Though the fate of the game was never in doubt, the spiritedness of Harvard's play, even in the waning stages of the match, ensured a healthy margin of victory.

"Regardless of the score, we wanted to play ninety minutes of good soccer," Wheaton said. "I think we did that today."

Texas A&M 3, Harvard 0

The Crimson's season opener against Texas A&M was essentially lost well before the teams ever took the field. Too much went wrong for Harvard immediately preceding the game, and the soccer itself wasn't any better.

The game-ready Aggies--who had already played a seven-game European tour, plus No. 7 Hartford and No. 1 North Carolina, before arriving at Ohiri Field--had no trouble exploiting the Crimson's early season rust and inexperience.

Texas A&M struck just eight minutes into the game. The crisp passing of forwards Juli Goin and Heather Ragsdale allowed the Aggies to weave straight through the Harvard defense. After beating the final defender, Ragsdale took an open shot at point-blank range and drilled the ball past the freshman keeper Durkin.

"[Our problem was] defensive stuff, putting pressure on the ball," Wheaton said. "We were a little timid outside."

Ragsdale put the game away in the 33rd minute, driving home a corner kick from midfielder Amber Childers.