Two years ago, the Harvard men’s soccer team watched as its former coach, John Kerr, left for what seemed to be a better offer—his alma mater, Duke. Flash-forward to the 2009 season, when the Crimson earned an NCAA tournament seed half that of the Blue Devils’ (10 to Duke’s 20), and Harvard seemed to have gotten the better end of the deal.

But this offseason, the Crimson suffered a case of déjà vu.

Harvard coach Jamie Clark led the team to its highest NCAA finish in recent years when it advanced the Sweet 16, but the second-year man announced yesterday that he is departing to take on the head coaching position at Creighton University.

Now Harvard must hope that success will come just as quickly with its third coach in four years.

“It’s unfortunate, because coach Clark really fit in with our program,” rising co-captain Jaren LaGreca said. “At the same time, what’s done is done. Our responsibility is to make sure that we’re focused as a team and make sure we’re focused in the right way.”

Despite riding at the center of a coaching carousel, LaGreca and the rest of the rising seniors have still managed to ride their way to NCAA tournament berths in each of their three seasons with the Crimson.

“I think it’s rare that this happens to a class,” LaGreca said. “We still had success. Even though we’re going to have a coaching change, I’m positive that we’ll still be successful.”

When Clark came to Cambridge, he inherited a team that had reached the NCAA tournament the year prior, a luxury he will not have at his new post. In the 2009 season, Creighton finished fourth in its conference and failed to make the dance, though the Bluejays knocked off defending national champion Virginia, 2-1, in an exhibition game this spring.

“I had an incredible experience at Harvard and it took a very special opportunity to pull me away," Clark told the Creighton athletics website. "It is a great honor to take over the Creighton men's soccer program. It is one of the premier places for soccer in the college game.”

Meanwhile, Harvard will take the field in 2010 aiming for a fifth straight berth to NCAAs, led by a senior class familiar with change.

“I think we’ve been prepared,” LaGreca said. “We have high expectations.”

Those expectations will greet whoever appears on the sideline this fall as the Crimson’s head coach.

“We’re just antsy to find out who our new coach is going to be,” LaGreca said.