Because of the influx of Olympians, expectations are high; one preseason poll has the team ranked No. 5 in the nation. Mleczko says one of her challenges as captain will be preventing the expectation from becoming pressure.

She also says she expects to have a different role from when she played two years ago. Then, she was considered a scorer, but the personnel has changed. Now Mleczko says she wants to be a playmaker; defensive center is a role she embraced with the Olympic team.

Being a Harvard women's hockey captain might be in the genes--Mleczko's sister, Wink Mleczko '95, was captain during A.J.'s sophomore year. But this year's squad has the chance to be Harvard's best team ever.

"I think we have a good chance to win the ECAC and even the national championship," she says. "We're definitely contenders."

Mleczko has watched women's hockey grow and improve markedly during her lifetime. International competition began in 1990, and Canada dominated the U.S., winning in '90, '92, 94 and '97. The gap kept closing, however, and in the '97 World Championships, Mleczko's U.S. team took Canada to overtime.

"You could see the gap closing," she says. "We pushed each other to a new level of women's hockey."

Mleczko says she still wants to improve and be a part of the continuing transformation of the sport. She says she will work on her speed and her shooting in particular.

"I want to get a job that is flexible, so if there's a tournament, I can leave for a week, and maybe that means working for a hockey-related organization, whether another team or a manufacturer," she says.

She says she is interested in following in her father's footsteps as a teacher and coach as a long-term goal.

Mleczko does not emphasize this aspect of the Olympics as much, but during U.S. Olympic Committee processing, she got a lot of free clothes: jeans, hats, t-shirts, and jackets.

"They tell you to go over to Japan for a month with basically personal items, and that's it," she says. "It's unbelievable how much stuff you get from the sponsors."

Loot and a gold medal? What a deal. After two years off, Mleczko is back, ready to finish off the greatest career in Harvard women's hockey history. The Crimson's opponents may be left wishing she had taken door number two.