Women’s soccer games—or Harvard sporting events in general—are rarely as anticipated as this weekend’s Ivy opener against Brown.

Hard feelings on both sides of the ball are expected to make tomorrow’s noon game at Ohiri Field more heated than any in recent history, as both teams have much more to prove beyond the high stakes that come with any conference opener.

Flash back to last season under the lights at Brown’s Stevenson Field, host site of Harvard’s second Ivy game and the Bears’ Ivy opener. On paper, it looked like a mismatch—the defending Ivy champion Crimson versus last year’s cellar team. But just a few minutes after the whistle blew, Brown senior Bekah Splaine slipped a weak outside shot into the Harvard net. Chaos ensued on the field from there, and the Crimson fell to 2-2 on the season in a 2-0 defeat.

Harvard made amends for that loss immediately, rolling to eight straight victories—just enough to secure an NCAA tournament berth. But the Crimson has been waiting a full year to get another shot at the Bears.

“It’s going to be a battle,” said Harvard co-captain Caitlin Costello. “We have a lot to prove—that we can beat them, that we did deserve to go to the tournament last season.”

Meanwhile, Brown’s resentment towards Harvard originates chiefly from one day, November 5, 2000—the moment that the final NCAA tournament at-large selections were announced.

That same weekend, the 13-4 Bears had dramatically come back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Yale in overtime. They thought they had secured an NCAA berth on that day.

They thought wrong.

The reaction in Providence that day bore sharp contrast to that miles away at the Crimson Sports Grille, which erupted in jubilation as the 10-7 Harvard team discovered it had made the tourney despite losing its last five games of the season.

The Bears were flabbergasted. They had beaten Harvard on the field, in the Ivy standings and in overall record. Never mind that they didn’t have a single non-conference win on their soft schedule that matched any of the Crimson’s several quality non-conference wins. This was a travesty.

Then the Bears had to watch as Harvard more than justified its NCAA selection by sweeping through its first two tournament games and reaching the Sweet 16. The lingering shock from last year’s tournament announcements was evident in longtime Brown Coach Phil Pincince’s words in the team’s preseason prospectus.

“While it was a major disappointment not to make the NCAA’s last season after tying the school record for wins in a season, go 13-4, and be ranked as high as 20th in the nation, this is team is talented, confident, determined and on a mission for 2001,” said Pincince, himself a former NCAA national committee chair.

The Bears bring many of their key faces back onto Ohiri this year. There were some losses to graduation. Two-time First Team All-Ivy back Michaela Rooney has moved on. Splaine, after a failed stint at WUSA tryouts, went on to win a lower-profile W-1 league national championship with the Boston Renegades this summer. But senior Kim Lanzire, the First Team All-Ivy forward who scored Brown’s second goal against Harvard last year, is still around, as is the team’s successful goaltending combination of sophomore Sarah Gervais and senior Mary Jo Markle.

So far this season, Brown has had mixed results against its in-state rivals, humbling Providence 5-0 but then falling 2-0 against Rhode Island. Both were opponents capable of slipping into the regional Top Ten in recent months.

The Crimson itself has plenty to prove following its recent 5-4 overtime loss to Colorado College. Harvard’s defense, now blanketed by youth, has completely turned over after recent losses to graduation and injury. Two years ago, Harvard gave up just three goals total through the seven-game Ivy season. Two weeks ago, Harvard gave up four goals to one player in one game. The team’s 1-0 shutout victory over Central Connecticut was encouraging, but it was hardly a definitive test. The most imperative of challenges will come tomorrow.

“We’ve made leaps and bounds already,” Costello said. “I have all the confidence in the world that [the defense] will come together once we get a few games under our belt.”