People don't often strive to be second best, but in the case of the Harvard softball team, second best was a strong accomplishment.

Especially when one considers that Ivy League champion Princeton was ranked in the nation's Top 25 throughout the season and advanced through the NCAA regionals all the way to the College World Series.

That left six other schools, including Harvard, to battle for second place in the Ancient Eight, and the Crimson won it. In addition, Harvard qualified for its first-ever postseason tournament, and it took second place out of four teams in the ECAC Tournament on May 13-14.

An inaugural postseason experience, a team record for wins in a season (28) and a rookie head coach who knew how get the best efforts from her players all added up to a very successful campaign for the Crimson (28-14,9-3 Ivy) League).

"We are proud of our team--we all are," freshman catcher Kara Hartl said. "We got the runner-up in the ECAC, and this is from a team who wasn't expected to do much of any thing [this season]."

Harvard had struggled to a 18-25 (4-6) record one year ago. While a lot of the same talent was there, the results weren't.

That all changed this season with the addition of head coach Jenny Allard--who is Harvard's first full-time softball coach--and a slew of young talent. Allard demanded a lot from her players, and the results showed.

"We worked hard this year," Allard said. "For us to be invited and to go postseason this year was tremendous."

There were many highlights, but nothing really came close to the never-ending doubleheader at Yale back on April 9 in New Haven. In game one, neither team could score for hours and they went into extra innings--10 of them.

Harvard scored three in the top of the 17th held on for a 3-1 win. In the nightcap, which had to be continued the next day due to darkness, the two teams took it easier. Harvard won 3-2 in only 12 innings.

Freshman pitchers Tasha Cupp and Heather Brown were practically unhittable in shutting down a potent Eli attack. That weekend enabled the Crimson to finish second in the league, as Yale's. only other Ivy League losses came at the hands of Princeton.

It was a memorable season all-around. Harvard did things it never had before, including playing in the snow at Brown (the two teams split that twinbill).

In one stretch between April 20 and May 13, the Crimson won a 18 of 19 games, including 4-0 and 2-0 shutouts of Providence and Rutgers at the ECAC Tournament, which was held at Rutgers.

Providence came back to win both games the following day in the championship to claim the title, including a nine-inning 6-2 win in the finale. But the despite that disappointment, it certainly was a top-notch season.

"I wanted us to leave the field holding our heads [up] because we had an excellent year," Allard said.