It was a bittersweet season for the Harvard women's soccer team in 1998. It was also a season that saw the end of one of the greatest eras in the history of Harvard women's soccer.

For the third consecutive year and the fourth time in five years, the Crimson qualified for the NCAA Tournament. However, for the first time in four seasons, Harvard failed to capture the Ivy League title, finishing second to league champion Dartmouth.

Nevertheless, the 1998 season was another successful one for the Crimson under the tutelage of Coach Tim Wheaton. In his 12th season at the helm for Harvard, Wheaton guided his team to an 11-4-1 regular-season record, a 6-1 Ivy mark and a first-round victory in the NCAA tournament.

Of course, Wheaton had some help from one of the most talented squads Harvard had ever seen, led by the second-winningest class in the 22-year history of Harvard women's soccer.

Pacing the Crimson were a pair of perennial First Team All-Ivy honorees, seniors Naomi Miller and Emily Stauffer. Stauffer and Miller are two of only 12 Ivy League players ever to earn First Team All-Ivy accolades in each of their four years.

Each has also been named Ivy League Player of the Year, but both Stauffer and Miller's production was down from years past, a characteristic that plagued most members of the Crimson throughout the season.

"We definitely had a tough time scoring goals," senior Jaime Chu said. "We couldn't put a finger on it. Who knows where to put the blame?"

Harvard started the year off with a bang and a decisive 3-0 victory over New Hampshire. After taking a semester off from school in the fall of 1997, Stauffer returned in high form, scoring or assisting on each of Harvard's three goals. But that was when the Crimson's offense stagnated.

Harvard could muster only two goals over its next three games, dropping two of those contests and escaping with a 1-0, double-overtime win over Columbia in the third on a goal by junior standout Beth Zotter.

The Crimson's two early-season losses were one-goal decisions against Penn State and Hartford, both top-15 teams, which would set a trend for the season. All of Harvard's losses, including its lone Ivy League defeat and its season-ending loss in the second round of NCAAs, came at the hands of top-15 teams.

"It wasn't a bad season," Chu said. "We had very high expectations. We had a successful season for any other team, but it's hard to think of it that way."

Harvard was ranked in the national top-25 throughout the season, and the double-overtime victory over Columbia began an eight-game unbeaten streak that included wins over Ivy rivals Yale and Pennsylvania--the Quakers' first loss of the season--as well as the Harvard Invitational Championship.

Even during this successful stretch, however, Harvard only scored more than two goals once, in a dominant 5-0 win over Northeastern. Throughout the season it was the Crimson's stalwart defense--one of the best units in the nation--that kept Harvard ahead of its opponents.

The solid Crimson defense was anchored by junior sweeper Jessie Larson. In front of Larson were senior fullbacks Chu and Ashley Marynick and sophomore stopper Lauren Corkery. Junior Gina Foster, Harvard's most versatile player, also rotated at the fullback spot and doubled as a forward.

Junior Anne Browning handled most of the duties in goal, although senior Jen Burney saw considerable action as well. Together, the Crimson's defensive unit recorded six shutouts and gave up only one goal on seven other occasions.