The results are too late for press time, but in case you're wondering, we are holding our breath.

W. Soccer SURPRISE TEAM OF THE YEAR

First-Team All Americans tend to be hard to replace.

Doing just that was the challenge facing the Harvard women's soccer team when it learned it would play the 1997 season without star midfielder and Ivy Player of the Year Emily Stauffer, who took the fall semester off.

They did alright for themselves, to say the least.

After a slow start, Harvard won its third straight Ivy League title and reached the final eight of the NCAA Tournament before a 1-0 loss to eventual and perennial champion North Carolina.

"Emily is an outstanding player, but fortunately, our team wasn't based around her," said captain Rebe Glass before the season.

So maybe the team wasn't surprised, but we sure were.

David Forst MOST IMPROVED PLAYER

Harvard baseball captain David Forst had 26 career RBI entering this season. He was your typical "good-field, no-hit" short-stop, a nine-hole hitter you could count on to eat up a routine grounder. But God forbid he step into the batter's box with a couple of ducks on the pond.

All that changed this season. Forst worked on his strength and conditioning all summer and improved his swing by practicing with a wooden bat, and it paid off in a record way. By the end of the year, Forst was in the five spot in the order, led the team in batting (.406) and RBI (39), held the Harvard record for hits in a season (67) and was playing on a 36-12 team that had won two games in the NCAA Regional.

"I wanted to make my last year my best one," he said. "All of the hard work in the offseason paid off."