Expectations Too High?

Well, the Harvard women's lacrosse team's season come to an end last weekend at the hands of perennial bridesmaid Maryland.

But there is no reason for the Crimson to hang its head.

This team was not expected to make it this far: it lacked experience, and it lacked depth.

Still, there was reason to believe that Harvard would take home the title.

The Crimson destroyed then top-ranked Princeton, 13-2, in the first week of the season and went on to defeat the Terrapins, 7-5, in early April.

Harvard finished its season with a 13-1 record, the lone defeat coming against Loyola (MD).

Oddly enough, that loss seemed to foreshadow the Crimson's only other defeat of the season: Sunday's championship game.

Harvard had a lead. Then it rested on its laurels. Stopped attacking the net. Blew the lead. Lost the game.

After the setback at Loyola, Harvard spent time in practice working on its attack. It gutted out close wins over Cornell and Vermont. All seemed in order for another national championship.

In fact, things got so good, that people began comparing this team to the 1990 team, which won the first NCAA women's championship in Harvard history, perhaps an inevitable step.

The 1990 team boasted seven starting seniors. It had the services of Ceci Clark, Sarah Leary and Becky Gaffney as starters, with Buffy Hansen and Liz Berkery off the bench.

That team had finished second in the country the year before and was out for blood. It was fast, experience and deep. The team had one goal: a national championship, and nothing was going to get in its way.

But there were salient differences between the two squads.

For starters, the 1992 team wasn't as deep. Only four seniors started for the Crimson. While it had the benefit of a Leary with two more years experience, most of the team had not been to the championship before.

Once they got to The Show, it was a whole new season. Those who hadn't been there for the first title were rookies again, and it showed in the first 10 minutes of the Princeton game.

Only good luck and the amazing skills of Leary kept Harvard alive, as she recorded nine saves and three Tiger shots bounced off the pipes.

Then the Crimson recovered from its funk. It ripped off four straight goals and, once again, this team seemed bound to drink champagne Sunday afternoon.

An unknown freshman by the name of Sarah Winters who had scored only six goals all season, tore through the Tigers defense like a Rocky Mountain blizzard, tallying four goals in the 10-5 Crimson victory.

On Sunday, Harvard fell behind 4-0 against Maryland, just at it had two yeas before in the title game against the Terrapins.

And, as it did in 1990, it came back to take the lead.

But this time around, the story had a different ending, because this team simply lacked the experience its predecessors had. When the pressure was on, the 1990 Crimson maintained its game plan, continuing to run its set offense.

The 1992 Crimson, however, took its lead and sat on it. The offense stalled, as Harvard was content to pass the ball rather than attack the net.

As a result, the Crimson coughed up the bell enough times for Maryland to come back.

Maybe, then, it's too much for us to have expected that this team could have mirrored the success of the 1990 squad.

This team played well. It too could have been the undefeated national champions. But it wasn't. Not this time. A well-deserving Maryland team took home the trophy, and the Crimson has nothing to be ashamed of.

Only at Harvard, in a program this strong, is second place considered to be second best.