The Stanford Nike Invitational
should be anything but fun and sun for the Harvard men's soccer team.
On its first extended road trip of the season, the Crimson (2-3-1) will face Stanford (3-2-1), last season's NCAA Tournament runner-up, and No. 20 California Berkeley (6-1-1), in Palo Alto this weekend.
For the Crimson, top-ranked opponents are nothing new. In the last two weeks, Harvard has played then-No. 1 Creighton and then-No. 8 Yale. Both teams have since dropped in the standings.
"After the last couple of weeks, we have a feeling we can play with anyone," senior forward Will Hench said. "We played with Yale for the first sixty minutes, and one of their goals came off a deflection. The point is we never felt outclassed. I think results against these two teams are definitely possible."
Although both matches ended in losses for the Crimson, the games seem to be providing experience for a young Harvard team that has lost a number of veterans early in the season, including junior captain Ryan Kelly.
The learning curve is easy to see.
After a 6-0 defeat at the hands of Creighton, the Crimson returned to its home field less than 24 hours later to defeat Columbia, a team that has constantly received votes in national polls, though it has yet to puncture the top 25 this year.
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