March to the Sea: ’Twas a Good Year With More To Come

The recent successes of the Patriots, Bruins, Celtics and Red Sox have led many to celebrate the return of Boston sports. Harvard students, however, have reason to celebrate athletics even closer to home.

My colleague Rahul Rohatgi recently wrote a column on Harvard’s superb athletic performance this year. I will try to add to his ode, focusing not only on the past but also on what’s to come.

This has been a banner year for major Harvard sports. In the autumn there was football. In the winter there was men’s hockey and women’s basketball. Now, in the spring, Harvard has owned the diamond with near mastery in softball and baseball. These types of years don’t come around that often. Fortunately, the future looks bright.

The football team really got things rolling with an undefeated season. For the first time since 1913, Harvard ended their year without a blemish, riding the arm of senior quarterback Neil Rose and the hands of junior wide receiver Carl Morris. This year featured two classic games. The first occurred on October 27, 2001 when Harvard stormed back from a 21-0 halftime deficit to defeat the Dartmouth Big Green 31-21.

Though the entire defensive front four of Marc Laborsky, Phil Scherrer, Kyle Sims and captain Ryan FitzGerald will all graduate this year, Rose will be back as a fifth-year senior, Morris will return for one more season and sophomore linebacker Dante Balestracci could be the most dominating defensive force in the Ivy League. Another Ivy Championship is a probability, not just a possibility. Consecutive undefeated seasons, however, will be a challenge. Next year’s team will have to play Penn and Lehigh on the road, two very difficult games. Fans should cherish this year’s football season; it will be not be easy to repeat.

The winter brought a women’s basketball team that dominated from the start of the Ivy League season to the finish. Ending the year 13-1 in conference play and earning a trip to the NCAA tournament, Harvard found itself in the national spotlight, taking on the highly-touted Tar Heels in round one of March Madness. Though North Carolina defeated Harvard, the Crimson should be back in the Big Dance next season. Sophomore Hana Peljto and freshman Reka Cserny combined to form a dynamic duo that should dominate Ivy competition for the next two years. Sophomore Tricia Tubridy adds an outside threat that could make Harvard a dangerous team—even on the national spectrum—for next season.

The men’s hockey team also added to the winter season’s luster. Begininng the year ranked eighth in the nation, the Crimson had high expectations, buoyed by an all-star class of freshman and the junior tandem of Brett Nowak and Dom Moore. Though the Crimson limped into the ECAC Tournament, Harvard turned its season around in the playoffs, winning one single-overtime and two double-overtime games in four total post-season contests to wrap up an ECAC Championship. The Crimson also provided high drama in numerous regular season games, making a reputation for falling behind and then coming back to win in the game’s final moments.

The ECAC Championship game, a 4-3 double-overtime thriller against highly-favored Cornell, was one of the best Harvard hockey games of all-time. Though Harvard lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the Crimson fell to eventual runner-up Maine in overtime, 4-3. Almost everyone on this year’s roster will be back next season as Harvard circles the wagons and makes a run at the national championship. Add an entirely new freshman class to a team already stocked with eight NHL draftees, stir and voila: you’ve got one of the most talented squads in the nation.

Finally, the spring has brought coinciding softball and baseball success that Harvard fans have not seen in years. Softball finished 12-2 in the Ivy League and took home an ECAC Championship to boot. Junior tri-captain Tiffany Whitton, the Ivy League Player of the Year and ECAC tournament MVP, should be even better (if possible) next year.

On the men’s side, an inspired run to an Ivy League Championship has been filled with amazing comebacks, clutch hitting and brilliant pitching performances. Senior Ben Crockett is quite possibly the best pitcher ever to don a Harvard uniform. He pitches a complete game almost every outing, usually striking out 15 and giving up the sporadic hit. Harvard’s 13-12 regular season comeback victory against Brown after trailing 10-2 midway through the sixth inning was a classic, but the Crimson’s ninth-inning, two-out rally to defeat Brown 2-1 and win the Red Rolfe Division on May 8 was the stuff of legends. Perhaps we will be treated to more fun in the NCAA Tournament.

And so, we’ve reached the end to a year where Boston and Harvard rose to the top and looked down on the competition. It’s been a little while coming, to say the least. It was a long journey to the mountain peak, but once you make the trip, you might as well stay and enjoy it.