Nothin' Could Be Finer Than to Be in Carolina

Last year Harvard women's soccer followers quickly became used to the presence of Laurie Gregg, a Wellesley native and a visiting junior from Lehigh, on the soccer field. Always on the ball in every sense, Gregg demonstrated almost unequaled soccer skill, superior aggressiveness without any apparent fear of injury, and a special flair for always knowing the right thing to do in a given situation. Although not considered a scorer nor blessed with blazing speed, she finished tied for second on the team with ten goals, most of them during the Ivy tournament. She was awarded First Team honors for her all-around efforts at the Nationals in Colorado, helping Harvard to a third-place finish. In a game which pays only satisfaction, Laurie Gregg is a money player.

"Laurie was one of the most skilled players ever to participate in the Harvard program," said Crimson head coach Bob Scalise. "She had a tenacity and drive which made her an exceptional player."

This weekend, as Harvard participates in the first "official" national championships--they are sanctioned by the AIAW this season--at Chapel Hill, N.C., returnees from last year's squad may be reunited with Gregg on the soccer field, although in a somewhat different capacity. Laurie Gregg now plays for the University of North Carolina, the number-one seeded team in the tournament based on its 20-0 record. Harvard, seeded third, is on the opposite side of the draw from UNC, but with the Crimson peaking at exactly the right time, and the Tar Heels with probably more individual talent than any team in the tournament, the two schools may very well meet in the finals. Gregg has mixed feelings about the possibility.

"A lot of people here would like to play Harvard because of last year [when the Crimson defeated the Tar Heels, 5-3], which they don't think was indicative of how they can play," she said over the phone from her Chapel Hill apartment. "As for me, well, I want to see everyone. And I want Harvard to do well and I want out team to do well. It'll be hard playing against a team that I indirectly support. But I do think if we play Harvard we can win.

"The bottom line is that I want our team to win. I think we're going to be the best team here. I think it [Harvard vs. UNC] would be a good game. Maybe I would like to play them..."

One person who's certainly glad that Gregg traded Crimson for Carolina blue is UNC soccer coach Anson Dorrance. Because Carolina finally decided to spend some money on the women's soccer team, Dorrance had five full scholarships to give away this year. Rather than dangle the scholarship apple in front of only five players, however, the Tar Heel coach split the money up into 14 separate scholarships and as a result plucked six (all starters) of the nation's finest freshmen from last year's high school crop.

"Sure, we went out and got a lot of good, skilled high school players." Dorrance says. "But to be a national-caliber team, we needed some experience. That's why Laurie was so important."

Actually, Dorrance didn't know he was going to have Laurie Gregg until the middle of the summer. First of all, the situation of whether or not she could come back to Harvard had to be cleared up, ("Had she been given the opportunity, she would have stayed." Scalise says, and Gregg adds: "I really enjoyed last year a lot.") Dorrance was powerless to pursue Gregg "because it would have been recruiting in another program." Then one day, wouldn't you know it, he got a phone call from none other than Laurie Gregg.

"It was so late in the year, we'd completed all our recruiting." Dorrance says. "She'd applied late and it was very hard for our admissions committee to consider her. Then all of a sudden they said, 'Yes, we'll take her.'"

It was so late in the year, we a completed an our recruiting, Dorrance says. "She'd applied late and it was very hard for our admissions committee to consider her. Then all of a sudden they said, 'Yes, we'll take her.'"

Gregg was uncertain about the move at first ("Because of what we saw at Nationals last year, I was a little leery of the program here"), but Dorrance wasn't about to let her slip away. "We wanted her," he says, "so we went after her, and now we're real lucky to have her.

"She gives us a heck of a lot of experience, especially with the youth on our team. We have a lot of players that have a lot more talent than Laurie, but you're going to see her fingerprints all over the results of the tournament. She's been here before. You know she's going to rise to the occasion."

Dorrance has already had the pleasure of witnessing patented Gregg this season. In by far the team's biggest game of the year, at UConn, she scored the first goal--the game winner--and assisted on the second in a 2-0 win. There was also the time she landed on her head--suffering a concussion--but still got an assist on the play. She's all out, all the time, and that's one reason she's enjoyed being at Carolina.

"I really enjoy playing with the team here because the level is so sophisticated," the right midfielder says. "This team is a highly developed passing team, and that's the beauty of the game.

"I was afraid that I might not fit in because I play more aggressively. But this team goes out and wins it in the first 20 minutes. We take the game to them; we set the tone. We're not a passive team."

Harvard should get a chance to find out about UNC for themselves on Saturday. And, a chance to say, "Hi," to Laurie Gregg.