The 1997-98 season was a season of promise for Harvard. It was the final year of laying a foundation that will place the Crimson in the thick of the national championship chase next season. After losing just two players from this year's squad--junior Kate Schutt's eligibility is up after she spent two years at the Berklee College of Music--Harvard will welcome back Shewchuck and Mleczko in the fall, and a couple of new faces will grace the ice in Bright Hockey Center.

Choate Rosemary Hall senior Angela Ruggiero, a teammate of Mleczko's on the U.S. Olympic Team, and Canadian Olympic Team member Jennifer Botterill are expected to matriculate at Harvard in the fall. Ruggiero and Botterill are widely considered among the continent's top high school players, and both should make immediate contributions much in the same way Shewchuck did last year and Francisco and Suurkask did this season.

"[Ruggiero] has great size, speed and skill. We don't have very much size, and her presence is going to step up our level," Asano said. "Botterill is a great skilled player who is very fast. She's just going to fly around and blow by people. Both of them should make big impacts."

Stone will enter her fifth season at the helm of Harvard women's hockey in the fall, which means that, for the first time, every member of the Crimson next season will be one of Stone's recruits.

"We're in a building stage still in our program, but we are on our way," Stone said at midseason. "I foresee it being a coin toss next year, and who knows what will happen after that. It might be a Harvard dynasty pretty soon."

The rebuilding process is officially over, terminated with Harvard's outstanding effort in the ECAC quarterfinals against UNH. The reconstruction is complete, and the new parts are in place. All that remains is for Harvard to prove that 1997-98 was indeed a stepping stone toward a level of play above that of its past Ivy League-champion condition.

"We know we have the potential and the talent to be great," Asano said, "but it's going to take a lot more than talent to complete our dream of winning it all. It's going to take a lot of heart. We've accepted what we need to do for next year."