Quotes of the Week: September 20

In a new series, The Crimson will look each weekend at the five best quotes of the week, providing context for the five best moments from the past seven days in Crimson sports.

“It’s been amazing. We’ve heard from generations of Radcliffe alums, other teams, other students who just stopped to say ‘good luck.’ It’s been amazing to have the whole support of the Harvard community behind us. That was a really wonderful thing for us to carry into the game.” -- Xanni Brown ‘14

Women’s rugby – Harvard’s newly added 42nd varsity sport – finally made its home debut under the lights Tuesday night at Cumnock Field. Although the Crimson found itself in a tight game for much of the first half in front of a solid crew of fans, visiting Quinnipiac pulled away in the second frame to deprive Harvard of its first win of the season.

“Coach Murphy, he’s a genius. He has a system in place where we try to match the number of games they play through scrimmages. We try to make our scrimmages game tempo, game environment…. So by the time we get to our first game we’re kind of even keeled almost, not sort of behind them in terms of conditioning or mental toughness.” -- Nnamdi Obukwelu ‘14

The Harvard football team will make a rare cross-country trip to take on the University of San Diego on Saturday. While the game will mark the season opener for the Crimson, the Toreros will have already played two full games, forcing Harvard coach Tim Murphy to simulate game conditions in practice to prepare his team for the East-West showdown.

“It was my best round that I have ever shot, certainly in a college tournament. But I also knew that there were 18 more holes to go for that day, and I was just taking it one shot at a time. I tried to do what I did in the first round for the rest of the tournament, and I certainly felt helped by the rest of the team putting up good scores.” -- Tiffany Lim ‘15

The Harvard women’s golf team placed first out of eight teams to bring back some hardware from the Princeton Women’s Invitational last weekend. Junior Tiffany Lim shot 66 in her first round, setting a course record for women and propelling her to the individual championship.

“Right from the start, we had a fast offense. That really helps us do well in these games, and I think we’ll continue to develop it and make it something that will hopefully win us the Ivy title.” – Corinne Bain ‘17

The Harvard women’s volleyball team notched its fourth win of the season against UMass Lowell on Wednesday with a clean 3-0 sweep. Bain, a setter, racked up 16 assists and nine digs. Fellow freshmen Grace Weghorst and Jane Labanowski also received significant playing time.

“[Goalkeeper Brett Conrad] was very good at organizing, and that’s a big component of keeping it out of the net. You could hear him, and [he took] a big jump forward in that respect – improved at it a lot.” -- Harvard coach Pieter Lehrer

Buoyed by solid defense, the men’s soccer team battled to a 0-0 tie against Lafayette on Sunday to earn its first points of the season. Conrad, a co-captain, registered his first shutout of the year with four saves as the Crimson defense held Lafayette to only six shots.