In American history, the years 1776, 1929, and 1945 were monumental years that changed the history of the nation.

In the history of the Harvard women's volleyball team, the year 1998 will soon be erased in the memory of Crimson fans.

Only a year after garnering a school-record 25-9 mark in 1997, Harvard (11-21, 4-3 Ivy League) suffered its first sub-.500 season since the 1994 campaign.

The Crimson faced a plethora of problems this season, the most pressing of which was an injury-plagued front line.

Sophomore middle hitter Katherine Hart, the first Harvard player to win Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors in 1997, and sophomore outside hitter Angela Lutich both sat out most of the season because of serious stress fractures. They returned to action during the last month of the season but were unable to save the Crimson from mediocrity.

Moreover, junior outside hitter Linda Jellison, who last year won Second Team All-Ivy honors, also sat out several weeks this season with an injury, further depleting the Crimson's ranks and skewing player chemistry.

These injuries forced the Crimson to constantly juggle its line-up and experiment with different combinations of healthy players.

"I think our biggest weakness this season was our numerous injuries," said co-captain Kate Nash. "No one can control two stress fractures and two sprained ankles. It really presented a challenge to our team dynamic and our team performance. A positive result of it, however, was that other people stepped up."

"We never really established a real chemistry because our line-up changed so frequently with different people coming back and different people getting hurt," said freshman outside hitter Erin Denniston.