CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - No. 16 Yale scored seven straight goals in the second half to pull away from a two-goal lead to a 17-8 win against the Harvard women's lacrosse team Saturday in the Crimson's Ivy League opener at Jordan Field.

Lauren Taylor scored six goals to lead the Bulldogs (8-3, 2-1 Ivy League), while Kat Peetz added four goals and Ellen Cameron made 14 saves.

Sophomore Sarah Bancroft netted a pair of goals for the Crimson (2-6, 0-1). Six Harvard players scored one goal apiece. Junior Alexandra Jacobs picked up four ground balls, while Ali McDonough and Shannon Flynn recorded three draw controls each. Freshman Katherine Martino made 14 saves for the Crimson.

Harvard scored the first two goals of the game and led 3-1. Freshman Sarah Flood found Natalie Curtis open in the middle and the junior scored to put the Crimson ahead four minutes into the game. Junior Ali Hines scored to make it 2-0, and Harvard held the Bulldogs without a goal until Lara Melniker tallied more than eight minutes in.

Following Bancroft's first goal, Taylor and Peetz combined for six straight. Harvard sophomore Kaitlin Martin scored her 19th goal with just over two minutes remaining before halftime, but Yale entered the break up, 7-4, despite scoring just once in the game's first 19 minutes.

Junior Caroline Simmons scored two minutes into the second half to trim the Eli lead to 7-5. Both defenses then took over, as no one scored for more than 12 minutes. Taylor started the big Bulldog run with a goal. She won the ensuing draw to herself, took the ball all the way in and scored 11 seconds later.

Bancroft broke through for Harvard after five more Yale goals, cutting the Bulldogs' lead to 14-6. Junior Tara Schoen and senior Perry Barlow scored before the end of the game, while three Bulldogs scored for the final 17-8 margin.

The Crimson's next game is Wednesday at Boston University at 4:00 p.m.

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No. 16 Yale had to wait a year for the chance to respond to the loss that snapped an 11-game winning streak against Harvard. When the Bulldogs' payback did come, it was swift and decisive. Seven straight goals in a seven-minute span midway through the second half broke open the game and propelled Yale to a 17-8 win over its archrival Saturday afternoon at Jordan Field.

Even with the 17-goal performance -- the most goals Yale (8-3, 2-1 Ivy) has scored in over a year -- this was a win that can be credited in large part to the work of junior goalkeeper Ellen Cameron. She made a season-high 14 saves, including eight in the second half, and grabbed a team-high five ground balls.

"She was the difference in the game," said Amanda O'Leary, Yale's Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Women's Lacrosse. "She made some huge saves, she came up with ground balls and she was really composed on the clears. This was one of the best games we've seen from her this year."

The Crimson (2-6, 0-1 Ivy) actually jumped out to a 3-1 lead in this game, but the deficit could have been much greater were it not for Cameron's work. Her busy day started with a denial of Ali Hines' free-position shot 2:30 in. After Natalie Curtis gave Harvard a 1-0 lead at 25:52, Cameron came up with a big save on another Curtis shot a minute later and sophomore defenseman Jenn Warden grabbed the ground ball.

After a free-position goal from Hines made it 2-0, senior midfielder Lara Melniker got the "0" off Yale's side of the scoreboard when she cut in front and deposited a feed from junior attacker Meredith Callahan at the 21:38 mark.

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2007-04-01