Harvard's biggest competition from the state of Connecticut will come well outside of New Haven. The Crimson will wait for its rematch with Hartford, the top ranked team in the Northeast.

Although Boston College's victory over Harvard in the second round of the NCAA tournament last year was a major upset, it was the Hawks who scored the biggest surprise of the NCAA Tournament, knocking out defending national champion Florida on the Gators' home turf. Hartford won one more game before bowing out in the national quarterfinals.

The Hawks feature sophomore forward Sandra Kayulu who went to Winchester High School in Mass., the same school that produced Crimson captain Lauren Corkery and injury-maligned sophomore forward Caitlin Butler. Winchester held the No. 1 ranking in the USA Today's high school soccer poll for much of the late 90's.

Traditional power UConn is other national contender in the northeast region. The No. 25 Huskies (3-3-1), who made the national title game in 1997, have struggled thus far with a tough schedule that includes national powers Santa Clara, Penn State, Stanford, and Nebraska. The schedule will get even more brutal when the Huskies play at Harvard on October 25th.

Penn State (5-2-1) will also be a Crimson opponent this season. The No. 7 Nittany Lions have already beaten common opponent Texas A&M, on the strength of a goal by Olympic alternate Christie Welch-a player who should be familiar to anyone who watched the U.S. National Team at the CONACAF Gold Cup at Foxboro this summer.

When the 2000 NCAA Tournament rolls around this fall, the favorite should naturally be No. 4 North Carolina. Although the Tar Heels lost its top spot in the rankings due to a 2-1 loss to ACC rival Clemson, North Carolina has still won 15 of 18 national titles.

And it wasn't that long ago, 1997 to be exact, that Harvard itself was in the national quarterfinals, and standing in the way of the Tar Heel dynasty.