The Radcliffe varsity crew will be seeking its second straight victory of the young season as it takes on the University of Massachusetts in a race on the Charles River Basin today. The junior varsity race is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. with the varsity set to get off the stake boats at 11:30 a.m.

UMass is something of an unknown quantity. This is the first race of the year for the Minutewomen, so it's anyone's guess how good UMass might be. About the only indication of the Minutewomen's strength is that one of their rowers was a member of last year's national champion Vesper crew.

Radcliffe, on the other hand, is coming off an impressive victory over Clark last week in which the Crimson "A" and "B" boats came in ahead of the Clark varsity shell.

Against the UMass varsity, Radcliffe coach John Baker has set a boat with Diane Hickman at stroke, Allison Hill at seven, Hannah Shore at six, Karen Oberhauser at five, Gall Rasmussen at four, Marie Adams at three, Katie Moss at two, Robin Lothrop at bow, and Nancy Hadley handling the coxswain chores.

Hickman, Oberhauser, and Rasmussen are freshwomen, and Shore, a sophomore, is a first-year rower.

The Radcliffe J.V. eight will have Barbara Norris at stroke. Ann Robinson at seven, Gertrude Bancroft at six, Ruth Colker at five, Joyce Mack at four, Bren Buckley at three, Ellen Feld at two, Jane Clark at bow, and Amy Sacks at cox.

Of these eight, five are first-year oarswomen. Despite this relative lack of experience on his varsity and J.V. eights, Baker is confident about his squad's chances for today's race and for the rest of the season.

"We have a lot of first-year people," Baker said, "but we have the biggest crew, sizewise, that we've ever had. Four of our women are oversix feet. Up to now they've been concentrating on learning how to row rather than concentrating on racing and winning. But they're a hungry crew, and I think that once they get that sense of what it takes to go out and row hard and win, they'll be fine."

J.V. cox Sacks expressed somewhat the same idea as Baker. "It's hard reaching people who've never been athletes, and who don't really know what it means to be competitive, and know what it means to race with pain. But the freshwomen are big, rowing well, and learning quickly. The crew is much more serious now than it was a month ago, and with the J.V. being strong enough to be able to push the varsity for the first time in Radcliffe history, we should have a strong crew."

Will the crew be faster than last year?

"That's hard to say at this point right now," said Baker. "Last year's crew was faster than the year before, and this year's group certainly has the potential to be faster than them."

As with the race last week, today's contest will cover the full 2000 meter Basin course, a departure from the 1000 or 1500 meters that the women usually race. Baker said he wants the 2000 meter distance in order to have a longer race, but at a lower cadence, in preparation for the upcoming races against Princeton and Yale, which will be 1500 meters.

A highlight of the junior varsity race will be the inclusion of Radcliffe ligthweight coach Peter Huntsman's squad. Two lightweight eights are scheduled to race in the J.V. heavy race.

"The crew has been working very hard," said first-year coach Huntsman, "and I think we'll be significantly improved over last year. But we won't really know that until we start racing some other lightweight crews."

Huntsman's "A" boat will have Mizzy Stokes at stroke, Antoinette LaFarge at seven, Janet Mazur at six, captain Dottie Kent at five, Roxanne Malenbaum at four, Mary Hunt at three, Marsha Cline at two, Gish Jen in the bow, and Barbara Pearce at cox.