The moral of the story was this-if the Crimson was going to go anywhere this season, it could not rely on Yenne alone. Other players would need to step up.

And they did. The first to answer the call was freshman midfielder Caitlin Fisher. The fleet-footed Fisher-who ran the wing opposite sophomore Orly Ripmaster this season-netted both the Crimson's goals in a 2-1 win over Loyola Marymount. The Crimson didn't know it then, but the win would be the first in a string of eight victories.

One by one, over the course of the winning streak, a different Harvard player stepped forward to assume the scoring burden. In the Crimson's 1-0 blanking of San Diego State, freshman midfielder Katie Westfall scored the game's only goal. It was the second strike of the year for Westfall, who would go on to garner six goals and six assists en route to Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors.

In Harvard's next match against then-No. 23 B.C.-the same team that eliminated Harvard from the NCAA tournament last year-it was senior midfielder Meredith Stewart who rose to the occasion. Stewart, who registered more points this year than in her first three seasons combined, tallied both goals in the Crimson's thrilling 2-1 overtime victory.

Then, against Cornell, it was junior forward Colleen Moore who scored two of Harvard's goals in a 3-1 win. Against Yale, it was Yenne. Versus Princeton, it was both Yenne and Westfall. And so on and so on.

Eventually, however, the goals stopped coming and Harvard was whitewashed in its next three games, losing to Penn State, UConn and Dartmouth. The loss to the Big Green sent then-No. 11 Harvard plummeting in the rankings, but more importantly, it crippled the Crimson's chances at defending its 1999 Ivy championship.

Two games later, the missed chance at back-to-back titles was the least of Harvard's problems. After falling to Hartford and lowly Columbia in its final two games of the year, Harvard's hopes at making the postseason appeared shot.

But then the soccer gods-or more specifically, the selection committee-smiled on Harvard in a big way. In an apparent bow to the Crimson's strength of schedule, Harvard not only received a berth to the tournament, but also received a rather friendly draw. The Crimson would play at home and against Quinnipiac, a team making its first-ever tourney appearance.