It's Showtime for W. Booters

The Harvard women's soccer team is competing in its first post-season tournament since 1984.

Today, the second-seeded Crimson plays sixth-seeded James Madison University in the ECAC semifinals.

Sounds like a blowout?

Try again. James Madison is better than its seeding gives it credit.

On Thursday, JMU pulled off a major upset, defeating third-seeded New Hampshire. And it wasn't even close, as the UNH Wildcats lost, 2-0.

Harvard is suddenly wary of this unexpectedly strong team, and rightly so.

"They're a pretty good team," Harvard Coach Tim Wheaton said. "They're very athletic, and solid across the board."

But Wheaton admitted that he was surprised at the upset.

"I expected UNH to win, but any team is going to be tough at this level," Wheaton said.

While Harvard is reacting slowly, James Madison Coach Dave Lombardo has his team going full throttle.

"We're going to let [Harvard] worry about us, not the other way around," Lombardo said. "They can chase us all day long."

Cocky, yes, but Lombardo has a powerful team to back him up.

The foremost strengths of James Madison are its youth and speed. The team starts eight freshmen and sophomores, and there are only two seniors on the entire squad.

Its other strength is team speed. Lombardo has made speed the focus of his entire game, and has built offense and defense around the need for speed.

"We're better when we can run," Lombardo said. "With our speed, our strategy is to keep opposing defenses puzzled."

The Crimson defense, though, has dealt with speed before.

"We're very organized on defense," Co-Captain Amy Weinstein said. "That will prevent them from running through us."

The young and wild James Madison attack has exploded before, but the seasoned Crimson defense should be able to keep James Madison in check.

Lombardo adopts the unusual practice of rotating his three goalies, all of whom are freshmen.

Carr will get the call for this game, Lombardo said. Carr has a 0.81 goals-against-average and three shutouts to her credit.

In front of her, Carr will have Chantal Schwandt, a big, strong, sweeper/stopper who has started 19 out of 20 games for JMU.

"[Schwandt is as hard as nails," Lombardo said. "She is our defense."

On the attack, James Madison relies on freshmen sensations Julie Reule and Jamie Dykes, who stepped in when the regular starting forwards went down with injuries.

Reule and Dykes responded by scoring a third of the team's total points this year, and each of them scored a goal in JMU's upset win over New Hampshire.

If the Crimson wins, it will face the winner of the Cornell-Rutgers game.