High-Flying W. Soccer to Battle Resugent Elis

With its 7-0 win over Davidson on Sunday, the Harvard women's soccer team officially passed the halfway point of the 2000 season and, after initially stumbling out of the gate, the Crimson is now exactly where it wants to be entering the stretch run.

Entering its tilt with Yale at Ohiri Field tomorrow at 2:30 p.m., Harvard (7-2, 2-1 Ivy) is riding a five-game winning streak and stands in prime position to gain ground in the Ivy League standings.

With a win over the Elis (7-4-1, 1-2), the Crimson would pick up a game on either Brown or Princeton, who face off today for sole position of first place in the Ivy League. Should Princeton prevail and Harvard win, the Crimson would regain control of its fate in the league race, as it will take on the Tigers a week from today.

The Crimson has already lost to Brown, however, and thus, should the Bears beat Princeton tonight, the league would essentially be theirs to lose.

Regardless, Harvard's first priority is to prevail against Yale tomorrow and that itself will be no easy task. The Elis are coming off a stunning 1-0 upset victory over No. 18 UConn on Wednesday.

The win marked the first time Yale had ever beaten the Huskies. After going through an 0-3 stretch in mid-September, the Elis have now won four out of their last five contests.

"Yale will give us a tough game, they always do," said senior midfielder Meredith Stewart. "Since they're coming off a huge win, it will give us more to consider. They'll be even more excited to beat us."

Manning the charge on the front lines for Yale tomorrow will be sophomore forward Chandra King. The leading scorer in Ivy play in 1999, King netted the Elis' game-winner against UConn.

She leads a Yale offense that has outshot its opponents 191-126 this season.

But as hot as the Elis may be of late, the Crimson is on fire. Harvard is undefeated in the month of October, and has outscored its opponents 15-3 over the course of its five-game winning streak. Its 7-0 thrashing of Davidson provided Harvard with its largest margin of victory since 1995.

The Crimson's recent surge is beginning to attract national attention. For the first time since dropping out of the Top-25 after its loss to Brown, Harvard received votes in this week's poll issued by the National Soccer Coaches of America Association.

One of the most challenging aspects for Yale tomorrow will be defending against a varied Crimson scoring attack. So far this season, Harvard has remained unpredictable in the opponent's end, as 14 different players have participated in the scoring. Two of those players, juniors Megan O'Brien and Heather Gotha, netted their first goals in a Crimson uniform in the Davidson win.

Harvard has also benefited from the efforts of two players in the midst of career years. Sophomore forward Joey Yenne is already just two goals away from tying her point total from last year. Stewart, meanwhile, is having the best year of her collegiate career by far. Entering the season, she had two career scores; this year, she already has three.

Two of Stewart's three tallies came in Harvard's thrilling 2-1 victory over then No. 23 Boston College last week that bumped the Crimson up to No. 4 in the Northeast regional rankings. For her efforts, Stewart, who ranks ninth in the league in scoring, was named Ivy Player of the Week.

As young as Harvard is, Stewart's leadership will prove vital as the Crimson enters a crucial string of games in the second half.

"We're playing the best we've played all season," Stewart said. "But we can play even better. And we will need to play better because we have a tough stretch coming up."

Just how tough is the Crimson's schedule the rest of the way? In the next three weeks, Harvard will play seven games, three of which are against Top-20 teams, including both Penn State and Hartford on the road.

However challenging the road ahead may be, the Crimson has to be pleased with its current situation all things considered. Given the team's rocky start as well as all the injuries the squad has faced, the Crimson players have already proven themselves survivors. Tomorrow's game with Yale will provide an indication as to whether they can eventually emerge as champions.