For the first time in a long time, there's some suspense about the Howe Cup.

This weekend at Yale, the Harvard women's squash team (5-1) will attempt to win its seventh straight national championship and its 11th title in the last 15 years.

However, what is usually as automatic as the Oakland Raiders' signing the Super Bowl MVP has been cast into doubt.

Earlier this year, the Crimson suffered the unimaginable--a loss. Princeton beat Harvard 7-2 just after the Crimson squeaked out a tough 5-4 win over Penn.

"We'll probably play Princeton in the finals," said sophomore No. 9 player Blair Endresen. "We're ready to go back there and play them. This weekend's different from the season, and we're ready to beat them."

Harvard beat the Tigers 6-3 two years ago and 5-4 last year in the Howe Cup. Although it is not an official national championship, the tournament winner is generally regarded as the best team in the nation.

"We're definitely up for it," said junior No. 2 Stephanie Teaford.

Teaford thinks that the loss might have relieved some of the pressure on Harvard, even though it also cost the Crimson its aura of invincibility.

"We can relax since we lost to them last time, and we can look forward to playing them," Teaford said. "Before, they were hunting us, so now it's our turn."

Although Princeton and Harvard seem destined to duel for the cup, the Crimson still has to get by Penn--which it barely beat earlier--on Saturday.

"We're not looking past Penn, we understand they're going to be a substantial rival," Teaford said. "We have the confidence after we played them before, since we all know how we stand next to them.

After the Howe Cup, Harvard usually stands alone. This weekend will see whether that seemingly timeless truth still holds.