Sports

UPCOMING GAMES

Men’s LACROSSE AT HOLY CROSS 2/25 ___________________________________________________________ woMen’s ICEHOCKEY Vs. Yale 2/28 ___________________________________________________________ MEN ’S SW IMMING IVY LEA GUE CHAMPIONSHIP 2/26-2/29 ___________________________________________________________ SKI n MIDDLE BURY/Ei sa REGIONALS 2/28-2/29 ___________________________________________________________ Men’s ICE HOCKEY VS. RENSSELAER 2/28 ___________________________________________________________ MEN ’S BASKETBALL AT COLUMBIA 2/28 __________________________________________________________ WOm en’s BASKETBALL s. COLUMBIA 2/28 ___________________________________________________________

Wo n’ B k tB ll Harvard Basketball Hits Three Game Losing Streak

By A.J. Dilt Con tribu ting Writer

With postseason play fast approaching, Harvard faced a difficult road trip against the Ivy League’s top two teams this past weekend. After suffer ing a 66-45 loss Friday night to league-leading No. 25 Princ eton, the Crimson struggled again Saturday in a 70-48 de feat to Penn.

HARVARD 45, PRIN CETON 66 The shooting woes from last weekend’s loss at Columbia fol lowed Harvard (14-9, 5-5 Ivy League) into New Jersey Fri day night against Princeton (21-1, 9-0), as the Crimson shot just 26% from the field and 18% from the three-point line. No starters managed to score in double figures, and junior for ward Maddie Stuhlreyer led the offense with a career-high 11 points off the bench.

The struggles offensively were apparent from the start, with Princeton jumping out to an early 9-2 lead. After Har vard cut the Tiger lead to two midway through the first quar ter, though, a series of empty looks from three and missed layups inside gave Princeton a comfortable 17-7 lead heading into the second quarter.

“We talked about throw ing the first punch,” said head coach Kathy Delaney-Smith. I felt we tried hard to prepare to throw the first punch. Four of the first five possessions were turnovers. Our top two scor ers shot very poorly. The shots are not that much different. We feed off of [their scoring]. We have shooting nights like that, and we can’t start every game with turnovers like we have.”

The Crimson did shoot a perfect six-for-six at the free throw line Friday night. De spite this efficiency, shooting from the foul line only six times compared to Princeton’s 25 at tempts points to Harvard’s difficulty in forcing the issue inside the paint. This lack of aggression spread into play on the fastbreak, where the Crimson was outscored 12-0.

“We better run, we were all about running,” said Del aney-Smith following the loss. “We were back on our heels [Friday night]. We are a good running team [...], and that hasn’t shown up.”

As the turnovers and poor shooting continued, the 12-point lead Princeton en joyed at halftime slowly grew to 20 through the third and fourth quarters. This provid ed an opportunity, however, for Coach Delaney-Smith to give some of her more inexpe rienced, younger players valuable playing time against a nationally-ranked opponent.

“I think my bench is pret ty young, so I don’t always expect for them to have enormous stats. The fact that Maddie [Stuhlreyer] was able to score for us is a good thing,” said Del aney-Smith.

Seven players saw action off the bench, with Stuhlreyer’s 11-point performance provid ing hope for improved depth as Harvard enters March and postseason play.

HARVARD 48, PENN 70 The Crimson hit the road once again to face conference rival Penn (17-5, 7-2) on Satur day, with the hungry Quaker squad seeking to avenge its loss in Cambridge earlier this sea son and solidify its strong second-place position in the Ivy League standings.

Mirroring the beginning of Friday night’s contest, poor shooting and turnovers from Harvard allowed Penn to jump out to an early 12-0 lead.

Much needed first quarter offense came from triples from sophomore guard Maggie Mc Carthy and freshman guard Lola Mullaney, but the Crim son’s 3:7 assist-to-turnover ratio gave Penn a comfortable 24- 10 lead by the quarter’s end.

Sophomore guard Tess Suss

TO UGH TRIP Sophomore Maggie McCarthy drives to the hoop against Penn in the first meeting between the two. Head coach Kathy Delaney-Smith wants the guard to shoot the ball more in the future. timothy r. O’meara—Crimson photographer

man and her four first half field goals led Harvard in a much stronger effort to close out the half, as the Quakers only out scored the Crimson by two in the second quarter. Suss man turned in a solid eight-rebound, three-assist performance, tying Mullaney with a game-high ten points as well. McCarthy, the third starter in Delaney-Smith’s three guard lineup, shot a perfect threefor-three from the three-point line and added six rebounds.

“We want McCarthy to shoot more, she doesn’t shoot enough,” said Delaney-Smith. “We have to put [the poor shooting] behind us, we have to get in the gym and put shots up and make adjustments.”

The offensive woes also car ried over to the defensive end of the floor, an area Harvard has taken immense pride in all sea son long.

“We are a very good defen sive team [...] our defense is even paying the price,” said Delaney-Smith. “When we would have some off offensive games, we were animals on the defensive end, and now it’s af fecting us on the defensive end. And maybe it’s the pressure of the league, or the pressure of the tournament being at Har vard, I’m sure it’s a lot of that.” Bright spots for the Crim son continue to be found on the bench, where Delaney-Smith once again gave extended play ing time to seven reserves. Freshman guard Annie Strit zel built off her strong play last weekend with seven-points, three-steals, and many hustle plays that do not appear in the box score but add value to her time on the court.

Harvard is eager to return to Lavietes Pavilion this week end for its final regular season home contests after the demanding four-game road stretch.

The Crimson will take on the surging Columbia Lions (15-8, 6-4) on Friday and look to improve its seeding in the conference tournament with Saturday’s matchup against the Cornell Big Red (9-13, 2-8).

Wo n’ Skiin

‘Tis the Ski-son: A Year in Review for Harvard Alpine and Nordic

CLARK MAKES HER MARK Senior Alpine skier Courtney Clark competes at this season’s Bates Carnival, contributing to the team’s 8th-place finish. Courtesy of Cam Ci one

By nOAH UN CONTR IBUTING Writer

The lack of snow in Cambridge this year has not stopped the Harvard Alpine and Nordic ski teams from having a historic season. Last week, the ski team concluded its regular season by placing 10th out of 26 teams at the Williams Carnival. Crim son skiers dug deep, with sophomore Emma Ryan and senior Dillon Smith posting career bests, along with five men fin ishing in the top 50 and three women in the top 45 for the sla lom race.

Last week’s carnival espe cially resonated with junior captain Nellie Ide, who de scribed the race as the culmination of not only intense dedication and training from all members of the team, but of their resilience and persistence through challenges.

“Everyone has handled [in juries and other challenges] really well,” Ide said. “We’ve had a little bit of challenges with in juries, having some people not able to race, but we’ve definite ly had some really strong results from pretty much everyone on the team. We’ve been getting a lot of career best fin ishes, which is really exciting.” Practices for the ski team are a greater ordeal than most oth er teams’ walks across the river. On three separate days during the start of the week, the Alpine team leaves a dark and sleepy campus at 5:30 A.M. for a twohour drive.

After a few hours of training in the New Hampshire moun tains, they return to campus in time for noon classes. Thursday afternoons see the team trav el to carnival sites throughout New England, and Fridays and Saturdays bring intense and competitive races.

The Nordic team’s schedule follows a similar weekly struc ture.

Three mornings bring pro ductive practices that take place at a ski track 15 minutes away from campus. The team also leaves Thursday after noons to inspect the courses and to get in the zone for its weekend race. Surprisingly, the least amount of training for the year is done during the winter.

“Most of the hours people put in come during the sum mer and the fall,” sophomore James Kitch said, chalking the lack of in-season training up to travelling and races.

Front-loading training al lowed both teams to start the season on a high note at the first ever Harvard Carni val. This kickoff was the culmination of efforts from the team and coaching staff, along with the athletic department, in organizing this inaugural race. Both teams showed up in force, with many skiers notch ing top 10, 20, and 30 finishes in their respective races. One skier’s performance stood out amidst these impressive re sults — in his first ever race for the Crimson, first-year Rémi Drolet placed second in the men’s 20km classic race.

Both Kitch and Ide ex pressed high levels of optimism, not only for the firstyears on the team but for future classes of Harvard skiing. The sophomore described this sea son’s team as the most “competitive and promising” it’s ever been. This is largely in part to outstanding performanc es from first-years like Drolet, as well as Annabel Hagen, Lily Brunelle, and Phoebe Meyer son. Ide, along with witnessing the improvements of every new addition to the team, cred ited Alpine head coach Scott MacPherson for his contribu tions to recruiting this current class of great skiers.

“The program is becoming a lot more competitive in the East,” Kitch said. “We’ve been attracting many talented [and] motivated skiers.”

In addition to successful outings at races hosted by oth er teams such as UVM and Colby, the Bates Carnival was most indicative of the Crimson’s fan tastic season.

Drolet won the men’s 20km classic race — the first men’s nordic skier from Harvard to win a race since the 1972-1973 season. Compounded with Kitch’s seventh place finish and sophomore Liam McInroy’s ca reer best at 19th, the men’s Nordic team recorded a historic second place in the race.

Ide also recorded a career best, as well as one of the Crim son’s best finishes in recent history, by placing fifth in the women’s slalom.

The ski team looks to con tinue its success at the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association regional carnival next week at Middlebury after this weekend of rest.

Ide hopes the whole team can be healthy and ready to suit up for this last race, and both she and Kitch believe that Har vard will be represented at the NCAA championships in Mon tana in March. Ending the season is never easy, but, in light of this year’s success and the in coming additions to the Crimson’s already talented team, Kitch emphasized that “it’s a really exciting time to be a Har vard skier.”