The Missing Link

She'll roam the sidelines, provide the enthusiasm and offer her help. Just like the old days.

Except Lili Pew will be in street clothes.

When the Harvard women's lacrosse squad makes its annual spring break trek to Philadelphia next week, Pew will watch from the sidelines the squad to which she was elected captain last spring.

The Philadelphia native suffered torn ligaments in her right knee in a game at Cornell's Schoelkopf Field last April. After surgery and summer rehabilitation, Pew decided to take the year off to continue treatments.

The loss of the lax women, who would have been a senior attacker, only compounded the problems for the Harvard squad, which lost five seniors to graduation. The combined loss of all six has, left last year's Ivy titlists and NCAA quarterfinalists with an inexperienced and as yet untested team.

But most importantly, coaches and players agree, Pew's absence has left the lax women without their most vocal supporter.

"The inspiration she gave to this team was as important as anything." Harvard Coach Carole Kleinfelder says of the field hockey, squash and lacrosse standout.

"It's a loss that you can't put into a calculator," Kleinfelder adds. "It's one of those intangibles."

What made the loss so hard was that just the wait before the painful injury, Pew tuned in her best-ever lacrosse performance is a guns at Brown. She was on her way, many believed, to becoming the next legitimate star of the Crimson.

Doctors are still unsure whether she will ever grace another Crimson playing field.