As most Harvard students make their annual winter escape from Cambridge to enjoying holiday feasts and open presents galore, four Harvard athletic teams will play significant games.

Both Harvard basketball teams teams head to sunny skies for the break, as the men's team travels to San Francisco and the women fly south to Florida. The men's hockey team also leaves the northeast behind, as it travels to Omaha, but the No. 1 ranked women's team will linger in New England for the duration of the break.

Men's Hockey

The familiar Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC), the home of the Harvard men's hockey team since 1947, has completely thwarted the Crimson this year. Harvard (2-8-1, 0-8-1 ECAC) has just one point, a tie against Brown, to show for its nine ECAC games.

To start the holiday season, the Crimson will fly almost as far away as possible--Omaha, Neb.,--to try to turn its season around. Harvard will play two games against the University of Nebraska-Omaha (2-14-0) tomorrow and Saturday before returning to conference play at the end of the break. Harvard travels to Dartmouth (4-4-0, 1-3-0) on Jan. 2 and Vermont (7-4-0, 3-1-0) the following day.

These four games may be Harvard's last best chance to turn its season around. In Omaha the Crimson will find a team struggling as much as itself. The Mavericks have won just two games this season and have managed to score more than two goals in only three contests. Nebraska-Omaha has a relatively new hockey program, which started just two years ago and is slated to join the Central Collegiate Hockey Association next season.

Although the games in Nebraska do not count in the standings, a pair of wins could give Harvard some much needed confidence entering its conference match-ups against Dartmouth and Vermont.

The Big Green has also gotten off to an inauspicious ECAC start, winning only one of its four league contests. Dartmouth's defense is the only one in the league worse than Harvard's, so the game could be an opportunity for the Crimson to right its anemic offense.

The Big Green can light the lamp with the best of them, however, averaging four goals per game, led by rookie sensations Curtis Wilgosh and Ryan Chaytors.

Vermont, which boasts the best special teams unit in the ECAC, should provide the fiercest test for the Crimson. Vermont's offense is guided by captain Jason Reid, 10th in conference scoring.

Women's Hockey

The biggest question for the No. 1 Harvard women's hockey team in its games at Boston College and No. 8 Dartmouth this weekend is who will provide scoring in the absence of sophomore forward Tammy Shewchuk and freshman forward Jen Botterill.

Both Shewchuk, who leads the nation with 16 goals this season, and Botterill, who is second on the team with 12 goals, will be playing with the Canadian Under-22 Team in Germany and Switzerland. The Crimson (10-1-0, 8-1-0 ECAC) has dominated the league during its current seven-game winning streak, outscoring its opponents by a combined 49-7, but most of that scoring came from the two Canadians.

"This is a good test for us," said Harvard Coach Katey Stone. "It will be good to change things around a little bit, and our offense will still come as long as we take care of the defensive end first."

The Crimson will still have the services of reigning ECAC Player of the Week A.J. Mleczko, who leads the nation with 33 points, ECAC Rookie of the Week Angela Ruggiero, the highest-scoring defenseman in the country with 23 points and ECAAC Goaltender of the Week Crystal Springer, who is tied for second in the conference with a 1.36 goals-against average.

Without Shewchuk and Botterill, Stone will play senior forward Jen Gerometta and sophomore forward Tara Dunn alongside Mleczko at center. Sophomore forward Kiirsten Suurkask will join junior forward Kim McManama and shophomore center Angie Francisco on the second line.

Stone expects co-captain Claudia Asano, who missed the last three games with a sprained ankle, to return to the ice this weekend to help out Ruggiero and junior defensemen Courtney Smith and Christie MacKinnon.

The Crimson will look to maintain or add to its two-point lead in the ECAC standings against the 11th-place Eagles (2-7-1, 1-6-1) and the sixth-place Big Green (4-2-2, 4-2-2). Senior forward Erin Magee