Before its Thursday night 5-0 thrashing of Hartford, the Harvard women's soccer team players talked about their expectations for the game, the season and themselves.

"We spoke about how we need to play with intensity and heart, desire and commitment," co-captain Rachel Chernikoff said.

In a season in which it is the outright favorite, in which the Crimson is the team everyone else is gunning for, the motivation to go out and play hard has to come from within.

And that's how the Harvard players took to the Hartford field, with their hearts on their sleeves and a pride in themselves.

"Last year we were motivated to prove we could win the Ivies, this year what we have instead is pride in ourselves and the way other teams feel when they play us," Chernikoff explained.

Hartford got a glimpse of Harvard's growing momentum as the Crimson continues to come into the team they know they can be--and others expect them to be.

Unlike the first five games that Harvard played, in which the opponents stayed in the game until the final whistle, Thursday night's contest was decided in the first half. That decisive presence is what Harvard is looking for during the rest of the season.

"Hartford brought us to another level--this is how we want to play," junior Kristen Bowes said. This conclusion was echoed through many of the Crimson's comments.

"I think the game [Thursday] night was the first good game all season and everyone felt it," Bowes said.

And so when the Crimson takes the field tomorrow against Penn, which finds itself struggling at the bottom of the league, Harvard will look to build on the momentum generated in the Hartford game and in itself.

Even though the Crimson is quick to admit that this game, like all Ivy League battles, will be a hard fought one, the team realizes that something fundamental has changed in its play.

"We played unbelievably against Hartford. If we play like that again we'll have no problem against Penn," sophomore Naomi Miller said.

"We set a precedent [Thursday] night, and we expect that to carry over to the game against Penn and the tournament next week and the games for the rest of the season," Chernikoff said.

With great expectations, expectations that would daunt a lesser team, the Harvard women's soccer team is finally proving to itself, to the league and to the nation that it is not going to settle for second best or odd-man-out for another season.