Super Seniors' Superb Season

Four superb players. Four seniors, no less. Four years spent together. Four unique sets of abilities that set them apart. All on one squad—the Harvard women’s soccer team.

The numbers add up quite nicely for the Crimson’s fantastic foursome of defender Nikki Rhodes, forward Erin Wylie, and midfielders Rachael Lau and Allison Keeley, first featured together in the Crimson on September 28, 2005.

Having since then withstood three different coaches and countless teammate changes, these four of the five seniors on the current team remain today as a steady ship of calm amidst the seas of turmoil.

“We’re the first core group of upperclassmen that have stuck together in the last couple years, and I think that we all bring something different to the team,” Rhodes said.

The determination and work ethic they share has worked in tandem with their individual talents.

Anchoring the defense looms Rhodes, who this year became only the second three-time captain in Crimson women’s soccer history.

Downfield is Wylie, who led the team in goals and points as a freshman and consistently has been one of the team’s top scorers.

Midfielders Lau, who in her four-year Crimson career has played in every single game except one, and Keeley, who battled injuries her sophomore and junior years on her way to becoming captain this, her senior season, make their presence felt each and every game.

Senior goalkeeper Maggie Robinson completes the class. During her tenure, she has served as a back-up to now-assistant coach Katie Shields ’06 and current keeper junior Lauren Mann, two of the best goalies in the program’s history.

“It’s become a lot easier to be more vocal, to be a leader as a senior,” Robinson said. “It comes naturally.”

Once upon a time they were merely freshmen, the only four freshmen to start and play all 16 games of the 2005 season.

Back then the foursome was coached by Stephanie Erickson. A year later, Erica Walsh took the helm, and in 2007 Ray Leone, the current coach, joined the squad.

All the while Rhodes, Wylie, Lau, and Keeley were mainstays of the Crimson roster.

“Definitely as freshmen you come in here not knowing what to expect,” Lau said. “And as upperclassmen it’s your duty to help [the freshmen now] through anything really, their schoolwork, even if they have troubles outside of school. It’s about stepping into their shoes, remembering how you were as freshmen, and wishing to impart some knowledge on them.”

Today, having seen and handled everything to come their way, they act as a source of stability for the Crimson.

All four recognize the importance of the roles that their maturity and experience have brought upon them.

“You definitely take on more of a leadership role as a senior, leading by example,” Wylie said. “…It’s helpful to be able to look up to people who have been through it.”

What certainly haven’t changed from year to year are the Ivy League games on the Crimson schedule, and with the 2008 season comes a renewed set of challenges that Harvard is more than ready to face. By now, the fearsome foursome knows exactly what the slate of Ivy games will ask of them.

“I think it also comes down to playing with heart and playing for the passion of the game, because a lot of the time the Ivy League doesn’t come down to skill,” Wylie said. “…at the end in Ivies, it’s just who wants it more.”

Their freshman year, the team leaned on its outstanding defense, anchored by Rhodes, Shields, and Laura Odorczyk ’07, to win in Ivy play. The squad broke the program’s single-season shutout mark, posting 11 blank slates.

This year, the team will again rely on Rhodes and a stalwart defense to carry Harvard in the Ivies.

It seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

“I think even though we’ve had different coaches, we’ve had the same core group of players so our mentality hasn’t changed,” Rhodes said. “It’s a work ethic when it comes to defense, and heart, and those are two things we have on our team.”

Harvard hopes to rely on these strengths as it prepares to face Yale next Saturday in its second Ivy League game and all the way through its last regular season game against Columbia in November.

2008 may be the final season for Rhodes, Wylie, Lau, and Keeley, but their legacies of tenacity, commitment, and passion for the game will extend far past their four years spent on the field.