Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith is not concerned with the limited contributions from her underclassmen, chalking up their lack of playing time to a stacked Crimson roster.
“Where are you going to put people?” Delaney-Smith said. “Honestly, if there is a player at Yale or a player at Dartmouth that is putting up big numbers, it’s because they don’t have anybody else. We are very, very happy, and over the course of four years, I would put [freshmen] Kyle Dalton and Christiana Lackner up against anybody’s numbers. We are very happy with our recruiting this year.”
Harvard will be looking for its 27th straight Ivy League victory as it opens conference play and is the odds-on favorite to win a third straight league title. But it is the next four years that loom as larger question marks.
Will Harvard’s recruits prove able to stand up to the competition?
Only time will tell. For now, Delaney-Smith is willing to bet on the potential she has seen in practice and exhibitions.
But the future can wait. Harvard still has a championship to win this year, and the battle begins tomorrow. The game will be shown live on CSTV at 6:05 p.m.
—Staff writer Gabriel M. Velez can be reached at gmvelez@fas.harvard.edu.