March 15, 2005

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After waiting through a 10-day stretch between games, Harvard (1-0) finally returns to the field with Tuesday's nonleague matchup against Holy Cross (2-3).

Tuesday's game will be the 11th on the lacrosse field between Harvard and Holy Cross, and the Crimson has taken all 10 previous meetings. Harvard won a 19-9 decision against the Crusaders last year in Worcester.

The Crimson began the 2005 season in impressive fashion, riding a nine-goal run spanning the second and third quarters to a 12-9 win against Bucknell -- a squad that would go on to upset No. 2 Navy --at Jordan Field.

Harvard showed some understandable rust early on -- Bucknell had already played its season-opener, while the Crimson was making its debut -- and found itself trailing, 4-2 early in the second quarter. Harvard hit its stride, however, and reeled off five goals in a span of less than seven minutes to build a comfortable lead.

The Crimson received solid performances from a pair of freshman attackmen as Zach Widbin scored three goals and Brooks Scholl had two. Sophomore midfielders Evan Calvert and Carle Stenmark finished with three points each (1g, 2a) as nine different Harvard players scored at least one goal.

Harvard was led defensively by the efforts of junior Tom Mikula, who picked up five ground balls while holding the nation's leading scorer to just two goals, and freshman goalie Evan O'Donnell, who made 12 saves in his collegiate debut.

Holy Cross Tuesday's game at 2-3 following a 14-11 win against Hartford Sunday in Worcester. Holy Cross, which defeated a Providence squad that reached the NCAA tournament last season in the Crusaders' season-opener, has seen both of its wins come on its home turf, while the Crusaders are searching for their first road victory.

Holy Cross is led by first-year head coach Adam Pascal, who served as an assistant at Harvard in the 2002 season.

The leading scorer through five games is junior attackman Billy Klotz, who has 12 goals and has connected on 48 percent of his shots. Senior attackman Mike McKee has 11 points from five goals and a team-high six assists.

Junior midfielder Patrick McCurdy has a team-high 21 ground balls, while senior longpole Derek Lemley has picked up 20. Junior Matt Falla has started all five games in the cage, and he brings a 9.49 goals-against average and a .634 save ratio into Tuesday's contest.