Think fast—what’s the best way to handle a team that loses its leading scorer and assist-leader from a year ago to graduation?

Too late—senior midfielder Shelley Maasdorp just blew by you for another goal. Don’t feel too bad, though—the rest of the Ivy League was also hard-pressed to find an answer to the ever-so-quick question posed by Maasdorp and her skills.

Her brilliant speed and impeccable field vision led the Crimson to its first Ivy title since 1991 and an automatic birth in the NCAA tournament, as well as earning her the title of Ivy Player of the Year, Harvard’s first since 1991.

“No one knows how to deal with me,” Maasdorp said when asked to describe her “foreign style of play.”

She originally hails from Zimbabwe but has adjusted nicely in her four years on the team, earning second team All-Ivy honors her first two seasons and earning a first team selection last year.

Junior midfielder Jen McDavitt was particularly impressed with Maasdorp’s adaptation to competition in the states.

“She had the very difficult task of taking her foreign approach to field hockey and making it work with the American style,” McDavitt said.

McDavitt and Maasdorp were an effective tandem for the Crimson this past season, with the majority of Maasdorp’s 18 goals a result of McDavitt’s league-leading 18 assists, a new school record.

Before Maasdorp could puzzle defenses around the Ivies this season, though, she had to decide to be Harvard’s own answer to the above question.

“Shelley has been a tremendous asset to the team throughout her career,” captain Kate Gannon said. “She obviously stepped it up her senior year, especially with her role as the primary hitter and goal scorer on corners this year.”

McDavitt feels that no player is more deserving of Maasdorp’s long list of accolades because of the leadership she demonstrated throughout the season.

“She came through as a major leader this year,” McDavitt said, “and held herself personally accountable in making sure we were Ivy champs.”

Of course, numbers don’t lie, and Maasdorp’s by themselves can well tell the tale of a championship season. On the year, Maasdorp led the team and the league in scoring en route to being named Ivy Player of the Year, and she tied the Harvard single-season points record with 42—18 goals, each worth two points, and six assists.

Maasdorp’s phenomenal year earned her the status of second-team STX/NFHCA Division I All-American. Her record-tying assist came in the Crimson’s first game of the NCAA tournament against eventual champion Wake Forest, by whom they were defeated 7-1 in November.

Maasdorp’s determination to excel this season was plainly evident in the manner in which she throttled up and down the field, a spectacle of sensational ball control. Weaving through would-be defenders at will, in ways she had not prior to this season, Maasdorp’s stick-handling often proved to be too much for opponents to handle, as her 42 points on the season were good enough for 19th in the country.

So, the best way to handle the loss of three team stars? Maasdorp proved paradoxically to be both the question and the answer. The Crimson can only hope that another player can so enigmatically step up for them next season.

—Staff writer Tekky D. Andrew-Jaja can be reached at andrew@fas.harvard.edu.