Lightning Cancels W. Soccer's Battle for Northeast Supremacy

Last night's scheduled battle for northeast supremacy between the No. 16 Harvard (2-1) women's soccer team and No. 7 Hartford (5-1) was expected to be a game of earth-shattering consequences that would rattle the heavens.

Unfortunately for both teams, the sky got too worked up in anticipation, as flashes of lightning forced the cancellation of the much-awaited duel between the Hawks and the Crimson.

As of yet, a make-up date has not been set.

Harvard will next be in action at undefeated Brown (5-0) at 7 p.m. on Saturday. As impressive as the Bears' record looks, they have yet to play an opponent of national consequence this season.

Harvard-who opened with a 3-0 loss to No. 10 Texas A&M-and Dartmouth-who fell to No. 3 Nebraska 2-0 earlier in the season - are the only Ivy schools who have played overtly ambitious non-conference schedules thus far.

The Big Green features Soccer Buzz pre-season All-American goalkeeper Kristin Luckenbill, the player responsible for keeping sophomore Crimson keeper Cheryl Gunther off the All-Ivy team last year.

Although Gunther didn't get top billing last year, she beat Luckenbill last season in the only kind of comparison that really matters (final score: Harvard 2, Dartmouth 1).

If the Crimson stays healthy and conscious throughout the rest of the Ivy season, it shouldn't have much in-league competition outside of the Bears and the Big Green. The Elis recent 5-0 loss to Hartford proves that they are among the competitive elite.

Harvard's biggest competition from the state of Connecticut will come well outside of New Haven. The Crimson will wait for its rematch with Hartford, the top ranked team in the Northeast.

Although Boston College's victory over Harvard in the second round of the NCAA tournament last year was a major upset, it was the Hawks who scored the biggest surprise of the NCAA Tournament, knocking out defending national champion Florida on the Gators' home turf. Hartford won one more game before bowing out in the national quarterfinals.

The Hawks feature sophomore forward Sandra Kayulu who went to Winchester High School in Mass., the same school that produced Crimson captain Lauren Corkery and injury-maligned sophomore forward Caitlin Butler. Winchester held the No. 1 ranking in the USA Today's high school soccer poll for much of the late 90's.

Traditional power UConn is other national contender in the northeast region. The No. 25 Huskies (3-3-1), who made the national title game in 1997, have struggled thus far with a tough schedule that includes national powers Santa Clara, Penn State, Stanford, and Nebraska. The schedule will get even more brutal when the Huskies play at Harvard on October 25th.

Penn State (5-2-1) will also be a Crimson opponent this season. The No. 7 Nittany Lions have already beaten common opponent Texas A&M, on the strength of a goal by Olympic alternate Christie Welch-a player who should be familiar to anyone who watched the U.S. National Team at the CONACAF Gold Cup at Foxboro this summer.

When the 2000 NCAA Tournament rolls around this fall, the favorite should naturally be No. 4 North Carolina. Although the Tar Heels lost its top spot in the rankings due to a 2-1 loss to ACC rival Clemson, North Carolina has still won 15 of 18 national titles.

And it wasn't that long ago, 1997 to be exact, that Harvard itself was in the national quarterfinals, and standing in the way of the Tar Heel dynasty.

The biggest goal-scorer of Harvard's 1997 quarterfinal run, Erin Aeschliman, is still on the team. Between taking a year of in 1998 and an ACL injury in 1999, Aeschliman hasn't seen much playing time since she scored twice in a first round Crimson victory over UMass and then assisted on the game-winning triple overtime goal against George Mason in the second round.

But she finally found her name on the scoreboard again this weekend, assisting on Meredith Stewart's game-winning goal against Penn.

Aeschliman's re-emergence, combined with the return of sophomores Beth Totman and Cheryl Gunther from injury, will be key if Harvard will ever be able to re-capture or surpass its success from 1997.