Legends of the Fall: Midnight Still A Long Way Away for Cinderella W. Soccer

A little over one week ago, all the Harvard women's soccer team wanted in the whole world was to be recognized as one of the top 48 teams in the nation.

These days, that description might appear as a bit of an understatement.

Since receiving its invitation to the Big Dance on Nov. 5, the Crimson has proceeded to waltz its way into the Sweet Sixteen. In the process, Harvard has outlasted nine teams that were ranked ahead of it going into the tournament.

As a matter of fact, the Crimson is the only team still alive in the tournament that was unranked in the National Top-25 at the start of the first round.

So much for the polls.

With all the Crimson's postseason success so far, it seems almost silly to think that Harvard might ever have been excluded from the tournament. But that was the thinking not too long ago.

"I really think it was a gift from God that we got in," freshman midfielder Katie Westfall said. "I definitely thought we were one of the top 48 teams, but with our record, I wasn't expecting it."

Fortunately for Harvard, the committee was able to overlook a couple fluky losses and appreciate the Crimson's potential to turn some heads against the nation's best teams.

Postseason tournaments have a tendency to produce Cinderella teams and this year, the Crimson is just that. Though on paper Harvard is just as talented as any team out there, no squad has been forced to overcome obstacles as high and expectations as low as Harvard has.

If office pools were as popular among women's soccer fans as they are for men's basketball enthusiasts, a lot of people would be out a lot of money because of Harvard.

But the Crimson is not done yet. Westfall, for one, believes the Crimson has plenty of magic left.

"I'd love to see us be the Gonzaga of this NCAA Tournament," said Westfall, referring to the small-town school that advanced all the way to the Elite Eight of the men's basketball NCAA tournament in 1999.

While Harvard has a chance to be the Gonzaga of this year's tourney, last year it was the women's soccer equivalent of Duke or Michigan State. The 1999 Crimson won 14 games in the regular season, soared as high as seventh in the national polls, and received a first-round bye in the tournament. But Harvard was upset in the first round by Boston College, 1-0.

In comparison, this year's crew lost more games than any Crimson team since 1993, spent more weeks on the outskirts of the national polls than it did on the Top 25, and backed into the tournament after dropping its last five games of the season. Yet now Harvard finds itself just four wins away from a national championship.

"The difference has been attitude," junior forward Caitlin Costello said. "Last year, we might have been a little overconfident. Going in this year, we had more at stake--we had something to prove."

More accurately, the Crimson had something to disprove--namely the credibility of the national polls that have excluded them, and the false impression left by the team's five-game losing streak to end the regular season.

While the pundits may claim to know who the nation's best teams are, they aren't likely to take into account things like how Harvard senior midfielder Meredith Stewart has more than tripled her point production from a year ago..

Or how Ashley Mattison has played the two best games of her life in Harvard's opening round victories.

Or how co-captain Brooke McCarthy battled back from a torn ACL one year ago to garner All-Ivy recognition this season for the first time in her career.

Or how co-captain Lauren Corkery has emerged from the shadow of the great players who played alongside her during her first three years to become one of the Ivy League's best defenders in her own right.

Quite simply, no one considered how valiantly this team has played this season, even in defeat. If they had, they might not be so surprised by how the Crimson has stubbornly refused to roll over in this postseason.

"Even though we have a lot of talent, the key this year has been heart," Costello said. "Everyone has been putting everything they have into it and leaving it all out on the field. We finally realized the importance of heart."

On Friday the Crimson is slated to face the Goliath of women's soccer, No. 1 Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish has gone unbeaten this season, and not lost a decision since the NCAA championship game last year, when it finished as runner-up to North Carolina.

With that resume, Notre Dame has reason to be confident going into its third-round match with the Crimson. Still, if the Irish know what is good for them, they won't too readily dismiss Harvard.

Notre Dame has already made that mistake once. Before Harvard even played its second-round game with Hartford last Saturday, the Irish--assuming the Hawks would be their third-round opponent--reportedly called up the Dartmouth coaching staff for a scouting report not on Harvard, but on Hartford.

But don't expect the Crimson to take offense to such lack of respect. Harvard will be more than happy to teach Notre Dame a lesson on Friday.

"We have nothing in the world to lose," Costello said. "As far as they know, we're just some unknown team that barely made it into the tournament."

The Crimson's performance last Saturday showed exactly what the team is capable of.

"If we play the way we played against Hartford, we can beat anybody," Corkery said.

Truer words may never have been spoken. Come Friday, I don't care who Harvard is playing. For my money, I'll take the Crimson ten times out of ten.