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.”

Over the course of the spring, Millet grew stronger and stronger. She played with the team in its spring game in Italy.

Once summer rolled around, the goalie was in roughly the same position she’d been the year before: excited to get in the goal for Harvard and looking forward to four years of eligibility.

Unfortunately for Millet, the déjà vu did not stop there.

Just as before, she found herself facing a potentially season-ending injury: this time, a torn meniscus, suffered during the summer.

Once again, she needed surgery. With the season fast approaching, it looked like Millet might find herself on the sidelines again.

“I was a little scared,” junior defender Lindsey Kowal said. “We didn’t know whether she’d be able to play.”

But a week before the Crimson’s first game, Millet was cleared to play. With just five practices before the season opener, she prepared herself for the challenges of Division I soccer while working on communicating with her defense.

Millet’s first game back on the field wasn’t all that she hoped it would be.

Though she had made eight saves, the two goals she surrendered were enough to bring Harvard to a 2-2 draw with Long Island University.

Yet for an athlete who had already overcome two surgeries, a couple of goals were but a minor hiccup.

Millet and the defense worked together to improve their on-field communication, something that hurt them in the first game.

“We’ll make sure we’re on the same page, make sure the defense is pushing up,” Kowal said.

Two days after allowing the Blackbirds 10 shots, Millet and the Crimson defense were nearly perfect, allowing only three shots all game.

“We’re way more in synch than in that first span,” the goalie added. “I think that will continue.”

And when the Wildcats did manage to get shots off, Millet proved impenetrable.

“After just practicing for only five days, she did an unbelievable job,” co-captain Gina Wideroff said. “I credit her tremendously for playing as well as she did. She’s a great addition to the team.”

Teammates attribute her success to her attitude in the net.

“I want AJ back there with me,” Kowal said. “She’s been awesome. Mentally, she’s all there. Her confidence is great.”

“AJ is very vocal,” Wideroff added. “She’s really stepping into that position and taking control of the defense.”

And there’s no doubt Millet is having a ball doing it. A year and two surgeries after arriving on campus, she finally has a net to call her own.

“It felt good to step back in the goal,” she said.

—Staff writer Christina C. McClintock can be reached at ccmcclin@fas.harvard.edu.