The Harvard women's hockey team, the preseason favorite to win the national championship, is still No. 1 in the country at midseason. That's good enough for a long break over intersession.

The Crimson (13-2-2, 11-2-2 ECAC) has been practicing for about an hour a day over reading and exam periods. But now the practice sessions will get more intense as Harvard prepares for its toughest stretch of the regular season.

The Crimson will play nine games in February, and as many as six of those contests will be against ranked teams. Harvard plays No. 5 Northeastern, No. 8 Providence and No. 4 New Hampshire at home, and it will travel to No. 7 Dartmouth and No. 3 Brown. The Crimson could face Northeastern again if it advances to the Beanpot championship game, which will be at Bright Hockey Center Feb. 15.

Heading into the home stretch, Harvard has a two-point lead over UNH for first place in the ECAC. Junior wingers Tammy Shewchuk (21 goals, 19 assists) and Angie Francisco (14, 26), sophomore center Jen Botterill (15, 17) and sophomore defenseman Angela Ruggiero (11, 18) are all among the top 10 scorers in the conference.

Men's tennis

After finishing the fall season ranked No. 25 in the country and No. 1 in the northeast region, the Harvard men's tennis team entered the NCAA-mandated winter "dead period" where practices must be short, unofficial and individual. The season had been largely successful as the team won the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) fall team championship, defeating highly ranked teams like Princeton and Columbia.

But now the team is rested and hitting the courts to return for the winter-spring season. Tomorrow marks the first real practice since November and the team will stay busy during the intersession in Cambridge.

Friday through Sunday, the Crimson will host the Harvard Winter Invitational. 12 teams from across the country will descend on the Murr Center to play three flighted singles tournaments and two doubles tournaments. All of the Harvard team will be in action, except for still-injured co-captain John Doran, who is down with patella tendonitis, and co-captain Joe Green, who was injured a few weeks ago.

The tournament will be an opportunity for the team to get ready for a busy February. While none of the Crimson players qualified for next week's Rolex ITA singles tournament in Dallas, the team will play dual matches against Oklahoma State and Kansas in mid-February. The winter season will then culminate in the National Indoor Team Tournament in Kentucky on Feb. 24-27.