BY CHRISTINE WOLFE
The Indy preview’s Harvard’s Spring Sports
Springtime at Harvard means many things: the sun giving false-hopes of above 50 degree weather, a seemingly accelerated midterm schedule, and most importantly, the return of spring sports like baseball, tennis, and lacrosse. We hope seeing the successes of our teams will be enough inspiration to trek across the river and experience the outdoors–Harvard Athletics style.
Baseball
Harvard faced BC in the first round of the Boston Beanpot 2014 yesterday, coming off of hard conference losses against Penn and Columbia last weekend. Their next conference meet is against Brown, who as of yet has failed to win a conference game. Carlton Bailey leads the Crimson at bat with a .370 average, while Danny Moskovits ’14 and Sean Poppen ’16 have been performing well on the mound. After this weekend’s games against the Bears, Harvard will face Princeton, Yale, and Dartmouth (at home) to round out the Ancient Eight.
Lacrosse
Men’s lacrosse remains strong coming off a win against BU on Tuesday and a 3-0 in conference. Co-captain Peter Schwartz ’14 scored five points for the Crimson against BU with three goals and two assists, with Will Walker ’16 and Devin Dwyer ’16 scoring three points each. Harvard’s double-digit active scoring streak is currently the highest in the nation. The Crimson face Penn, Princeton (at home), and Yale before the Ivy League Tournament in early May.
Women’s lacrosse (3-1 Ivy) faces Princeton (3-1 Ivy) this Saturday at 1 p.m. at Harvard Stadium. The Crimson and the Tigers are currently tied for second in the Ancient Eight, with Penn (2-0) holding first. Freshman Marisa Romero leads on offense with 33 goals and five assists so far this season, one of several strong underclassman players. After facing off against Princeton this weekend, Harvard will go on to play one out of conference game against BU, followed by the final Ivy League games against Columbia and Dartmouth (at home).
Softball
After successes last week against Columbia and Penn, the Crimson holds a seven-game winning streak. They leave conference action today for a game against Rhode Island. Shelbi Olson ‘14 hopes to continue her strong at-bat, while Laura Ricciardone ’15, Ivy Pitcher of the Week, comes into this week with a strong 1.24 earned-run average. Harvard will return home this weekend to host Brown in an Ivy Doubleheader, hoping to retain their conference win streak. As Brown boasts a 0-6 conference record, Harvard’s chances look good. Harvard will finish out the Conference against Princeton, Yale, and Dartmouth, finding their biggest opponent in the Big Green.
Tennis
Women’s tennis, ranked at no. 39 and 1-1 in the Ivy League, had mixed luck last weekend, with a loss to Columbia (3-0 Ivy) on Friday followed by a win against Cornell (0-3 Ivy) on Saturday. Amanda Lin ’16 was the only member of the Crimson to pick up a win against the Lions, but Harvard swept both doubles and singles matches against the Big Red the following day. This weekend, Harvard travels to Penn (0-3 Ivy) and Princeton (3-0 Ivy), where strong doubles team Amy He ’16 and Amanda Lin ’16 and top seeded Spencer Liang ’17 hope to boost the Crimson’s rank within the Ancient Eight.
Men’s tennis (1-1 Ivy) shared the women’s results last weekend, falling to Columbia (3-0) but defeating Cornell (0-3 Ivy). After a brutal defeat at Columbia, Harvard picked up the pace to surpass Cornell on all three doubles courts, with no. 11 doubles team Denis Nguyen ’15 and Casey MacMaster ’14 regaining their momentum. Harvard will host Princeton (2-1 Ivy) and Penn (2-1 Ivy) this weekend.
Track & Field
This Saturday, the men and women’s track teams will be competing at home against Yale. The weekend of April 5th, the men and women’s track teams competed in the 4th Annual Yellow Jacket Invitational. Team standouts from the 100-m dash include Owen Laub ‘15 and David Fan ‘17, who placed 5th and 7th overall respectively. Dean Sullivan ‘16 received 5th place in the Javelin throw with a distance of 58.18-m.
At the same event, Harvard took three of the top five spots in the women’s high jump. Raegan Nizdil ‘17 and Ann Giebelhaus ‘15 tied for second place at a height of 1.6-m, and Allison Morrison ‘16 took home fifth with a jump of 1.58-m. Morrison ‘16 also took home 4th place in the long jump with a distance of 5.32-m. Junior Hannah Meyer received second place in the women’s javelin throw at a distance of 40.53-m.
In other track and field news, distance runner Viviana Hanley ‘15 was recently nominated as one of Phi Beta Kappa’s “Junior 24.”
Women’s Rugby
Last weekend, the women’s rugby team faced off against the Penn State Nittany Lions, reigning Women’s Rugby Champions. Despite losing the game 52-12, the Crimson played incredibly hard. Unfortunately, leading scorers and captains Ali Haber ‘14 and Xanni Brown ‘14 were injured in the game. Cheta Emba ‘15 and Shelby Lin ‘14 scored both of the Crimson’s tries.
The women’s rugby team will be competing in the Beantown Rugby tournament on April 17th. Hopefully the Crimson will be able to repeat their 105-0 annihilation of Boston College.
Christine Wolfe ‘14 (crwolfe14@college) is excited for the season of ‘sun’s out guns out.’