The Youngest Veterans

Meet the Harvard women’s basketball’s version of the Fab Five.

With no seniors on the team last season and a flurry of injuries that took place as the year progressed, the highly-touted freshman class—comprised of forwards Victoria Lippert and Emma Golen, guards Jasmine Evans and Elle Hagedorn, and center Miriam Rutzen—found itself contributing to the team a bit earlier than it expected.

Despite their youth, the players adjusted quickly to the college game—and to Crimson coach Kathy Delaney-Smith’s high standards—to help Harvard finish second in the league behind only Princeton.

“Last year, having five freshmen out of a total of 12 players on the team, we had to step up and take an important role on the team and its identity,” Lippert says. “Being such a significant percentage of our basketball team, we had to assume responsibility for our team.”

“There were a lot of injuries last season, which was unfortunate, but for us now, we have more experience going into our sophomore season,” Hagedorn adds.

Lippert established herself as one of the Ivy League’s top forwards last season, averaging 13.1 points per game to be the Crimson’s second-leading scorer and to earn second-team All-Ivy honors. Hagedorn also had a solid freshman campaign, averaging 14.5 minutes on the court and chipping in 3.4 points a game. Rutzen and Golen contributed off the bench as well, while Evans spent the season recovering from an injury.

Though the Harvard roster got a bit more crowded with the arrival of four freshmen this fall, the sophomores will look to contribute even more to the team’s success this season.

“We still have a lot to work on, but compared to where we were at this time last year, we’re definitely all around much better players and much more experienced,” Hagedorn says. “Now that we have a year knowing the system and knowing what [Delaney-Smith] expects of us, we’re going to be able to contribute just as much as last season, if not more.”

“Expectations are higher, and now the little mistakes aren’t going to cut it anymore,” Lippert adds. “We’re all pushing ourselves to improve on last year and get even better, individually and collectively.”

Laughing, Lippert remarks, “We don’t have the freshman newbie excuse anymore.”

Like other members on the team, the sophomores devoted most of their offseason towards improving their defense and rebounding, two areas that Delaney-Smith attributed to last season’s shortcomings.

“I tried seven different things [last] year [for rebounding and defense]...But all the talk and drills in the world just weren’t doing it,” Delaney-Smith said last spring.

“As a team, we’re putting a focus on our defensive effort and intensity,” Lippert says. “One of the big things is communication. We need to know where we are on the court, so we have to be vocal and continue to be with our teammates. That’s really important for the functioning of our team, especially defensively. Ultimately, that’s what’s going to win us an Ivy League championship.”

While the core of the basketball team returns in junior guard Brogan Berry, senior forward Emma Markley, and co-captain Christine Matera, the sophomores will look to serve as mentors to the freshmen.

“It is kind of weird [being a sophomore],” Hagedorn says. “I still think of myself as a freshman on this team. But the sophomore class, we’re trying to make that transition to help the freshmen. We’re modeling ourselves after the sophomores and juniors of last year. We want to make sure that they’re comfortable with the basketball aspect of school, and the academic aspect of school, and being able to balance the two.”

With a year of valuable playing experience under their belts, the sophomores not only refined their basketball skills, they also became close teammates and even closer friends off the court.

“Practice takes up three to four hours a day, so we’re together all the time on the court,” Hagedorn says. “But off the court, we’re also together. We eat meals together after practice; we have movie nights together.”

And although the class is comprised of players with very different personalities, the sophomores have found a way to click.

“I’m more outgoing, and if Miriam’s hanging out with me, I’ll make her more outgoing and crazy, and sometimes she’ll have the opposite effect on me,” Hagedorn laughs. “We all kind of rub off on each other.”

“I love the class of 2013,” Lippert adds. “I think we’re all very different, and we all bring some strange quirky personality to the table. It makes it very fun to be around these girls. I’m very grateful that I get to play with them for four years.”

—Staff writer Kevin T. Chen can be reached at ktchen@fas.harvard.edu.