Senior forward/midfielder Alex Chi, junior midfielder Jamie Rees, and sophomore midfielder Scott Prozeller, all of whom had four points last year, will also be expected to contribute more heavily on the offensive end this season.
Defensively, the team is steadied by its two senior captains, defensemen Jaren LaGreca and Robert Millock. Richard Smith, who started 10 games for the Crimson and was named to the All-Ivy League Second Team as a freshman, will be looking for continued success in his second year.
Behind them, Harms returns in net after a sophomore season in which he finished second in the Ancient Eight in save percentage at .803 and first in shutouts with seven.
“Obviously Austin’s gained a lot of experience being a two-year starter as an underclassman here,” Junot said. “My expectation is that Austin again makes significant gains as a goalkeeper in terms of his ability to read the game, organize the defense, and lead the defense as well.”
Harms will have to really raise his performance if he is going to duplicate last year’s numbers, as Harvard’s schedule features games against No. 8 UC Santa Barbara, No. 12 Boston College, No. 13 Stanford, and No. 22 Connecticut before beginning Ivy League play.
“The reality is our playing schedule is among the very best in the country,” Junot said.
But Harvard’s players believe that last season’s run prepared them well for the high expectations that come with this season.
“I think the experience in big games and against those big teams as kind of an underdog gave me and a lot of the other guys last year confidence with them,” Rogers said.
And this confidence has the Crimson thinking big for the whole season.
“We expect to win the Ivy League, or at least be in contention for the Ivy League, and to definitely make the NCAAs again,” Rogers said. “We’re all really confident going into the season. We’re a much different team than we were last year—we lost some important guys, but we think as a team we’ve grown, and I think we should do even better than we did last year.”
Harvard will have its first chance to prove itself tomorrow night, when the Crimson opens the season against the 13th-ranked Cardinal at home.