Harvard's women's volleyball team came into this season with a great deal of enthusiasm. With one of its most talented crop of freshman ever, it was looking to leave behind its ugly seasons of the past and chart plus-.500 territory.

This season, however, it has had somewhat of a rude awakening: through its first two engagements, the team is 1-3. Still, players see the development more as an uncomfortable transition into a new style of play rather than as a precursor to a dreadful season.

"Last season and other years past we were mostly a defensive team," senior co-captain Judy Ireye said. "Because of a lack of height and offense, we would sort of sit on our heels and wait for the other team to make mistakes.

"This season, we don't have to do that," she added. "We have the sort of people we need to be an offensive team. That sort of change requires a change in mentality, and that is never easy."

The squad has been helped immensely by the addition of six solid freshmen this season. Foremost among those is Sarah Logan, a middle hitter. Logan has been a leader for the team in blocks, digs and kills. Her best performance came in a game against Holy Cross, when she recorded nine kills, thus scoring on half her attempts, notched 10 digs and added six blocks.

"The freshmen have just been wonderful," Ireye said. "They've really helped us change our focus and our goals."

This season, the team is hoping to finish in the top three in the eight-team Ivy League. Last season it finished fifth.

"Every year the team seems to be three or four teams at the top of the league," Ireye said. "Our goal is to be one of them."

The early going this season has been rough, but promising.

The Crimson opened the year September 9-10 at the Beanpot tournament, held at Boston College. There, the squad lost to both the Eagles and Northeastern by scores of 3-0, before beating Holy Cross, 3-1.

"It was a good start for us," coach Jennifer Bates was quoted as saying. "We need some work, but we all know that as a team. We learned a lot from the tournament. We have a lot of depth, and we're excited for the upcoming season."

After the win over the Crusaders, the Crimson went into a September 20 match at Central Connecticut optimistic. Central Connecticut had just beaten Yale, but the team felt that with its new found offensive spark, it might be able to pull of an upset.

It turned out to be wrong: the Crimson was buried, 3-0.

"Ugh, that wasn't the greatest day for us," Ireye said. "It wasn't terribly disappointing--we are continuing to develop, but we're looking forward. It's never nice when you lose that bad."

The Crimson's next action will be today, when it travels to Connecticut to take on UConn, Army, Fairfield and Brown at the Connecticut tournament.