the penalty.
Their season closer against Marquette should be one to look forward to as the Huskies are a perfect 7-0 when facing the Golden Eagles at home dating back to 2013. Their seniors will battle hard for their last game and have a chance to jump a few rankings.
Marquette sits third in the Big East, and certain coaching decisions near the end of the game had key players out for UConn to rest them up for a more important regular-season finale.