For the past three months, the No. 1 Harvard women's hockey team has been the team to beat, and the Crimson has withstood all challengers. With a 25-game winning streak and 49 conference points, Harvard put together an impeccable regular season.

But a much more important season begins tomorrow at 2 p.m. when Harvard (28-1-0, 24-1-1 ECAC) hosts eighth-place Cornell (15-15-0, 14-12-0)--the only unranked team to make postseason play--in the first round of the ECAC Tournament at Bright Hockey Center. This will be the last home game of the season for the Crimson.

"This is the last home game for the seniors, but it's more than that," said co-captain Claudia Asano. "The fact that it's a playoff game is more important than anything else. If we lose, we can't win the ECAC, so everything is on the line."

While shocking, a loss would not be disastrous for Harvard. By clinching the top seed in the ECAC Tournament and the regular season conference title, the Crimson also secured an automatic bid to the AWCHA National Championship's four-team field March 26 and 27. So Harvard will be playing over spring break regardless of what happens in the conference tournament.

"It's nice to have the insurance that there will still be more games in our season at the end of March," Asano said. "But that motivates us to play better because everyone is gunning to beat the No. 1 team in the country. And we still want to prove why we're No. 1."

Perhaps the biggest advantage for Harvard will be home ice. Fans have broken attendance records twice this season--against UNH and Brown--and Bright could be developing into the most difficult rink in the ECAC.

"We will be ready for whoever walks into our rink Saturday, Cornell or anyone else," said sophomore forward Tara Dunn. "Hopefully the fan support will be there as it has in our other big games."

The Crimson took the color out of the Big Red, 4-2, Feb. 20 at Ithaca. Although the score was surprisingly close--Harvard crushed Cornell, 7-2, Nov. 21--both Big Red goals came harmlessly in the last 1:25 of the contest. Even so, the four Crimson goals fell short of Harvard's nation-leading average of 6.59 goals a game.

"We didn't play that well at Cornell," Asano said. "We assumed too much and then panicked at the end because we thought the game was already over. But every game is big in the playoffs and we need to play better this time."