The situation in the Brown game was exactly that of the Dartmouth game. With time running down, Monti took the ball the length of the court and, while falling out of bounds with a defender's hand in her face, nailed an off-balance line-drive three-pointer as time expired to give the Crimson a 69-67 win.

Monti offered a reprise the next night. With Harvard trailing Yale by one, Monti dribbled the ball to the wing, ran around an attempted double-team by the Elis, drove the lane and laid the ball up and in as the buzzer sounded. That gave the Crimson a 54-53 victory and its third buzzer-beater of the season.

"We were inconsistent this year," Miller said. "We had moments of brilliance and moments of complete ineptitude, but the two buzzer-beaters against Brown and Yale were unbelievable."

Although Harvard fell to eventual league-champion Dartmouth in its final game, 1998-99 left the impression that the Crimson will quickly rise to the top of the league again.

The Crimson graduates four seniors: co-captains Miller and Sarah Russell, Janowski and Kelly Kinneen. But most impressive is what Harvard returns.

Monti and Gates will be back, and their talents should not surprise the league. Neither should they be surprised by freshmen Lindsay Ryba--who joined Monti on the Ivy League All-Rookie team--Laura Barnard or Sharon Nunamaker.

Several players who missed most of the 1998-99 season should be back and healthy as well. Sophomore guards Lisa Kowal and Carrie Larkworthy and co-captain-elect Sturdy should be back and ready to contribute big numbers to the Crimson's attack.

But Harvard's secret weapon could come in the form of 6'6 junior forward Melissa Johnson. Johnson transferred from the University of North Carolina and had to take this year off, but she is ready to take the Ivy League by storm next season.

"They are going to be awesome next year," said Miller. "It will come down to chemistry. But they will have more talent, and they will be very strong. They should crush people."

So the 1998-99 season did not go as planned for Harvard, but every team must take some time to reload its ammunition after so many years of success. The Crimson appears to have done that this year, and it should be gunning for another Ivy League title next season.