Junior midfielder Armando Petruccelli did not join the men's soccer team until the fourth game of this season. Not coincidentally, it took the Crimson that long to discover its offensive touch.

Unfortunately, by then Harvard already had an 0-3-1 record, and it would lose one more game 5-4 to Yale on Sept. 26 in which Petruccelli scored twice.

The poor start virtually precluded the Crimson from returning to the NCAA tournament, but it gained a considerable amount of respect by posting an 8-2-1 record over its last 11 games.

Harvard finished the year in fourth place in the Ivy League on a 3-3-1 conference record, 8-6-2 overall.

"Overall, I wasn't very pleased with the season," captain Andrew Lundquist said. "We could've done a lot better, but we did finish up strong."

All of its losses early on in the season stemmed from an inability to generate offense. With a veteran defense led by Lundquist and senior sweeper Lee Williams, it held then No. 8 Stanford to just one overtime goal in the season opener on Sept. 13, blanked Central Connecticut in the following match, and limited both Columbia and Providence to just two goals apiece.

Except the Central Connecticut game, which ended in a scoreless tie, Harvard lost all of the above contests by one goal. In fact, no team edged the Crimson by more than a strike this season.

"We had a good defense," Lundquist said. "But we didn't have the experience or the confidence to win the close games."

Goals were almost as precious for Harvard opponents as for the Crimson because whenever an attacker navigated through the senior fullbacks, it still had to beat senior goaltender Jordan Dupuis.

Dupuis posted four shutouts on the season and his six saves in the final Harvard game of the year--a 1-0 win over Hartwick--gave him 233 for his career. That mark eclipsed the record held by Bill Meyers '70 for most career saves.

"I did alright this year," Dupuis said. "I wasn't really going for the record, it just happened."

With such a strong defense, the Crimson just needed its offense to kick in gear to produce some victories and it started on Sept. 29 against then-No. 17 Boston University as freshman Mike Peller scored unassisted in overtime for a 2-1 win.

Harvard pressured the Terriers consistently through the second half as the offense now had some life.

The Crimson then built some Ivy momentum by blanking Penn 2-0 on Oct. 3, and followed that with a 2-1 triumph over the Big Red.

Captain-elect Ryan Kelly and junior Will Hench each connected for the Crimson against Cornell to give Harvard its first win over the Ithacans since 1994.