Minnis has not announced which goalie will start in Saturday’s games, but he is confident that either freshman will be able to compete well with the rest of the returning starters despite the inherent pressure playing in goal.
"Both girls really fit into the style we play," Minnis said. "We have a very experienced team in front of them, so the goalies aren’t going to have to make those standing-on-their-head blocks. They’re just going to have to make the blocks they should."
This weekend, Harvard hopes to launch a winning streak similar to the 6-0 opening run it had last year. While the Crimson is favored in its games against Iona and Villanova this weekend, mimicking the start of its 2011 campaign will be difficult with Princeton—which went 3-0 against Harvard last year—approaching on Feb. 11. But for now, the Crimson is just looking forward to finally getting back into competition.
"We have been here since Jan. 2," Purcell said. "We went to Hungary and did all of this training. It gave us a lot of time to work on our skills, but at this point, we’re just getting antsy to start [the season]."
—Staff writer Patrick Galvin can be reached at pgalvin@college.harvard.edu.