Senior forward Liza Ryabkina, shown here in earlier action, and the rest of the Harvard women’s hockey team face off against No. 6 Boston College this Sunday. The Crimson beat the Eagles, 5-0, a year ago.

In last year’s match against Boston College, the then-No. 6 Harvard women’s hockey team cruised to an easy 5-0 victory over the unranked Eagles.

But this year, the tables have turned. No. 6 Boston College (10-2-4, 6-1-2 Hockey East) comes in as the favorite against the unranked Crimson (4-4-2, 4-2-2 ECAC), as the two Boston teams face off Sunday afternoon at the Eagles’ Conte Forum.

“BC has a really strong team,” tri-captain Kate Buesser said. “It’s going to be a challenge.”

After a rough 2009-10 campaign, Boston College has emerged as one of the best teams in the country. Part of the Eagles’ resurgence can be attributed to the return of a powerful senior duo: forward Kelli Stack and goaltender Molly Schaus. Last year, the pair shed the maroon and gold in favor of red, white, and blue, as they played for the U.S. Olympic Team in the Vancouver Games.

Back in college, the two now form perhaps the best forward-goaltender combination in the nation.

“Both [Stack] and [Schaus] coming back from the Olympics has been great for us,” said Boston College coach Katie King. “They’re leaders on and off the ice for the team.”

Stack leads the nation in goals and was Hockey East’s Player of the Month for November, tallying 13 points in just eight games.

“[Stack is] an excellent goal scorer,” Busser said. “Clearly, it’s going to be a challenge in the defensive zone to shut her down.”

Schaus is also among the elite at her position. Her .941 save percentage is the fifth-highest mark in Division I.

“Schaus is at the top of her game,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said. “There’s no question about it.”

The former Olympian is not the first top-notch goalkeeper that the Crimson will face. In a two-game series last weekend, Harvard squared off against another top collegiate stopper, Minnesota’s Noora Räty. The Crimson was able to muster only two goals against the Golden Gophers.

Harvard may have an even tougher test in Schaus.

“We’re going to have to put a lot of shots on her and see [what] we can do,” Stone said. “It’s going to be a great challenge for us.”

Even without the Eagles’ Olympic tandem, the Crimson has problems of its own. Harvard has successfully killed only 67.4 percent of penalties, worst in the nation. Of the seven goals that the Crimson allowed in the series with Minnesota, four came on Golden Gopher power plays.

“It’s a little frustrating,” sophomore forward Jillian Dempsey said. “On penalty kills, we’re working hard, and the puck’s just not bouncing…the way that we would like.”

To combat the problem, the team has practiced supplying more pressure to the opposition in penalty kill situations.

“We’re going to start working on a much more aggressive penalty kill,” tri-captain Liza Ryabkina said. “We’ve been pretty passive up until now.”

Another issue for the Harvard defense comes from between the pipes. After losing goaltender Christina Kessler ’10, the NCAA’s all-time leader in career save percentage, the Crimson has yet to settle on one keeper, with freshman Lauren Joarnt and sophomore Laura Bellamy splitting time in the net. Stone and her coaching staff decide who will start on a week-by-week basis—a stark contrast to the Eagles’ consistency in goal.

But Harvard has its share of strengths as well.

At times, its offense can be potent. In a three-game stretch earlier in the season, the Crimson scored 10 goals. And after Minnesota shut out Harvard in the first match of the series, the women from Cambridge showed some life at the end of the second game, scoring two goals in a 23-minute span.

Unlike the Boston College offense—for which Stack has scored twice as many goals as any other player—the Crimson has a balanced attack. Three seniors—Buesser, Ryabkina, and Katharine Chute—are tied for the most goals on the squad with four apiece.

“We’ve got plenty of weapons,” Stone said. “It’s just a matter of putting it all together.”

According to the Eagles, Harvard also has another strong point—its determination.

“They’re going to work extremely hard [on Sunday],” King said. “That’s been a common trait for Harvard teams.”

Despite these strengths, the Crimson faces an uphill battle this weekend. But even though it’s the underdog on paper, Harvard remains confident in its ability to keep close with Boston College.

“We have a great opportunity to take advantage of their high ranking,” Buesser said. “Hopefully, [we’ll] throw some pucks into the back of the net and really show what we can do out there.”