Harvard Makes History in Championship Season

Captain Jessica Hazlett summed it up perfectly: “It’s the best season we’ve ever had. Period.”

The 2007-08 campaign was a historic one for the Harvard women’s golf team, culminating in its first-ever Ivy League championship.

The Crimson won five of the nine tournaments in which it played and had individuals finish first in three of them. Hazlett, junior Emily Balmert, and sophomore Claire Sheldon were named to the All-Ivy team.

“Harvard has a lot of history, and to do something for the first time and achieve something like this is really special,” said head coach Kevin Rhoads, who was named the 2008 New England PGA Teacher of the Year.

The Crimson came into the season with high expectations after a successful 2006-07 campaign.

The players were also looking to atone for the disappointing fourth-place finish at the 2007 league championships, where they finished behind Princeton, Columbia, and Yale—the league’s three traditional powerhouses.

Harvard started the season on a high note by winning the Dartmouth Invitational by a whopping 42 strokes in September.

Next up were the first big tests. The Crimson, however, was not up to the task, finishing third behind Princeton and Columbia in the Princeton Invitational and then second behind Yale in the Yale Women’s Fall Intercollegiate Invitational.

Harvard was able to bounce back by winning the 15-team ECAC Division I Championships. Sheldon, sophomore Sarah Harvey, Balmert, and junior Ali Bode finished first, second, third, and fourth, respectively.

The team’s first round score of 296 was a Crimson record, and the squad’s overall score of 600 was an ECAC Championship low.

Sheldon won her second straight individual crown in the Gutshall Invitational in October to ensure that the Crimson ended the fall season with a victory.

“We were having girls shooting under par, we were having girls winning tournaments, and we were proving early on that we could be the best,” Hazlett said of the first half of the season.

The team remained focused on its goal of winning the Ivy Championship throughout the weightlifting of winter and two trips to Florida in the spring.

The result was a confidence-building victory over Dartmouth and Brown in which Balmert finished first, Sheldon second, Bode third, Harvey fourth, and Hazlett and freshman Mia Kabasakalis tied for fifth.

A few days later, Harvard was handed another chance to face its main Ivy rivals. The Crimson made a statement at the Roar-ee Invitational, bouncing back from a tough first round of play to finish ahead of Princeton, Yale, and Columbia in a sign of what was to come the following weekend.

In a dominating performance, Harvard won its first-ever Ivy League championship by 10 strokes. An incredible day one saw the Crimson score the low team mark in both rounds. Balmert and Sheldon each shot a round of 68, and Hazlett hit a hole-in-one.

The next day, the team was able to coast to the previously elusive title. Balmert finished the tournament in the runner-up position, with Sheldon in third and Hazlett fifth.

Harvard closed its season by flying to Austin, Texas to play in the NCAA Central Regional Championships. Although the Crimson finished in 19th, it got to face some of the best teams in the country.

“It’s been great being here for four years and seeing the team progress so much,” Hazlett said. “The team dynamic has changed as well. We’re a really close team, and I think that has really benefited us. Being able to root for one another and work as a team has done a lot and definitely led to our success.”

With the bulk of the team returning in the fall, much will be expected of the defending champions.

“I see no reason why we can’t go out and do it again next year,” Sheldon said.

—Staff writer Jay M. Cohen can be reached at jaycohen@fas.harvard.edu.