After battling knee injuries her rookie season and this past summer, sophomore AJ Millet has stepped into the starting goalkeeper role for the Crimson. Millet allowed two scores in Harvard’s season opener against Long Island but regrouped to turn in a clean sheet against New Hampshire on Sunday.

With one minute to go in Sunday afternoon’s game against New Hampshire, the Harvard women’s soccer team is up 2-0­—an advantage that might seem perfectly safe had the Crimson not surrendered an identical lead two days before.

As time ticks away, Wildcat midfielder Cassie Guerra charges the goal with a chance to cut the deficit in half.

Is this the toughest moment sophomore goaltender AJ Millet has faced so far in her collegiate career?

Not by a long shot.

That might have been when she tore her left ACL. Or perhaps when she tore her left meniscus. Or when she realized she had less than a week to get ready for her first taste of action.

This? This is easy.

Millet grabs the ball from Guerra, and Harvard rolls to its first victory of the season.

A year ago, Millet, fresh off three all-state selections and two All-New England nods, was an incoming rookie expecting to compete for playing time with the Crimson.

Instead, she tore her ACL the summer before, requiring season-ending surgery.

Rather than competing for minutes, the freshman wound up stuck on the sidelines.

“I thought it was the end of the world,” she said. “My whole life had been centered on soccer. That had been my identity.”

But the keeper focused all her efforts on rehab and recovery, and by mid-winter she was back on the field, training with her teammates.

“She’s clearly a very hard worker,” said Lauren Mann ‘10, a four-year starter for the Crimson. “Coming back from the ACL injury really shows her character.”

Meanwhile, the injury had a few unexpected benefits. A season spent redshirting gave Millet a chance to get to know her teammates without the pressure of playing.

“It’s kind of nice because she had the opportunity to get to know the team, to see the personalities,” Mann said. “She had a year where she could learn from the sidelines. When she came in, she had that leg up on someone who comes in as a freshman.”