"We beat UMass once and we can do it again," Crimson sweeper Inga Larson said. "When our team really clicks on the game I don't think there's anyone who can beat us."

As far as the rankings are concerned, Minuteman Coach Kalekeni Banda said "you can take them and throw them out the window--it's the rankings you make for yourself that are important."

Massachusetts has made itself into one of the best teams in the nation on the strength of some very young talent--eight Minutemen starters are freshmen.

"They've been in this kind of pressure before," Banda said." Just making this team and making a name for themselves on this team was the main challenge. We're all nervous but it's a good nervousness."

Scalise acknowledged the pressure as well, but stressed that "we're not asking the team to do anything that it's not capable of doing."

According to Zeeben, "the big difference is you know you have to win this game to keep playing--it's one game."

One game, on which the future of the 1984 season hangs.

A loss today would dash the hopes of a Harvard team that this year, for the first time, believes that it is capable of going all the way, it would also bring to an abrupt half the careers of five Harvard seniors.

But a win would enable the crimson to travel to its first-ever NCAA Final Four tournament to vie for a national championship.

And the latter option rounds awfully good to Tracee Whitley.

THE NOTEBOOK: Gametime today is 1:00 p.m. on Boyden Field. The prospective opponent for next weekend's semifinal match is the winner of Brown Uconn quarterfinal.