Since early November, the Harvard grapplers have been competing against some of the top contenders in the nation, from its travels to the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas and the Aloha Classic in Hawaii, to more recent match-ups against Ivy strongholds such as Penn and Cornell.

Yet, while the team has certainly established itself as a threat in the collegiate circuit, the challenge is not over. The grapplers face their most important battle this weekend, as they travel to West Point for the EIWA tournament in hopes of earning a berth to Nationals, held later this month.

"I think we're ready," said Coach Jay Weiss. "We have a great shot for pushing guys to the finals."

Coming off a dual meet season hampered by injuries, the Crimson used the two weeks since their last home meet against Brown and B.U. to get everyone healthy and individualize their training. The team goes to the tournament in full force, with a strong lineup led by senior tricaptains Dustin DeNunzio, Joel Friedman, and junior tri-captain Fran Volpe.

Last year, the team finished fourth over-all, the highest in the school's history. And although they are ranked fourth going into this year's tournament, they hope to-and are certainly capable of-exceeding last year's performance. Ranked ahead of them are Lehigh, Penn and Cornell, respectively. Though all pose strong competition for the Crimson, Coach Weiss considers the Quakers especially tough.

"Penn has a lot of depth and balance from top to bottom," he said.

Individually, the Crimson heads to Army with six wrestlers in the top eight for their respective weight classes in the preliminary rankings (as of Feb. 28).

At 133 pounds, sophomore Matt Picsic, who rounded out an outstanding freshman campaign by finishing third at EIWAs last season, goes into the weekend ranked fifth. He looks to avenge his earlier loss to Livio DiRubbo of Brown, as well as continue his victorious ways against Nate Rupp of Cornell and Nick Fokas of Columbia.

DeNunzio-who was EIWA champion last year before going on to earn All-American at Nationals-was given a No. 1 ranking in the 141-pound weight class. His toughest competition will come from Ben New of Cornell whom he handed a 7-2 loss last month, and Mark Piotrowsky of Penn whom he has already beaten twice this season by scores of 5-3 and 10-5.

In the 149-pound weight class, Friedman, who took last year off but wrestled for a NCAA spot in 1996, is seeded fourth. His opponents include three wrestlers that were some of his toughest matches earlier this year: Brett Matter of Penn, Ryan Bernholz of Lehigh and Shawn Bradley of Cornell.

Junior Kevin Kurtz, who has emerged this season as one of Harvard's leading superstars, takes a No. 2 seeding behind Chris Ayres in the 157-pound weight class.

At 165 pounds, junior Joey Killar-who finished fifth in EIWAs last year-finally returns after missing most of the dual meet season because of injury. Killar's domination during the first part of the season has earned him a No. 3 ranking, and he looks to overtake Travis Doto of Lehigh and Rick Springman of Penn for a trip to Nationals.

Volpe, whose strong third place finish at EIWAs last season earned him one of only six wildcard spots for Nationals, has a fourth place ranking in the 184-pound weight class.

Also taking a No. 4 ranking is 197-pound sophomore Brad Soltis. With a tremendous performance this season, Soltis has really come forth as one of the Crimson's top wrestlers. Although he lost to No. 1 Andrei Rodzianko of Penn, Soltis has already beaten No. 3 Rob Rohn of Lehigh 13-9, and lost a close overtime dual to No. 2 Bob Greenleaf.

Rounding out the lineup for the Crimson are three others who have been an integral part of the team this season and whose threat at the tournament this weekend is not to be underestimated. Sophomore Kevin El-Hayek will wrestle at his first Easterns in the 125-pound weight class.

And finally, freshman Dawid Rechul will represent the Crimson at heavyweight. Rechul has been nothing less than remarkable this season, fighting tooth and nail with wrestlers that are more experienced, not to mention a lot heavier.

The tournament lasts two full days and will work by double elimination. The top two wrestlers from each weight class are guaranteed spots at Nationals. Six wildcard tickets are given to other top wrestlers in the tournament, without regard to weight class.

"We prepare everyone to win Easterns as an individual so as a team we can win," Coach Weiss said. "We are the most prepared we have been as a team. It will be neat to watch it all unfold." 05/03/1999 Sports A-10 M. Hockey Hopes to Salvage Season at Home MICHAEL R. VOLONNINO

The season hung in the balance when the Harvard men's hockey team last battled Vermont and Dartmouth.

Still winless in the ECAC at that time, the Crimson had its first sliver of momentum after a sweep in Omaha. If Harvard was to enter the conference playoff picture, it had to win right then and there.

And it did, taking both games.

Now, the season hangs in the balance again for Harvard (11-14-2, 6-12-2 ECAC) as it prepares to host Vermont (13-14-2, 7-11-2) and Dartmouth (10-16-1, 6-13-1) for the final two games of the regular season. Pure and simple, if the Crimson wants to qualify for the playoffs, it has to win a game.

A pair of losses will almost guarantee the first premature end to hockey in Cambridge since the 1980-81 campaign.

"As a senior, it would be nice to go out with a sweep," senior defenseman Ben Storey said. "We need to win at least one game, but we know we can sweep because we've done it before."

The sweep would earn more for the Crimson than a playoff spot. It would vaunt Harvard into eighth place and avoid a first round match-up against Clarkson or St. Lawrence.

The North Country teams have swept the season series with Harvard.

Up until last weekend, Harvard had been among the hottest teams in the ECAC. Its earlier sweep of the Catamounts and the Big Green sparked an excellent 1999. The Crimson had posted a 6-2-1 conference record in the new year.

At the forefront of the Crimson resurgence has been the superb play of junior goaltender J.R. Prestifilippo. Over his previous 12 games he registered a .916 save percentage and a 2.46 GAA.

Prestifilippo made a critical mistake last Friday against St. Lawrence, however, giving up the tying goal with 33 seconds remaining on a shot from behind the blue line. The junior netminder rebounded with a solid outing against Clarkson and will have to be at his usual best this weekend.

"The team is so supportive it wasn't hard to put St. Lawrence behind me," Prestifilippo said. "Without urgency to win games, I have no time to think about past mistakes."

The goals tend to pile up whenever the Crimson plays the Catamounts. The red light has turned on 33 times in their past three match-ups-Harvard has won the last two contests 7-6.

Despite tallying the second fewest goals in the conference, UVM has players who can score. Forwards Stephane Piche, a senior, and Matt Sanders and Kevin Karlander, both juniors, all can find the back of the net. Sanders bagged a hat trick in their last meeting.

Friday night's game should not witness the same goal explosion that has happened before. Both back-ups-sophomore Oliver Jonas for Harvard and senior Marty Phillips for Vermont-patrolled the pipes in January.

Phillips especially had an awful game, giving a hat trick to junior defenseman Matt Scorsune by whiffing on his dump in from the blue line.

The top Catamount goaltender, sophomore Andrew Allen, owns the ECAC's best GAA at 2.26 and trails only the Saints' Eric Heffler with a .926 save percentage.

"In order to shut these teams down," Storey said, "we have to slow them down a little bit physically. Vermont has some fast players [and] we need to take the body and control the tempo of the game."

Still, the weekend will be the Crimson's last chance to get all cogs of its offense in gear at once.

Over the past couple of games, the heart of the offense has actually come from the third line, through the hard work and hustle of junior forwards Brett Chodorow and Trevor Allman, along with Scott Turco.

Right now, Chodorow may be Harvard's best offensive player, striking for two goals last weekend.

"It gets us going when we see them cycling and going down low," sophomore forward Steve Moore said. "It's good to see that line playing well."

Dartmouth limps into the final weekend taking a three-game losing streak that includes an 8-3 loss to RPI and a 7-3 defeat by Princeton.

Expected to finish 11th this year, it moved from that slot and into playoff contention with a surprising three-game win streak in its previous three that includes upsets of Cornell and Colgate.

While on paper this appears the easier game of the deuce for Harvard, Dartmouth has proven it can knock off any body.

It stunned Princeton 4-2 in early January back when the Tigers were on verge of becoming a nationally-ranked team.

The Crimson had little difficulty dispatching the Big Green 4-2 on Jan. 2, but with a playoff spot on the line, this game should be much tighter.

Skilled senior forwards Ryan Chaytors and Curtis Wilgosh lead the attack, which ranks a surprising fourth in the ECAC, averaging 3.19 goals per game.

"Just because Dartmouth has not done well doesn't mean we take them any less seriously," Storey said. "They are certainly not a given."

All season long, Harvard has discussed playing a game with the same high intensity and effort from the opening face-off to the final buzzer. Throughout its rocky season, those lapses in energy have made the difference in games.

If it wants to avoid the embarrassment of missing the playoffs in the 10th anniversary of its national championship, Harvard needs at least one win. To maximize its chances to go to Lake Placid, it needs two-a feat the Crimson has already proven it can do.

"We want to play with a high intensity and carry [that] into the playoffs," Prestifilippo said. "However, first things first and this weekend is the most important weekend of the year."

The Crimson won't get another chance.