The women’s lacrosse team (2-1, 1-0 Ivy) squared off against a rival Harvard squad (0-3, 0-1 Ivy) this past Saturday, earning a dominant 11-6 victory. The Bears looked for revenge after Harvard beat them 15-14 in their final regular season game last year, keeping the Bears out of the Ivy League Tournament.
“It feels great,” said midfielder Maddie Joyce ’24.5. “After last year, this was the cherry on top for sure.”
Bruno looked strong entering the game, winning the opening faceoff and starting their first attack in the first minute. After only 45 seconds of play, Joyce scored the first goal of the game, allowing the Bears to immediately take the lead. Looking to tie the game, the Crimson rushed down the field on the attack but were stopped by midfielder Annie Burton ’25, who forced an early turnover.
After the turnover, Harvard received a yellow card, putting Brown at a 7-6 player advantage. The Bears then committed a penalty, turning the ball over and conceding their first goal off a free-position shot with 10:25 left in the period.
But attacker Greta Criqui ’25 scored a goal within 40 seconds of the Crimson equalizer. After a foul in the scoring box, the Bears were awarded a free position shot, allowing them to further extend their lead to two.
The quarter ended 3-1 in favor of the Bears after defensive stands by both teams. Despite maintaining the lead, Brown turned over the ball six times in comparison to Harvard’s five — the only period of the game in which the Bears would give away more turnovers.
After winning all five first-quarter faceoffs, the Bears lost the second period’s opening faceoff, giving Harvard possession of the ball. The Crimson took advantage of the win and scored, putting them within one of the Bears. But Bruno had no intention of letting the Crimson back into the game just yet, forcing a turnover and scoring to re-extend the lead to 4-2 with 10:43 remaining before halftime. The Bears then forced yet another turnover, leading to Burton’s first goal of the game
The remainder of the quarter proved to be a disaster for the Bears: they were unable to score again before halftime, conceded three goals to the Crimson and let the game reach a tie heading into the break. The second quarter was the only one of the game in which the Crimson outscored and outshot Bruno.
“When we came into the locker room at halftime, we didn’t really say much,” Burton said. “We said, ‘We know how to win, we know what we’re doing.’ We came back down and just did exactly that.”
The Bears conceded a goal to the Crimson early in the third quarter but did not allow the Harvard players to find the back of their net for the rest of the game.
“The defense did a nice job at the beginning, but then they just started to read the Harvard offense better and better and make plays more and more,” said Head Coach Keely McDonald ’00.
Following the Crimson’s goal, the Bears were able to win a free position shot by Claire Jeschke ’23, tying the game. The Crimson tried unsuccessfully to reclaim their lead, leading to goals from Joyce and Burton and giving the Bears an 8-6 lead entering the final period of play.
Harvard would not win another faceoff during this final period as the Bears continued their half of domination. Joyce scored within a minute of the quarter’s beginning to bring Bruno’s lead to three, completing her hat trick on the day.
“We put in a new offense this week, and we really worked for each other and I think at least three-fourths of our goals were assisted, which was pretty awesome,” Joyce said. Eight of the Bears’ 11 goals were assisted.
Bruno scored again almost immediately after a goal by Burton, who finished off her own hat trick, and a final goal from Carly Camphausen ’24 extended the lead to 11-6. The last ten minutes of the game went scoreless for both teams.
Brown rushed the field post-game, celebrating their redemption after last year’s season-ending loss in what Burton called the “showdown of a lifetime.”
McDonald expressed pride in her team’s well-rounded scoring attack. “The stat I loved most was that we had seven different goal scorers and there (were) seven people on the field for offense,” she said. “That’s just really good team play.”
The Bears look to continue their momentum heading into Wednesday night’s game against Boston College, which was ranked No. 2 in the NCAA at the conclusion of last season.
Dennis Carey is a Sports editor who enjoys playing volleyball, listening to and collecting vinyl records and poorly playing the guitar in his spare time.
