Holding down the fort in front of McKenna are two returning starters, captains Malone and Spencer Stenmark. Along with Crocco, they anchored a defense that last season finished 17th in the nation in goals-allowed average and had the eighth-ranked man-down defense.
“Crocco is a huge loss,” Malone said. “He’s an amazing athlete, and he also had a lot of know-how. It was like having a coach on the field with us.”
Replacing him in the starting defense this year will be sophomore Tom Mikula, who spent last year at long-stick midfield. Although the transition might be difficult for Mikula, he has the advantage of learning while surrounded by three capable veterans.
“We’ve still got myself, [Stenmark] and McKenna,” Malone said. “We’re certainly not naked back there.”
At midfield, Harvard is looking to overcome the loss of two of its highest-scoring midfielders in Wich and Logigian. But the increased depth of the Crimson is extremely evident here, as seniors Jeff Gottschall and Alex Vap—who won over 60 percent of their faceoffs last year—are joined by a hoard of younger contributors, including juniors Zach Chandis and David Patterson and sophomore Tom Boylan.
“We can run 12 good midfielders right now,” Anderson said. “[Due to] injuries last year, sometimes we only had one line.”
At attack, Harvard hopes that its increased depth will allow it to compensate for the loss of Primm, who was the top point-scorer in a group that already had difficulty scoring goals at times last season.
“[The lack of scoring] affected the way we had to play last season,” Anderson said. “The defense felt like they had to be perfect. We have a lot more offense this year, no question. We just have to put the pieces together.”
In addition to the talented freshmen, the Crimson attack includes senior Anders Johnson, junior Mike McBride and sophomores Sean Kane, Colin MacLeod and Steve Cohen. These five returning players accounted for over half of the Crimson’s goals last season, headed by Kane, who led the team with 21.
“Kane is a great example of what we want from [this year’s freshmen],” Anderson said. “He made that transition really quickly, and he’s a guy who is going to show these younger guys the way.”
Although Harvard clearly has the talent to compete with the best, its road to the NCAA Tournament is not going to be easy. The Crimson is joined in the top 25 by four other Ivy League teams, led by No. 4 Princeton and including No. 12 Cornell, No. 20 Dartmouth and No. 22 Yale.
The winner of the league receives an automatic bid to the tournament, while the remaining teams must fight for an at-large bid.
In addition to its tough Ivy League games, Harvard’s schedule includes stops at No. 7 UMass, Bucknell and Denver—both tied at No. 23.
Harvard looks to open its season on a strong note as it hosts Hartford this Saturday at 1 p.m. The two teams met last year, with the Crimson taking a 9-3 decision on the strength of a McBride hat trick.
—Staff writer Jonathan P. Hay can be reached at hay@fas.harvard.edu.