Change is a good thing.

At least that's what the Harvard field hockey team believes as it enters this season with many new wrinkles in the program.

The biggest news of the year involves the very ground the Crimson plays on. During the off-season, Harvard constructed Jordan Field, a $3.3 million, state-of-the-art, synthetic-turf field to replace the natural grass surface at Cumnock Field.

The step from grass to artificial turf promises to be a huge one, since the majority of the nation's best teams plays on the surface. Now the Crimson can play and practice on the surface it will find itself playing on when it takes on the sport's elite.

"The turf field will definitely help us this year," co-captain Dominique Kalil said. "It makes the game play much faster. All of the top programs in the country play on turf, and now that we can play on it more often we will be more competitive against them."

Despite the improved playing surface, the Crimson will have to fill in for three starters lost to graduation, from a team that finished a respectable 9-9 (5-2 Ivy) last year.

Harvard must replace co-captains Judy Collins and Tara LaSovage as well as forward Penny Fairbairn. Collins was named First Team All-Ivy, while LaSovage earned Second Team honors. Fairbairn made Honorable Mention All-Ivy.

Collins was a perennial Ivy powerhouse, and tied the league's career scoring record with 102 points.

"We lost three key players from last year's team, which is clearly a difficult thing to overcome," Kalil said. "This season, however, we have much more depth. We return some excellent players and we have a great freshman class."