Harvard's women's softball team has absolutely no chance of repeating as Ivy League club champions this year. It's not that the squad lacks talent or motivation. It's just that after four years of playing at the club level, the team has attained varsity status this spring.

Last year's squad took the club championship by routing Princeton, 18-7, at last year's Ivy tournament.

Sacrificing the opportunity to reclaim their title should not disturb the batswomen, who are planning to make a run for the red Ivy League championship this season. At the tournament last year, the Crimson finished an overall fourth behind Yale, Brown and Penn, the only varsity softball squads in the Ivies at the time.

Club Soda

Because softball was only a club sport, none of last year's team records exist, but Coach Kit Morris is confident that his squad's first official win-loss mark will be an impressive one.

Training during Spring break went exceptionally well, and the batswomen shellacked a half-male, half-female squad from Vassar, 13-7, in a pre-season scrimmage Saturday afternoon.

"We had ten times as much pre-season practice this year than we've ever had before, and the team is really mentally prepared to start the season," Morris said.

Senior shortstop and co-captain Lisa "Mouse" Bernstein agrees with Morris' assessment of the team, saying, "We owe a lot of teams, and we are going to beat some of the ones who have beaten us in the past."

Soothsayer

Bernstein's prediction will be tested today when she and her teammates travel to MIT to take on an Engineer squad that downed them 13-12 when the teams last met two years ago.

In the first inning of that game, Morris recalls, the Harvard pitcher threw 26 straight balls before retiring her first batter.

Hoping that nothing like that will occur today, three-time co-captain Betty Ippolito says. "We won't be caught making those kinds of mistakes because we aren't going to have opening-day jitters."

Taking the mound for the Crimson, and hopefully not planning to walk the first six batters she faces, is sophomore Nancy Boutilier, a member of an entirely right-handed pitching staff. Former women's lacrosse goalie, Boutilier, a first-year softballer, intends to finesse the Engineer batswomen with her change-up, saying, "I'm no strike-out artist: I plan to throw strikes and let my infielders take it from there."

Other starting pitchers include Barb Mahon, Karen Pelletier, and Val Romero.

Reliable

Boutilier is wise to rely on the players behind her. Shortstop Bernstein is a fine fielder who anchors a solid defense.

In spite of the fact that Bernstein is left-handed, Morris admitted he was originally reluctant to start a lefty at the position, but he is now convinced that her glove will be a tremendous asset to the team.

At third base is sophomore Pat Horne, whom Morris called "possibly the most talented individual ever involved in the program." First baseman Marlene Schools was honored as an all-Ivy player at the tournament last year.

Steady

Sophomore second-sacker Alissa Friedman, a steady though not flashy defensive player, rounds out a very strong Crimson infield.

Sharing the catching duties will be juniors Kate Fissell, "a good bad-ball hitter," according to Morris, and Gill Raney, "a good good-ball hitter."

Morris is unsure who his most productive players at the plate will be, but he is certain that fleet centerfielder Ellen "Sprout" Jakovie will "make things happen offensively."

In the Garden

Joining Jakovie in the outfield will be slugger Elaine Holpuch in left and Ippolito in right.

Right now, things look very promising for his team. Everyone is healthy, and if the pitching staff can do the job expected of it. Harvard's newest varsity team could be one of its more successful.