With Pressure Off, It’s Time to Shine

Last year, the Harvard women’s basketball team entered the season burdened by the immense weight of expectation.

After sweeping its Ivy League schedule in 2002-2003 and returning all of its starters, Harvard was ranked first in the conference pre-season but failed its repeat bid to run the table.

This year, the pressure’s off. The team recognizes there is no longer that dominant frontcourt to rely upon, especially the Crimson’s leading scorer for the past two years, Hana Peljto ’04.

And that could be a good thing.

“We’re happy Dartmouth’s picked first,” Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith says. “We’re comfortable. We see why they were. We understand the league’s going to be tough this year.”

Missing its star but retaining its core, the Crimson will be all about balance in returning the favor to the defending Ivy champs.

“We’ll definitely be able to outrun a lot of teams because of our depth,” junior Shana Franklin says.

With the graduation of star forwards Peljto and Tricia Tubridy ’04, Harvard will now have to look elsewhere for the first time in two years to fill the gap down low.

Delaney-Smith said their departures could mean an improvement in team balance.

“When we would start a game and Hana would miss shots that Hana doesn’t usually miss,” she says, “we had a team dynamic that we always had to deal with. And that was, everyone stands around and waits for Hana to do it. And if she [wasn’t] hitting, we [would] go into panic mode.

“I want to eliminate that particular team dynamic.”

Junior Kate Mannering is one role player who stands to benefit from Harvard’s low post hole. After working hard in the offseason on her passing and scoring moves, she has, along with captain Reka Cserny, earned the chance to receive plenty of opportunities inside.

“Mannering’s a power player,” Delaney-Smith says. “She’s posting up really well.”

Mannering and junior forward Maureen McCaffery embody a hard-nosed philosophy that Delaney-Smith made a priority after last year’s disappointment.

“Basically, we were pretty unhappy with our low-post mentality last year,” Delaney-Smith says. “Other than [Peljto], I don’t think there was a player who truly wanted the ball in the low post and embraced being a low-post player. That was communicated to everybody.”

In the center will be Cserny, who returns for the final season of her productive career with the Crimson.

Cserny formed an almost unstoppable inside-outside post tandem with Peljto the past three years, finishing third in the Ivy League in scoring with 18 points per game last season.

This year, she will take over as team leader. A contrast to Peljto’s garrulous style, Cserny’s strong-but-silent personality in the center of Harvard’s frontcourt will anchor the team against this season’s new challenges.

In the backcourt, the obvious candidate to fill the role of graduated point guard Bev Moore ’04 is junior Jess Holsey.

Although Holsey saw action the last two seasons, shoulder injuries prevented her from fulfilling her promising potential.

“Although [Holsey] did play last year and the year before, she really didn’t,” Delaney-Smith says. “She only had one arm.”

A number of talented options complement Holsey at the point. The Crimson boasts freshman Lindsay Hallion and junior Laura Robinson—both of whom could see significant playing time.

“It’s exciting to know that any combination of guards on the floor has tremendous ability to produce,” Holsey says.

With Robinson providing plenty of know-how and skilled play, the rookie Hallion will contribute with her own dazzling talent. Coaches gushed about Hallion’s performance in a scrimmage against Bentley College on Nov. 11.

“Laura [Robinson] is a smart player and actually has taken a step in the right direction this year,” Delaney-Smith says. “I’m going to take it a day at a time. Laura adds a level of poise to this team that, at times, we need. And Lindsay Hallion, for a freshman, I think blew us away yesterday. She was tremendous in that scrimmage. Poised, smart, did a great job.”

Rochelle Bell, a senior guard and regular 2003-2004 contributor from Brooklyn Park, Minn., will miss the season after having surgery on her ACL.

Rounding out the backcourt unit will be 6’ junior Shana Franklin—one of the “best slashers” Delaney-Smith said she has ever coached—and senior Katie Murphy.

Franklin, who has seen limited action, could surprise the Ivy League, Delaney-Smith said.

“I don’t think the world knows how good Shana is,” she says. “They will see how good she is this year.”

Katie Murphy, an unrecruited walk-on to the squad during her freshman year, has also developed into a crucial player.

“She has probably one of the most inspiring stories here at Harvard,” Delaney-Smith says. “She’s just doing a great job. She’s so consistent, so smart. She’s a player who has played within her strengths.”

That lesson is something Harvard will look to take to heart. By using its balance and depth to its advantage, the Crimson will hope to play within its own strengths.

—Staff writer Gabriel M. Velez can be reached at gmvelez@fas.harvard.edu.