During the trip, the Crimson faced No. 5 UC Santa Barbara. Though they couldn’t come back from a 11-3 deficit, Harvard had a strong showing in the fourth quarter, matching the Gauchos in goals.

“Those close games against UCSB and Pomona showed that we are a lot more competitive,” Voith said.

“Once we all got on the same page, we were successful,” Minnis added.

Certain players were successful all year long, garnering player-of-the-week awards as well as CWPA Scholar-Athlete honors.

“What you see is a significant amount of work in the offseason,” Voith said. “Guys are really focusing and committing to improve themselves and the team.”

For next year, the Crimson is looking to improve on its record and continue to grow as it did this year.

“Princeton and Brown are two Ivy teams that we would love to beat,” Minnis said. “Every game is going to be a great challenge for us—I’m excited.”

Leading the team next year is returning co-captain junior Luka Babic and the team’s 2010 Most Improved Player, junior Kevin DiSilvestro. Together the two had 46 goals, 28 assists, and 37 steals.

“The team is losing half of the starting line-up, so there will be a very different feel,” Voith said. “Hopefully, we’ve built some hunger for the guys still on the team.”

“The other seniors and I are proud to have established a strong foundation with Coach Minnis in his first year for the program to grow tremendously in the next couple years,” Lee added.

—Staff writer Emily Rutter can be reached at erutter@college.harvard.edu.