“Honestly, there are so many leaders on this team that it’s made my job pretty easy,” said Vaughan, who was picked in the second round of the Major League Lacrosse Draft earlier this winter.

Harvard begins the season with lofty goals: an Ivy League Championship and, ultimately, a national title. The road to each will be difficult. Yale, Pennsylvania, and Princeton all begin the season as top-20 teams. No. 3/5 Cornell, which has won at least a share of the past nine Ivy League titles, returns seven starters, including senior attackman Rob Pannell, reigning USILA National Player of the Year.

The Crimson will face a number of non-conference tests as well before it begins Ivy League play against Brown on March 17th.  Harvard will look to avenge a defeat from last season when it faces No. 13 Hofstra at home on March 3rd. The Crimson will travel south the following week, facing Georgetown before a matchup with perennial powerhouse Duke on March 12th.

But despite Harvard’s championship dreams, the team, says Vaughan, realizes the importance of taking things one step at a time. It seems to have become a theme for the Crimson: work hard daily on the little things and maximize its chances of reaching the ultimate goals.

“Everybody wants to be that underdog that comes out of nowhere to win the whole thing,” Jahelka said. “But that doesn’t happen if we don’t beat Vermont on Saturday.”

—Staff writer James M. Acer can be reached at jacer@college.harvard.edu.