Women's Soccer Gains No. 12 Ranking

The Harvard women's soccer team continued its unprecedented success yesterday, climbing to no. 12 in the NCAA Division I women's soccer poll released yesterday.

The Crimson, which had been previously ranked 17th in the nation, catapulted by such soccer powerhouses as Penn State and the University of Massachusetts, earning its highest ranking in the history of the Harvard program.

"We're all really psyched that we've been recognized as being number 12," junior Emily Stauffer said. "We've always been the under-dog and didn't always get the recognition. At the same time, the rankings don't mean anything until the end of the season. We've gotta just keep playing [well]."

Harvard has defeated its last three opponents--UPenn, Hartford and Holy Cross--by a combined score of 18-1 and enjoys a league-leading 3-0 mark in Ivy League play.

Still, the Crimson seems only to have hit its stride last week. In previous weeks, in part because of weak competition, Harvard's intensity tended to wane after taking an early lead.

"After the Hartford game we've worked out some of the kinks," Stauffer said. "[We're] playing as a unit. We have a lot of depth this year. It's much tougher for opponents to defend against. We have eight or nine players who can put the ball away."

The team that presents the biggest potential stumbling block to a perfect Harvard season is the University of Connecticut, which has handily defeated Harvard each of the last two seasons.

"UConn is just always a great team," Stauffer said. "They're really fast and have talent all over the field. Both games the last two years, we definitely helped them out a lot."

Still, with four games to play before the UConn game, the women's soccer team is aware that anything can happen.

Harvard will try to take care of business this Saturday, when the Crimson hosts the Cornell Big Red at 3 p.m. NCAA W. SOCCER POLL 1. Notre Dame  12-0-0  375 2. North Carolina  9-1-0  360 3. Connecticut  11-1-0  340 4. Maryland  14-0-0  331 5. Portland (OR)  8-0-2  309 6. Nebraska  11-0-0  308 7. Texas A&M  11-1-0  279 8. Santa Clara  9-2-0  275 9. Florida  9-1-0  255 10. Clemson  8-3-1  213 11. Wisc.-Madison  7-2-2  211 12. HARVARD  7-0-0  207 13. Penn State  7-2-2  188 14. Massachusetts  9-0-1  168 15. James Madison  8-2-1  163 16. Cal-Berkeley  8-1-1  161 17. Minnesota  8-3-0  127 18. UNC-Greensboro  9-2-0  121 19. Virginia  8-3-1  100 20. Stanford  7-4-0  92