How does a team follow something like that?

How can you beat a 9-1 regular season, an Eastern Sprints championship and an NCAA championship?

What can your team do to make its own name, mold its personality?

These were the questions that the Radcliffe heavyweight crew was asking itself all year long, and could never quite answer, as it finished its season a disappointing 10th place at the NCAAs.

“I think we spent this whole year struggling to find an identity,” co-captain Lis Lambert said. “It’s way more challenging than you’d think, ending a year on a climactic high note, leaving for the summer, and then coming back again to start over at square one.”

Focusing on goals and looking to the future seemed a twin-headed spectre that did not cease spooking the Black and White.

“There’s also the challenge of figuring out what the goals should be,” Lambert said. “You’ve just been at the top, so you want to be at the top again—you don’t want to settle for less.”

Unfortunately, in order to do something different from last year’s near-perfect squad, the only thing the 2003-2004 edition could do was lose.

Radcliffe opened the season ranked No. 5 and on the Charles River against local rivals Boston College and Northeastern. The Black and White dominated in the warm-up, taking five of six races, including a three-length victory in the 1V race.

From the friendly home waters of the Charles, Radcliffe found a drastic change of scenery in its next race, on the choppy waters of the Seekonk River against then-No. 6 Brown.

The Black and White failed to win a single race, which were all—save the 1V race—contested as six-and-a-half minute pieces in the Pawtucket Channel. Both the 1V and 2V fell to the Bears by close margins, the 1V less than one second and the 2V by one seat.

Next up for Radcliffe were then-No. 3 Princeton and No. 13 Cornell. Again the 1V fell to a top-tier crew in a tight race, this time by 2.8 seconds to the Tigers. Across the board, the 2V was the only Black and White boat that pulled out a win, besting Princeton by six seconds.

At the time, Lambert said of the 2V, “They’re the force that’s driving the team right now. Our 1V is in contention to be at the top, but the 2V is there.”

Before entering the fray with another heavyweight powerhouse, Radcliffe was granted a breather of sorts the following week against Dartmouth and then-No. 18 Syracuse on the Charles. The Black and White again took five of six races to retain the O’Leary Cup, named for head coach Liz O’Leary. The 1V had no problems on this day, as it dispatched the Orangewomen by better than nine seconds and the Big Green by almost 17 ticks.

At then-No. 9 Yale, Radcliffe suffered its worst defeat yet. Trailing from the staggered-start, the 1V could never make up the open water and fell by just under five seconds. Another tough opponent, another second place finish.