Last year, the Harvard men's hockey team vaulted to national prominence with a cast of fabulous freshmen. This year, the women's team hopes to perform the same trick.

After a moderately successful 10-10-0 season, which included a huge win in the Beanpot tournament, Coach John Dooley and the Crimson hope to recover from the loss of four of the team's top six scorers. Two of those four, in particular, were major losses: Sandra Whyte (21 goals-18 assists-39 points) and Jen Minkus (8-14-22) bore much of the scoring load last year.

But junior Jo-anne Alissi, another of last year's top snipers (11-8-19), is back to lead what should be a much more coordinated offense.

"Last year, we had a situation in which Sandra was doing a lot of the scoring," says Alissi. "This year's team can't be that way. We're going to have to have a more balanced attack."

Joining Alissi on one wing is Stacy Kellogg, a freshman from Manchester, Conn.. Kellogg and Alissi are not total strangers to one another. Having played on the same club team in Connecticut and in summer leagues together, they have a good sense already of where each other will be on the ice.

Completing the first line is Kim Landry (3-9-12), the only senior on the team. She and Alissi (this year's co-captains) contribute leadership to a roster which desperately needs it: The team has seven freshmen.

Kellogg, for one, isn't too concerned about the relative youth of herself and her classmates. "Joey and Kim have been great in helping all of us out, both on the ice and in the classroom. Plus, we're all experienced hockey players, and we should be ready by the time the season starts."

Dooley is similarly upbeat. "It should be a fun year. This team seems to possess a great chemistry, and all of the freshmen have such upbeat attitudes, especially Holly Leitzes."

Leitzes, a recruit from Duxbury, adds a goal-scoring touch to what is already a solid defense.

Juniors Francie Walton (1-2-3) and Beth Messmore (0-1-1), along with sophomore Winkie Mleczko (1-3-4), have shown great improvement in preseason drills, says Dooley, who is keen on building his team "from the back up."

And it can't get much better for the team at the very back. Sophomore Erin Villiotte (8-10-0, 3.52 goals against-average, .903 save percentage) is back between the pipes for the Crimson this year, having established herself during the summer as one of the top contenders for the 1994 Olympic team.

Villiotte captained her boy's high school team in Shrewsbury, and she is well aware of her role as a leader on thisyear's team.

Alissi herself views Villiotte as "one of thetop goalies in the country," the kind of netminderthat a team can rely upon in goal.

Backing her up is Kiki Fair, another promisingfreshman who doesn't look to play much thisseason.

Villiotte says that Fair "seems to like it alot" in goal, and that she is comfortable with herrole as a backup on this year's team.

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