It's easy to be pessimistic about the Harvard women's lacrosse team this year.

Just look at the stats. The Crimson lost 45.7 percent of last year's goal scoring to graduation. Starting goaltender Kate Schutt and her roommate, midfielder Lindsay Davison, are taking the year off. And defenseman Sara Noonan has decided not to play this year.

This is all happening to a squad that is coming off an 8-5 record (2-4 Ivy), its worst marks in both categories since the early 1980's. Harvard also finished last season ranked No. 13 in the nation, which easily bumped the team from the six-team NCAA Tournament for the first time this decade.

But Harvard coach Carole Kleinfelder, who has seen everything in her 18 years at the Crimson's helm, isn't panicking. Yet.

"I think that you have to give this team a chance to get its own identity," she said. "I want to resist putting any sort of labels or expectations on them."

The rest of the nation, however, hasn't waited. In Lacrosse Magazine's 1996 Top 10 pre-season poll, the Crimson is unranked but received an unspecified number of votes.

Nevertheless, there is no reason to write off the team yet. Only 14 teams made it on anyone's votes in the aforementioned poll, meaning that Harvard is at worst No. 14 in the nation. Which is only a one-spot drop from last year.

So even with all the graduations and players taking years off, someone out there thinks Harvard is good.

Why? The fundamentals are as good as ever. The Crimson's stickhandling is still among the best in the nation, and many of those specialists are back. Junior Liz Schoyer tied for the team lead in ground balls with 42 and will be joined by senior Carrie Shumway, junior Chris Shortsleeve and junior co-captain Daphne Clark, all of whom had 29 or more ground balls.

Among its field players, all that Harvard lacks is a machine-gun scorer or a lightning-fast runner. A star.

"We're playing more as a unit," Clark said. "Our starting unit is a strong team."

For success in 1996, the Crimson must play carefully. Person for person, about every team will have more overall team speed. Thus, Harvard must not turn the ball over on transition and must operate as often as possible in the set offense, which will be the team's strength.

"We're hoping to carry the ball a lot on offense so the defense won't see as many shots," senior attacker Maria Hennessey said.

Besides Hennessey, senior Erin Cleary, co-captain Megan Hall and sophomore Sara Cable will lead the offense.

Another key for the season will be senior Shana Barghouti, who was Schutt's understudy at goaltender last year. Barghouti began playing lacrosse only a few years ago and is still inexperienced in front of the net, but her teammates believe she can handle the job.