Harvard Women’s Lacrosse Blitzes UMass Lowell, 12-5

Marisa Romeo led the Harvard offense with six points against UMass Lowell (Gil Talbot).
LOWELL, Mass. – The Harvard women's lacrosse team (8-6) jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first half and then cruised to a 12-5 victory Tuesday night at UMass Lowell (1-16).

The win snapped a three-game losing skid for the Crimson and marked its highest scoring output since its 17-9 win over Dartmouth April 2. Harvard outshot UMass Lowell 30-8, held a 23-15 ground ball edge and a 12-7 draw control advantage.

Junior Marisa Romeo led the Crimson attack with six points on two goals and four assists. Senior
Alexis Nicolia also potted two goals and a helper.

Nicolia's assist got the Crimson's scoring going 4:11 into the game, setting up Ali Thaler for her fourth of the season. Maeve McMahon and Nekele McCall netted goals 20 seconds apart to put Harvard up 3-0 less than eight minutes in.

Romeo's two tallies put Harvard up 5-0 with 14:47 and 13:25 remaining in the opening half. Nicolia's two strikes came 53 seconds apart, with the first at 11:26 assisted by Romeo and the second by Aubrey Todd. Following Caroline Ashford's third of the season at 8:09, Todd notched her 16^th of the year set up by Rosemary Scalise. Nicole Baiocco capped the scoring with 2:30 remaining.

The River Hawks cut the deficit in half with the first five goals of the second period, but Harvard closed out the scoring in the waning minutes of the contest with Caroline Garrity and Eliza Guild finding the mesh.

Harvard will conclude the regular season Saturday at 1 p.m. at Yale. That contest can be seen live on the Ivy League Digital Network.

Ivy Tournament Picture
The top four teams in the Ancient Eight standings at the end of the regular season will advance to the Ivy League tournament, to be held at the highest seed May 6-8. Harvard (3-3 Ivy League) currently sits in fourth place, trailing Cornell (5-1), Penn (5-1) and Princeton (5-1). Dartmouth and Yale (2-4) are tied for fifth.

A Harvard win over Yale April 30 would clinch the fourth seed for the Crimson. A win for the Bulldogs and a victory for Columbia against Dartmouth would give Yale the fourth slot, while a Dartmouth win over the Lions combined with a Yale win over Harvard would clinch the fourth seed to the Big Green. The Crimson would be eliminated with a loss at Yale.

Recap, photo courtesy of Harvard University