AMOR PERFECT UNION: Mystery Voter Has Last Laugh

The line between prophets and lunatics is a thin one, and in the world of college women’s hockey, it narrows more and more with each passing week.

When the USCHO.com/CSTV Division I poll came out on Oct. 22, Harvard had not even played its first game of the season. Yet some voter, somewhere, had the then-No. 6 Crimson placed all the way at the top of his or her list.

Those of us at this newspaper who follow the women’s hockey team rolled eyes, laughed, and even sneered at this dim-witted voter. Surely, this person had to be joking.

Last season, Harvard wasn’t even the best team in its conference, never mind the entire nation. Not to mention that the Crimson’s best player—Julie Chu ’07—graduated in June, and Harvard would be relying on a crop of untested newcomers to fill in the gap this year. Yes, the Crimson was still among the top 10 teams in the country, but could you really vote it No. 1 without even seeing it take the ice?

Our mystery voter did, and continued to do so every week. And each week, the telepathic waves of mockery we women’s hockey writers sent out at this person began to decrease in frequency because, well, Harvard began the season winning and hasn’t stopped—the Crimson now stands undefeated at 9-0.

At first it was no big deal. Harvard padded its record in the early going against the likes of ECAC creampuffs Quinnipiac and Brown and middle-of-the-road conference foes Princeton and Yale to come out of the gate 4-0. Good, yes. But also expected, and nothing to start shuffling around the top spots in the national rankings for.

Then, starting on Nov. 23, everything changed. Beginning with its 5-0 win over then-No. 10 Clarkson that night, the Crimson beat three top 10 teams in a row, including St. Lawrence, an ECAC giant ranked third at the time. With that victory, the Crimson leapfrogged not only the Saints, but former No.1 Wisconsin and now-No. 3 Minnesota-Duluth as well, all the way into the No. 2 spot.

Now Harvard looms ominously behind top-ranked New Hampshire while the mystery voter turned women’s hockey sage gains a following.

That’s right—when the new national rankings were released on Monday, two more voters had joined the Crimson bandwagon, and Harvard pulled even closer to claiming the top spot.

If there is any poetry to the mystery voter’s prophecy, the Crimson will overtake the Wildcats next Friday when it visits them in Durham, N.H. But a No. 1 Harvard might become a reality much sooner than that.

By no means does the Crimson face an easy task this weekend, but a home-and-away set against No. 10 Connecticut and Providence is far less daunting than what’s in store for UNH.

The Wildcats travel to Erie, Penn. this weekend to play a pair of games against No. 6 Mercyhurst. More than just a trip down memory lane to your fourth grade social studies class (do any of the terms Iroquois, Great Lakes, or Industrial Revolution ring a bell?), Erie is a lion’s den for visiting women’s hockey teams. The Lakers are 23-1-2 at home since the beginning of last season, which means that coming out of Mercyhurst with a two wins will be no easy feat for UNH.

Just one Wildcats loss combined with a Harvard sweep could be enough to put the Crimson over the top. So with the odds seemingly stacked in Harvard’s favor, I feel that an apology is in order. Here it goes:

Dear Mystery Voter,

I fear that until recently, I had mistakenly been drinking the Haterade located between the Coke and Barq’s root beer in my dining hall’s beverage area. But now, in the immortal words of Jay-Z, “I see your vision mama [or papa].” I believe in your prophetic powers, and because of this I will do something I should have done a long time ago: I will cast my imaginary No. 1 vote for the Crimson before anything even happens this weekend, in an attempt to pay homage to the real vote you courageously entered before Harvard’s season even began. I hope you can accept this gesture as my apology for ever doubting you.

Sincerely,

Loren Amor

P.S. If you turn out to be wrong, I probably will retract my application to get you a book in the Old Testament and go back to calling you crazy.

—Staff writer Loren Amor can be reached at lamor@fas.harvard.edu.