The Massachusetts women’s lacrosse team (1-1) will be playing against a Harvard team with a familiar face. That being of former assistant coach Tegan Leonard.
“For players, I think, yeah they’re going to be fired up,” coach Carrie Bolduc said of this weekend’s game. “They’re going to show [Harvard assistant and former UMass assistant Tegan Leonard] what they got this year, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
As for first-year head coach Sarah Nelson, she will be looking for career win No. 1 when she brings her Harvard Crimson Tide to Richard F. Garber Field this Saturday for their season-opener against the Bolduc-led Minutewomen.
The Minutewomen are coming off a tough loss to the Boston University Terriers last Wednesday at Garber Field. The Maroon and White were down by as many as six goals midway through the second half. A series of goals by Hope Zelinger and Tracey Drown cut the Terriers’ lead to one before giving up two more goals in the final three minutes.
With senior tri-captain Kristin St. Hilaire just coming off an ankle injury, the defense has been reliant upon several underclassmen, as well as senior Andrea Valachovic, to step things up.
“Erica Shapiro, a freshman, has definitely stepped it up. Overall, our defense has done a nice job defending, although we’re for some reason a little reserved coming out in the first half,” Bolduc said.
The 1-2 punch of Zelinger and Drown has been the key on attack thus far for the Minutewomen. With Drown creating the plays and Zelinger executing them, the dynamic duo can be a pest for defenders.
And as Wednesday’s game proved, it’s difficult to contain them when both are on the same page. Zelinger has accounted for nearly half of all the goals scored by the Minutewomen so far (eight of the team’s 18), many of them coming from assists by Drown and Kerri Connerty.
“[Kerri] had a tough first game. Physically she was feeling sick, but now she’s back,” Bolduc said. “We are expecting really good things from her. Everyday in practice she’s become more and more consistent, so I think we’re going to see a lot of good out of her this season.”
The Crimson are coming off a 3-11 campaign (1-6 Ivy League) in which they also lost head coach Carole Kleinfelder to retirement after 24 seasons. In her tenure at HU, the Crimson had 12 Ivy titles, 11 NCAA Tournament appearances and the 1990 National Championship, the first in any sport for an Ivy women’s team. She won National Coach of the Year twice in 1990 and 1992, and ends her reign with a career record of 252-125-3.
Nelson will have a lot to live up to, but she may have the right tools to get the job done.
The Crimson return two All-Ivy Honorable Mentions in juniors Elaine Bellitsos and Kelly Noon. Bellitsos is the team’s returning leading scorer, with 16 goals and five assists for 21 points. Noon was ubiquitous on defense, leading the team in ground balls (30) and caused turnovers (18).
Joining Bellistos on the attack will be senior Jen Brooks, as well as juniors Bessie Clark and Catherine Sproul. Last season, Brooks is Harvard’s second-leading return scorer with 12 goals and three assists for 15 points. Clark was fourth on the team last year with five goals and seven assists for 12 points, and Sproul was fifth with five goals and three assists for eight points.
“We’re not really playing our defensive game like we do in practice. Hopefully, we can make that change and play more of our game. Part of that is being more persistent,” Bolduc said in attacking Harvard’s defense.
