"Katie Westfall, I think, is going to be a great player for us," Wheaton said. "Our freshmen are really stepping up. They should help us out a lot."

Up front, sophomore Joey Yenne and junior Colleen Moore return as starting forwards. Wheaton will rely heavily on the two of them while Totman is out, and with good reason. Yenne and Moore currently stand as the top two career point scorers among active Harvard players. In addition, Yenne established herself as one of the most clutch performers on the team last year, as four of her six goals were game-winning tallies.

Her play was representative of the contributions of all of last year's freshmen. Three of the top four point-scorers on the team, in fact, were rookies.

"Our success last year as a class and my own personal success was more than I could have ever hoped for," Yenne said. "Coming in as a freshman and starting and contributing right away, especially on such a successful team, was amazing."

Also at the forward position, senior Ashley Mattison and juniors Caitlin Costello and Erin Aeschliman, who rejoins the team after suffering an ACL tear in last year's opener, will be counted on for goal production.

Harvard will enter its tilt with Penn tomorrow with momentum on its side following its 7-1 blowout of Vermont. That contest saw the Crimson perform much better in all aspects of its game than it did in a 3-0 loss to Texas A&M the previous week. Harvard had much working against its favor in that opening game, not least of which was the fact that it had only been back on campus practicing for just over a week. The Aggies, on the other hand, already had several games under their belts by then.

Now two weeks into the schedule, though, Harvard cannot afford to show any more signs of early-season rust. Even if Harvard wins in Philadelphia tomorrow, it has a difficult slate of games coming up, including battles against No. 14 Hartford and No. 20 Connecticut.

From this point on, though, Harvard's luck can only improve. And if any good has come out of all the adversity experienced so far, it is that it has incited a very young Harvard team to grow up in a hurry.