Around the Harvard men's soccer team, 1995 is to be put behind but not away.

It was a bad season, pure and simple. The defending Ivy League champion finished 6-8-3 overall, 3-4 in the league and was treated like a doormat by the end of the campaign.

And the worst of all, it was the Crimson's fault.

The originating cause of these troubles was injury. Then-juniors Kevin Silva, John Vrionis, Richard Wilmot and Jim Quagliaroli all lost significant playing time due to mishaps.

That was bad luck and certainly was forgivable. Harvard's reaction was not.

"Disappointment was our biggest enemy," Harvard coach Stephen Locker said. "We were so frustrated with our lack of success...we began to question ourselves. This year, I told the boys, 'We're going to have some problems, so we have to be prepared to deal with them."

So with a renewed caution about overzealous expectations, the team is hesitantly excited about the 1996 season, if that's at all possible.

Everyone's healthy now, and only one starter from last season graduated, Chris Wojcik. In a way, then, this year is almost like a take-two of the last.

Leading the way is captain Will Kohler, who led the team in both goals (nine) and assists (eight). Wilmot, a tall forward, also did well offensively with six goals and six assists in 14 games, as did junior Toure McCluskey and sophomores Zach Viders and Armando Petrucelli.

On defense, senior T.J. Carella, an Honorable Mention All-Ivy, will lead the way and will get help from Vrionis, Quagliaroli and Taadeh Sheriff, who took a year off last season. Senior Peter Albers will take most of the starts in goal.

Undoubtedly, this team's depth looks great. Going down the roster, everyone looks like they could contribute.

"We've had eight freshmen work out with us this weekend," Locker said. "We have a luxury in that we don't have to play any freshman [if we don't want to]."

One luxury the Crimson won't have will be an easy schedule. The Ivies open up quickly, with three of the four September games coming against league foes, and continues with tough non-league opponents such as B.U., B.C., Maine and Hartwick.

And in the Ancient Eight, there's probably not going to be a patsy or a runaway favorite. Cornell took the crown last year, going 15-2-1 and earning a No. 9 ranking in the Intercollegiate Soccer Association of America Poll. But the Big Red lost five starters, and Brown and Princeton have been tossed around with Harvard as possible overthrowers.

Columbia, meanwhile, was hyped up in the national rankings last September but faltered to a 9-8 record, so the Lions might break out this year. Dartmouth fielded a decent team, while Yale and Penn finished tied for last but aren't pushovers.