Kleinfelder's Winning Cagers Head for Ivy Tournament

Kathy Fulton, captain of the Radcliffe basketball squad, is psyched. This Friday the annual Ivy league tourney begins establishing just who is who among the antiquarian eight.

"Imagine how a football player would feel about the Yale game," said Fulton. "That's a little bit like how we feel about this tournament."

And Fulton has reason to be psyched, because this year she leads a 10-2 powerhouse squad boasting a four-game win streak into a tourney in which the Crimson has never won a game.

Two years ago Fulton suffered through five defeats in 36 hours and last year she returned home to Cambridge on the wrong end of a 3-0 record.

But the Crimson doesn't look like an O-for squad this year. Coach Carole Kleinfelder can thank her lucky stars (or Harvard-Radcliffe admissions), because the arrival of seven freshman hoopsters has made the Crimson contenders in a hurry.

The first-year duo of Caryn Curry and Ellen Hart has been the most consistent, notching the lion's share of points each game. Hart's speed on the fast break and Curry's muscle on inside drives will put the Crimson in the running but the 'Cliffe will need more than that to cop the crown.

"Karen and Ellen are great," said Kleinfelder, "but not enough."

Kleinfelder is looking for tougher rebounding by centers Sue Hewitt and Beth Craig specifically, and scrappy hustling "D" in general. Senior Sue Williams will have to repeat her brilliant 18 point effort that helped the Crimson sink Williams in their best effort to date.

Pride and Spirit

But win or lose this weekend, coach Kleinfelder can be proud of her charges. In her first year, with the help of great young talent and a few dedicated diehards, she has brought a winning spirit to Radcliffe basketball.

Fulton smiles while she sits in her room. Revenge.