Crimson Faces Yale in Ivy Opener

The Harvard women’s soccer team prepares to attack its first matchup of the season in the Ancient Eight tomorrow against Yale in New Haven, Conn. Recording a 6-1 season so far, with the only loss to Boston College (currently ranked ninth in Div I.), the Crimson is looking at quite a different season from last year.

Change is working in its favor. Eight freshmen, including Ivy League Rookie of the Week Katherine Sheeleigh, as well as consistent forward Gina Wideroff who scored game-winners in two consecutive games, are proving themselves indispensable values to the team. Another newcomer to the program is Coach Ray Leone, who took over for last season’s coach, Erica Walsh, in February.

Last year’s game against Yale ended in a loss for Harvard, but the new team dynamic brings the prospects of a favorable outcome.

“This year we are the underdogs, but, I mean, it’s Yale,” Wideroff said. “Of course we want to win against our biggest rivals in the League.”

The new rookie class, which Soccer Buzz listed as the northeast’s third best (behind only Boston College and Connecticut), brings one of the fiercest offenses the Ivy League has seen in years.

Starting forward Wideroff boasts goals in five consecutive games so far, including one in the matchup against Boston College. Freshman midfielder Katherine Kuzma tied the game back in August against Hartford with her collegiate debut goal and also contributed to the 4-0 win against Central Connecticut State with a goal last Friday.

Despite a successful streak thus far, the team is taking each game as it comes.

“Every game is a new game. We can’t rely on how well we performed in the past,” said Sheeleigh, who recorded her career first hat trick, scoring three goals against Central Connecticut State University last Friday in New Britain, Conn.

Returning with a vengeance, sophomore goalkeeper Lauren Mann was named Ivy League Player of the Week last week for a series of impressive saves en route to consecutive shutouts of Boston University and Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She enters Ivy play this weekend on a four-shutout streak.

In 2006, Mann boasted the top number of saves in the Ivy League, 84.

“Last year prepared us to fight even harder this year, so the adversity worked to our advantage,” Mann said. “We don’t want to let what happened last year happen again.”

The acclimation to college life for an athlete is tough. New schedules, new environments, and academic stresses off the field influence performance on it, especially in team sports where the adaptation of new members determines the prosperity of the group and influences individual contribution. But teammates are not concerned that the 2007-2008 season’s freshmen are not playing up to par.

“The freshmen are a fantastic asset to the team,” Mann said. “On and off the field, they are a great group of girls.”

Weather-torn from traveling the nation the past two weeks to battle North Carolina, Duke, Portland, and Washington, the Bulldogs (3-7) will try to hold their own against Harvard. But according to Mann, the revamped and poised Crimson will be hard to defeat.

“The game is away, we will be under the lights—we are just feeling ready and everyone is pumped.”