As well-known lacrosse guru Vince Lombardi, once said, "Winning isn't the most important thing, it's the only thing."

If the former Packer coach can be trusted, then the Harvard women's lacrosse game Saturday against Cornell on Ohiri Field can be deemed a complete success.

But the 10-5 victory was not as well-rounded as it could have been. In fact, at some points of the contest, it looked as though as the underdog Big Red might pull out an upset.

The scariest moment came with 11:53 to play in the second half. Cornell (0-5 Ivy, 2-8 overall) had scored the second of two straight goals to reduce the deficit to 7-5.

For Harvard (4-1, 8-3), the game ought to have been much more of a blowout.

"It never should have gotten that close," co-captain Francie Walton (three assists) said.

At first, it looked as though the game would be a slaughter, as it took less than three minutes for the crimson to gain a 2-0 win and only 5:40 more to add two goals to that.

"I think that we started off very well," co-captain Margot McAnaney said. "But then it slowed down. We tried [some new offensive sets] that slowed down the pace, but everyone's tempo slowed down."

And the Big Red slowly came back. With 18:42 to play in the half Cornell free shot made its way past freshman Harvard goaltender Kate Schutt (.500 save percentage). Over ten minutes after that, Cornell attacker Jennifer Bass scored to cut the margin to 4-2.

While this was happening, the Harvard offense was not being effective at all. The Crimson AHD difficulties making crisp passes and did not take advantage of its scoring opportunities.

"[We] weren't taking the ball to the goal," Harvard Coach Carole Kleinfelder said. "We had a lot more chances because we weren't able to finish--we stopped and didn't stay with it."

"We were not catching and throwing like we should have been," Walton said. "There was a slump in the middle of the game."

Part of the drought can be attributed to Big Red netminder Carol Owen, who amassed 14 saves on the day, for a Herculean .737 save percentage.

As the half wound down, however, Walton ended the scoring spell. With only 4:23 left to play, Walton raced down the field on a fast break, circled around the Cornell goal and passed to sophomore Erin Cleary, who rifled the ball into the net.

But the momentum did not carry over to the second half.