Prior to Sunday night, the 2000 season had not been kind to the Harvard women's soccer team.

Before the year even started, injuries sidelined three members of the Crimson's standout sophomore class. Two of those players, forwards Beth Totman and Caitlin Butler, have remained out all season.

Then, over the course of the regular season, the Crimson (10-7, 4-3 Ivy)

was dealt a slew of tough-luck losses, including a string of five defeats to close out the season. After falling 2-1 in overtime on Saturday to Columbia, which had not won a league game previously, Harvard understandably believed that it had hit rock bottom.

Senior sweeper Brooke McCarthy said she even thought she had played the final home game of her college career, if not the final game altogether.

"I was pretty upset," she said.

But on Sunday night, all of a sudden, the Crimson's fortunes finally changed, as the NCAA selection committee awarded Harvard an at-large bid into the postseason tournament. For the first time in a while, the Crimson had cause for celebration.

This afternoon, Harvard will try to carry surge that emotion over into its opening round match against Quinnipiac at 1 p.m at Ohiri Field.

Today's contest marks the Crimson's fifth straight appearance in the NCAA tournament and its eighth overall.

Harvard is 5-7 all-time in the postseason tourney. Its best performance came in 1997 when the Crimson advanced all the way to the quarterfinals before falling to eventual national champion North Carolina.

"We're just really excited to get a chance," McCarthy said. "We know we

can play at that level and we know we are one of the top 48 teams in the

country."

Blessed with a clean slate, the Crimson can now forget its recent slump, which proved not to be as fatal as was originally thought.

"You take those [five losses] and spread them out over the entire season

and they don't seem as bad because they were all good teams," McCarthy

said. "But it was hard since they were all together."

For all the Crimson's second half woes, the selection committee showed Harvard a great deal of respect by awarding it as favorable a bracket position as it did. Not only does the Crimson have home-field advantage

for its opening game, but it gets to face, in Quinnipiac, a team that is making is first-ever postseason showing.

The Braves (13-6-1) won their conference title but still had to win a

play-in game against Loyola (MD) to gain an entry.

Against the two opponents Quinnipiac had in common with Harvard, the Braves were 0-2, while the Crimson was 2-0. Quinnipiac was shut out by both Yale (5-0) and Boston University (2-0), each of whom Harvard dropped by a 3-1 margin.

Despite being the favorite, Harvard will not take the Braves lightly.

"Any team that is in the tournament you have to respect," McCarthy said.

"This is their first time, so you know they will be excited.

"We don't want to take anything for granted. We've made that mistake in

the past."

Harvard's first objective today will be to get on the scoreboard early and often. Over the course of its season-ending losing streak, the Crimson netted just two goals in five games, despite outshooting its opponents in three of those matches.

"That [lack of goal production] is not something you can necessarily fix,"

McCarthy said. "It just has to come from someone. Someone has to sacrifice themselves for a goal."

Awaiting the winner of today's contest is No. 19 Hartford, which was the lowest-ranked team of the sixteen squads that received a first-round bye.

In their match earlier this season, the Crimson battled the Hawks for

87:30 before Hartford managed a late-game goal to earn the 2-1 victory.

McCarthy views a potential rematch with the Hawks as a prime opportunity

to prove the Crimson's worth to those naysayers who questioned its selection to the tournament.

"That's the best way to silence all your critics: just win and keep on winning," she said.

Admission to this afternoon's game is $5 for students and $7 for general

admission.