“They were beautifully maintained,” said junior wing James Sterling Foreman. “It was like playing on a putting green.”

The favorable field conditions enabled the speedy and fit Harvard squad to outrun their competition.

Without varsity status, Harvard does not have access to many of the amenities that the Department of Athletics offers its 41 programs.

One of those amenities is superior facilities. Another is the ability to recruit. The Harvard Football club is not populated with highly touted prep schoolers from around the nation, but athletes defecting from other sports and taking to the pitch for the first time.

The most important resource that the Harvard Rugby Football Club is denied is big-time funding.

Though the club sports program at Harvard contributed to the cost of the trip to the Sweet Sixteen, it was financed heavily by rugby alumni. Without a permanent coaching staff, players must make travel arrangements and organize the trip themselves.

Harvard’s burden on that front is greater than that of some other teams left in the championship hunt. Cal is the only team to enjoy varsity status and all of the attendant benefits conferred by that status.

No matter what the designation within the Department of Athletics, the Club’s recent victories are a big step towards proving that it belongs among the national elite after years of regional success.

The Crimson now hopes to avenge its earlier season loss to Army, and is riding enough of a hot streak to make that outcome possible.

“We’re playing so well right now, and the field conditions will be to our advantage,” Foreman said. “Army is a big team, like Penn State, so we’re hoping to exploit our fitness and run by them.”

The Final Four gets underway at Stanford on May 3 with a rematch of the Northeast Regional Finals.

Players have already started making plans for the trip.

—Staff writer Robert A. Cacace can be reached at cacace@fas.harvard.edu.