In the 2008-09 season, the Tigers defeated Harvard twice by a margin of only one game in each match. Even more heartbreaking, the second matchup between the Ancient Eight rivals was in the finals of the national championship. At the season’s end, every member of the Crimson team had yet to see victory against Princeton.

A win this year, then, represented more than merely preserving an unblemished record—it was about finally capturing what had eluded every Crimson athlete on the team.

With a 6-3 win, the athletes cleared this final looming hurdle. They also clinched a share of the Ivy League title.

“It was a huge win,” freshman Natasha Kingshott said. “Nobody on the team had beaten them before...It was kind of revenge, almost.”

In the last match of the season, the Crimson beat No. 5 Yale, 7-2, in New Haven, Conn. As a result, the group was awarded the Ivy League title as well as the Barhite Award, given to the team with the best dual record nationally.

Then came the CSA National Championships from Feb. 26-28. Harvard defeated Williams, Yale, and Penn to accomplish the team’s biggest goal—winning a national title. In the individual championships a week later, freshman Laura Gemmell claimed victory in the A division and her teammate O’Donnell won in the B division.

Even though the team’s future is not entirely certain—new players as well as a new coach will be entering the mix—the group is focused and ready defend its national title.

—Staff writer Molly E. Kelly can be reached at mkelly@college.harvard.edu.