Picture yourself trying to start something but not being able to. Picture yourself travelling hundreds of miles only to be relegated to idleness. Picture all your expectations building and building and then uncontrollably falling by your side sullen, deflated--in a word unfulfilled.

The Harvard men's lacrosse team knows about unfulfilled expectations.

The Crimson has tried and tried to get its season underway this year, and each time the weather has stopped Harvard cold.

For the third time this season, the Crimson had its contest postponed. Harvard will not play Boston College today as scheduled. No one even knows when the match will actually be played.

The Crimson couldn't battle C.W. Post because of icy temperatures and big white flakes.

It travelled to Cornell last weekend only to be crested by five-foot snow drifts and whiteout skies--all part of the 'storm of the century'.

And today the artificial turf at BC is as hard as rock and not even cleared of the white remnants of this weekend's blizzard.

Harvard has had serious trouble getting its season off the ground.

It's tried three times. Count 'em three.

"I think all these cancellations are making the team more ambitious," Co-Captain Chad Prusmack said. "It's like restraining a caged beast."

Harvard will need that beast-like aggressiveness this year because it knows about unfulfilled expectations in another sense.

The Crimson finished last season with a distressing 4-9 record overall, 1-5 Ivy, the only Ancient Eight team it beat was one accustomed to smelling the dark, dank waters of the cellar--Dartmouth.

And last year's Crimson team didn't like the taste of losing. That's not what it expected. And that's not what the Crimson expects this season either.

"We've got a new attitude on this team," Co-Captain Eric Bentley said. "We've been more dedicated than ever before. This is one of the best teams that I've been on since I've been here."

"This particular team is just having a better time," Prusmack said. "Our attitude in practice is much more lively. It's a different mentality."