"Travelling to San Diego breaks up our spring training," captain Cary Donaldson said. "We haven't raced MIT before. They're kind of an unknown, but it should be good racing experience with less pressure than facing a team like Princeton."

In addition to races against local rivals like Northeastern, MIT and Boston University, Radcliffe will face primarily teams from the Ivy League this season.

That is definitely not easy competition, however.

Princeton is the defending national champion and according to Donaldson, Brown looked especially fast during the fall.

Even with such formidable competition, the Radcliffe crew has set high goals for this season.

"Princeton has been a power-house for the last few years and Brown is also looking good, but I think we're also right in there with them," junior Demetra Koutsoukos said. "We'll be competition for them just like they'll be competition for us."

"My goal is to have a fast program as opposed to one or two fast boats," Donaldson said. "I'd also like to win the Points Trophy at Sprints. It would show that Radcliffe could be fast [as a whole]."

In addition to a strong performance at Sprints, a win against Princeton would have additional meaning to many Radcliffe rowers.

"A personal goal of mine is that I'd like to beat Princeton," Donaldson said. "They're the only team we haven't beaten in my three years here, and I think Princeton is definitely beatable. It's all a question of attitude, if we think we can beat them."

Even though the heavyweight crew lacks a lot of experienced senior leadership, the younger rowers are looking especially strong.

"We lost a lot of people from varsity last year," Donaldson said. "But we have a huge sophomore class, and there should be a lot of sophomores on varsity, which also bodes well for the future."