When the New York Knicks signed Lin in December of 2011, the expiration date of the contract was the end of the 2011-12 season. And since his team was eliminated after a first-round loss to the Miami Heat, reports about Lin’s future in New York have been numerous and wide-ranging.

While much of the media has written about the possibility of two-time MVP Steve Nash heading to the Big Apple, Knicks General Manager Glen Grunwald shot down that possibility on Friday afternoon.

Grunwald told reporters in a conference call that he “can’t see a scenario where we don’t keep [Jeremy] Lin.” If that proved true, Nash would not be joining the Knicks,  thanks to limits imposed by the salary cap.

But in classic GM style, Grunwald made sure to make th­­at statement not entirely definitive.

In other Lin-related news, the Harvard alum is now one step closer to finally owning the term "Linsanity.” According to the Huffington Post, Pamela Deese, Lin’s personal lawyer, stated on Thursday that all applications to own the word other than Lin's were denied by The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, implying that ownership of the term will soon be granted to the former Harvard standout.

For now, all Lin fans can do is hope that by Lin’s owning the term, the magic of Linsanity will be brought back to the point guard and Madison Square Garden once more.

With fanfare and nostalgia, Thursday’s commemoration marked the close of the University’s yearlong 375th anniversary celebration.

During her speech, University President Drew G. Faust recognized the momentous anniversary year. “There are few institutions in this country or even the world that can claim such longevity,” she said.

She also recognized students graduating with highest Latin honors and conferred honorary degrees on eight attendees, including Commencement day speaker Fareed R. Zakaria, a noted journalist and CNN host.

“In the name of this society of scholars, I declare that these persons are entitled to the rights and privileges pertaining to their several degrees, and that their names are to be forever borne on its roll of honorary members,” Faust said.

In his Commencement address, Zakaria argued that the world is in a position of peace, with the United States remaining at the top of the pecking order. But while much of his speech rested on an international outlook, his parting advice was more personal.

“You will never understand how much your parents love you until you have children of your own,” he said. “Get up, today of all days, and hug your parents and tell them you love them.”

During the ceremonies on Thursday, Paul J. Finnegan ’75 was elected as the newest member of the Harvard Corporation. Six overseers also formally joined the Harvard Board of Overseers.

James F. Rothenberg ’68, treasurer of the University, also announced the record-breaking donation that the Class of 1962 made to Harvard.

“This class has a history of breaking reunion records, and it has now officially broken the all-time Harvard reunion gift record for any Harvard class in any year by raising an extraordinary $68.7 million,” Rothenberg said. “That number even makes the president of Harvard smile a little bit.”

Rothenberg also commended the Class of 2012 for a 78 percent participation rate in amassing the “largest senior gift on record.”

Three student orators—Anthony C. Hernandez ’12, Jonathan Service, and Michael K. Velchik ’12—opened the ceremony, each with a five-minute address.

—Staff writer Fatima N. Mirza can be reached at fmirza@college.harvard.edu.

As the Crimson defeated Columbia, 1-0, it completed a season that consisted of the team’s best overall record since the 1999 fall campaign.

“It was really, really surreal,” sophomore Peyton Johnson says. “I wasn’t expecting it to feel quite as unbelievable as it did. I’ll never forget lifting that trophy and screaming. It was something special.”

The game’s most climactic moment occurred in only the 21st minute of the opening period, when freshman Lauren Urke knocked in a shot past Lions goalkeeper Lillian Klein. The goal, Urke’s second of the season, would be the only scratch on the scoreboard that day, and Harvard (12-5-1, 6-0-1 Ivy) took the low-scoring match.

“Trying to get the outside-back involved more offensively was something that we had been stressing all season,” explains co-captain Melanie Baskind regarding Urke’s goal. “And it’s always nice to see a freshman step up, especially a defender. You just get that much more excited, rally around her that much more.”

It was a big day all around for rookies as Urke’s classmate, Bethany Kanten, played all 90 minutes in goal, saving her 39th and 40th shots on goal of the year in order to secure sole possession of the Ancient Eight title.

Despite the fact that the Columbia match was on the Lions’ turf, the Crimson’s success this season almost exclusively occurred on its home territory of Soldiers Field. Harvard went 10-1 within familiar Cambridge while putting up a 2-4-1 record when it was the visiting team.

The first five games of the year were a sample of this dual-play. After losing the season-opener at Long Island, 2-1, the Crimson responded in the next two weekends by winning three consecutive games on its home field against Elon, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Against each of the first two opponents, Harvard scored goals within the last three minutes of the match to break 1-1 ties and keep its early-season momentum alive. In its next away game, the Crimson fell victim to the thriving offense of Boston University and lost, 3-0.

Two days following its defeat at the hands of the Terriers, Harvard suffered its only home loss of the season. This time the opponent was Hofstra and in the Crimson’s highest-scoring game of the season, four goals proved insufficient as the Spirit tallied five and earned the W.

After one more loss, a double-overtime match that lasted two hours and 20 minutes, against Rhode Island, Harvard upped its play and, for the next 49 days, went without a single loss, recording one tie and nine wins.

“[Right before the Rhode Island match] we had a big team meeting,” Baskind says. “We just took a moment to collect ourselves, remind ourselves of what was going to make us successful. From that point on we just rallied around each other and just played our best soccer. That was definitely the turning point for us.”

The spearheads of this streak for the Crimson were none other than Baskind, who tallied six goals and four assists in this ten game period, and Johnson.

On Sept. 23 against Penn, Baskind sunk two shots, both off assists from Johnson, into the back of the net. Two days later, the offensive firepower continued as the team dropped New Hampshire, 4-1, in a game in which Baskind nabbed two assists. In the first game of the next weekend’s doubleheader against Yale, it took a 93rd minute penalty kick from Johnson to attain the overtime victory for Harvard.

After a non-league victory over Fairfax, the Crimson turned back to the Ancient Eight for its meeting with Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y. Despite a goal and assist from junior Aisha Price and five saves from Kanten, Harvard was unable to break the 2-2 tie following a late Big Red goal in the 88th minute.

The next match-up featured another non-Ivy opponent, Siena, who was downed in a quick fashion by the Crimson. But Brown was not so easy to dismiss. It took two goals within a five-minute span from Baskind and freshman Mai Le to earn a come-from-behind win over the Bears.

Against Princeton, a week later, the duo of Baskind and Le once again proved detrimental to Harvard’s counterparts as the two scored back-to-back goals once more to take a decisive lead and ultimately, the match.

In the Crimson’s game against Dartmouth, though, it was all about Johnson. The score was tied at the 89:50 mark, 1-1, when the referee’s whistle blew, calling a foul on the Big Green. Seconds later, the ball was in the back of the net as Johnson drilled a free kick from 20 yards away only moments before regulation ended. With that shot and that win, Harvard clinched at least a partial share of the Ivy Championship and a bid to the NCAA tournament. It would be Johnson’s fourth and final goal of the season.

“I think for 15 minutes straight afterwards I couldn’t say any words, I just screamed. Anybody would say my name, and I would just yell,” Johnson says. “We were all numb, I put on my jacket afterwards, and I couldn’t feel it on my arms. We were just dancing in the locker room, numb and pink-skinned. I’ll never forget that. That was really just this season in a moment for me.”

Following Urke’s goal in the dramatic regular season finale against Columbia, the Crimson’s next destination was the first round of the NCAA tournament against Boston University, a team that they had lost to earlier in the season. But that is where Harvard’s journey would end in 2011 as the offensive prowess of the Terriers dominated and, once again, was able to give the team a 3-0 victory over the Crimson.

Baskind was unanimously named Ivy League Player of the Year and earned All-Mid-Atlantic honors, while Johnson and co-captain Lindsey Kowal were elected onto the All-Ivy First Team. Senior Becca Millock and freshman Meg Casscells-Hamby were named to the second team.

—Staff writer Juliet Spies-Gans can be reached at jspiesgans@college.harvard.edu.

Harvard’s freshman class helped it emerge as a dominant force in Ivy League play. With four out of the six starting singles players in their first year on the squad, its effect was immediate and sustained throughout the season.

For both the freshmen and the upperclassmen, the name of the game this year was consistency, as both its singles and its doubles play boasted high winning percentages—.667 and .672, respectively.

Within singles play, the rookies reigned. Other than senior Jonathan Pearlman on court No. 1 and sophomore Christo Schultz, who spent his time flipping between courts No. 2 and 3, the rookies dominated the courts and the wins. In the dual season, freshmen Denis Nguyen, Shaun Chaudhuri, Alex Steinroeder, and Henry Steer played 88 combined singles matches for the team and won 69 of them.

In doubles, there were two consistent lineups for the team: co-captain Alistair Felton and sophomore Casey MacMaster as well as Nguyen and junior Andy Nguyen. The former of the pairs went 22-10  on the year whereas the latter achieved a 25-9 record.

“Doubles play was definitely a very important part of our success,” Felton says. “I think we worked on our doubles more than other teams, and we also have some really great doubles coaching. That really gave us an advantage in all our matches.”

After breezing through its first three matches of the dual season, the Crimson’s first challenge came against Vanderbilt. It took freshman Nguyen saving five match points, taking the lead, and ultimately winning his individual match to seal the day’s victory.

“It showed me that the match is never over till it’s over,” Nguyen says. “You always have to keep fighting no matter what the situation is. It gave us as a team, as well as myself, individually, confidence that as long as we give it our best, anything is possible.”

After a rough next day at Indiana, where the team lost, 5-2, it was smooth sailing for Harvard until its second conference matchup. During that span of time, the Crimson defeated 13 straight opponents, including Virginia Tech, Boston University, and Butler. The team handily won the ECAC championship, as well, by defeating Brown, 4-1, in the finals.

After ECACs, Harvard traveled west to participate in the Hilton Mission Valley Spring Classic, in which it pulled off the stunning upset by not only making it to the final round but also defeating the University of San Diego, a team then-ranked 16th in the nation, 4-3.

The Crimson won four games in a row following the competition and seemed to have found its stride entering Ivy play.

Columbia, though, stopped the streak. In a surprising 5-2 loss to the Lions, only Nguyen managed to put a point on the board for the Harvard singles.

“I think the Columbia game could’ve been a result of people wanting to keep our almost-perfect season going,” Steinroeder says. “We were a little tight. Instead of going out and trying to beat our opponent, we were just trying not to lose.”

The setback did not last long. The Crimson breezed past Penn, Princeton, Yale, and Brown, with the last of those clinching at least a share of the Ivy title. Those victories set the scene for the drama of the next match, played against Dartmouth, in which a Harvard win would give the Crimson an outright title while a loss would lead to a share  of first place with Columbia and the Big Green.

Thanks to a performance from Nguyen in which he came back from a 1-0 deficit and, in three long, dramatic sets broke the three-all stalemate between the two teams, the Crimson was able to take sole possession of the Ivy title.

“A theme of our season is that although we’ve been winning so many of our matches, barely any of those victories have come easy,” Felton says. “We’ve had to battle really hard for almost every win. We knew that we had to be tougher, physically and mentally, than whoever we play. And because of that, every time we stepped on the court, we were such a difficult team to beat.”

Three players earned league honors for Harvard: Pearlman was named to the All-Ivy First Team while freshman Nguyen was placed on the second team. The doubles pair of Felton and MacMaster was placed on the All-Ivy doubles team.

—Staff writer Juliet Spies-Gans can be reached at jspiesgans@college.harvard.edu.

Not only had the the Knicks lost 11 of their last 13 games, they had an injury-depleted roster and limited options at the point guard position. Lin started the game against the New Jersey Nets relatively quietly, tallying just a rebound and an assist in the first quarter. But as the second quarter started, Lin found his rhythm, dishing out three assists and scoring three baskets of his own to bring the Knicks within two points heading into halftime.

The Madison Square crowd, sensing something special, cheered on Lin as he finished with a final stat line of 25 points on 10-of-19 shooting, seven assists, five rebounds, and two steals in a 99-92 win.

Over the next 11 games with Knicks superstars Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony spending time on the bench with injuries, Lin led the Knicks on a seven-game winning streak and a 9-2 record, all while averaging 23.9 points and 9.1 assists. It was official, “Linsanity” had hit the Big Apple and captivated millions worldwide.

Almost overnight, stores were invaded and overwhelmed by fans that wanted to get their hands on any and all kinds of Lin-related paraphernalia.

The Palo Alto, Calif. native was added to the Rising Stars Challenge during NBA All-Star Weekend by popular demand and received all sorts of media attention including a selection to Time Magazine’s 100 “Most Influential People in the World.”

The internet boomed with Jeremy Lin puns and fans all around the world debated how long Linsanity could last.

And then, just as quickly and unexpectedly as Lin had become a global phenomenon, he disappeared.

On March 24, Lin reported that he had a sore knee after a game against the Detroit Pistons, and on March 31, the Knicks announced that Lin had chosen to have knee surgery for a meniscus tear and would miss the rest of the season.

“It’s just so funny how since he got hurt, how quickly people forget what he accomplished this year,” says Lin’s high school coach Peter Diepenbrock. “I’m looking forward to him basically showing everyone that it wasn’t just a two-month deal.”

Although Lin’s season is over, he has made a significant impact in New York, at Harvard, around the Ivy League, and around the world because of his multi-dimensional appeal.

“Jeremy has so many layers to him,” says Harvard men’s basketball coach Tommy Amaker. “You peel back one, and there’s another. There are so many wonderful stories about who he is.”

LASTING IMPACT

One of the many layers to Lin’s story is his association with Harvard, both the basketball program and the University as a whole.

Lin arrived at Harvard in the fall of 2006 as a 6’3” point guard from Palo Alto High School. While Lin’s first year at Harvard passed without event, by the time he was a sophomore, he quickly refined his game. And, by the end of his sophomore campaign, hadaveraged 12.6 points and was named to the All-Ivy Second Team.

“He did great things for us here, but he didn’t just drop out of the sky; I know that’s how most people view it,” Amaker says. “From day one, he has had a tremendous impact from how he’s conducted himself, how hard he’s worked, and certainly his performance.”

Lin would only get better. As a junior, he was the only player in NCAA Division I men’s basketball to rank among the top ten in his conference in points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, field-goal percentage, free-throw percentage, and three-point percentage.

And as a senior, Lin was a unanimous choice for the All-Ivy First Team and led Harvard in scoring. One of 20 finalists for the John R. Wooden award for the national player of the year and one of 11 finalists for the Bob Cousy award for the nation’s top point guard, Lin completed his Harvard career as the only player in program history to record 1,450 points, 450 rebounds, 400 assists, and 200 steals. While Lin received publicity as a senior, it has grown exponentially since his time with the Knicks.

“The masses now know that Jeremy Lin went to Harvard and played at Harvard,” Amaker says. “He did tremendous things for this program, and he made an incredible name for himself in the Ivy League. Now that he’s moved on from Harvard and gone on to the professional ranks, the notoriety, the exposure, the attention has certainly helped us because usually they don’t mention [Harvard basketball] in any shape or form, whether its interview, print, or even television. [Harvard and Jeremy Lin] are somehow already interrelated and that’s just an amazing phenomena.”

While it is hard to fully gauge the effect of Lin’s success on the Harvard basketball program, Amaker hopes that Lin’s example will give the program credibility and increased exposure, which could help with recruiting.

“The impact he’s had has given us credibility for the fact that a young man such as himself has come through Harvard, has come through our program, has come through the Ivy League,” Amaker says. “I think there are certainly hopes of being able to present our program to kids who have dreams of being an NBA player. Maybe that in itself will give us some traction with regards to recruiting. That in itself is worth its weight in gold.”

Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 says that the impact from Lin’s exposure will not be limited to Ivy League basketball.

“We [look at demography], looking five, ten, 15, 20 years out. That’s really what our time perspective is,” Fitzsimmons says. “When you think about the effect that that type of publicity can have both here in the United States and abroad, there’s no question that [Lin’s] example and all the wonderful things in the press could well have a very positive effect for Harvard really for years to come.”

Fitzsimmons sees Lin’s impact as a very positive thing for Harvard admissions in both the short and long term, in the United States and all over the globe.

“It’s one thing to see and hear numbers about Harvard,” Fitzsimmons says. “It’s another to see, in some sense, Harvard personified in such a positive way. In some respects it’s very much the American Dream.”

AROUND THE IVIES

The focus on Lin’s successes has spread to other points in the Ivy League.

Yale senior center Greg Mangano has been following Lin’s success in the NBA during his own period of NBA recruitment.

“It’s definitely helped,” says Mangano, a two time member of the All-Ivy First Team. “I followed [Lin] really closely because I knew it was going to help having him and anyone else who is trying to play at the next level.”

NBA Director of Scouting Ryan Blake suggests that scouts have been following the Ivy League for a while, even before Lin’s recent successes.

“We pretty much scour the earth, and we do our best to find players that have professional ability,” Blake says. “We definitely don’t ignore [his success], but it’s not in terms of ‘now we have to go scout the Ivy League,’ because we already cover it. “

Penn senior guard Zack Rosen—the 2012 Ivy League Player of the Year—agrees with Mangano that Lin’s success certainly can’t hurt his chances.

“It decreases the inhibitions of the people who say, ‘Ivy League, smart kids, not really capable of playing in the league, period,’” Rosen says. “What it does is it introduces the fact that that guy can play and get it done at the next level. For me, obviously, it’s a great time because he’s done a lot. He’s been through the Ivy League. A lot of people told him no, he kept telling himself yes, and that’s a good example for anyone.”

TRAILBLAZER

While his Ivy League education is undoubtedly a significant layer to Lin’s story, there is another, deeper layer to his journey to NBA success: his Asian-American heritage.

“I think that he happens to be in the NBA and is an Asian-American,” Amaker says. “That’s another layer because it’s different. He’s a trailblazer in a lot of ways.”

The son of Taiwanese immigrants, Lin’s basketball career has been undeniably linked to his Asian-American roots from the start. Race has appeared to be an obstacle for Lin at several points in his career.

As a high school senior, Lin led his Palo Alto High School Vikings to a 32-1 record and a CIF Division II championship date with perennial California basketball powerhouse Mater Dei. Lin carried his Vikings to a 51-47 upset, shocking a Monarchs team that had eight players who went on to Division I basketball programs.

While Lin sent his resume and recruiting information to Cal, Stanford, UCLA, and all the Ivy League schools, only Harvard and Brown offered him guaranteed spots while the Pac-12 schools asked Lin to walk on.

At Harvard, Lin again faced pressure from opposing fans, who would hurl derogatory racial insults, and jeers during games. Lin’s focus and perseverance in such an environment has been inspirational to both Asians and non-Asians alike.

“He’s providing inspiration, and he’s providing living proof that if these kids work hard and keep at it, that opportunities will be there,” says Robert Nakamae, president of the San Jose Ninjas, an Asian basketball organization from the Bay Area. “I think a lot of the kids, especially the Asian-American kids, look up to him as an example of what hard work and perseverance can do for them. It doesn’t have to be in basketball or sports, but if they can follow his example and apply it to whatever it is they are doing, especially in school or their jobs, hopefully they can find the same kind of success that Jeremy has found in their own respect.”

Nakamae finds that he can use Lin’s story to inspire and excite children not just about basketball but also about the values of hard work, persistence, and relentlessness.

“My daughter plays [basketball], and we have told her that Jeremy was not an overnight success,” Nakamae says. “Before this season with the Knicks, he spent a lot of time in the offseason conditioning and then working on his shot with Doc Scheppler from Pinewood, [Calif.]. It didn’t just come naturally to him. He put a lot of work, a lot of time into developing himself into a better basketball player. That’s really the message we try and give our kids too: you have to put time into this, whatever it is, basketball, baseball, or school.”

Harvard junior Uggi Lee seems to agree.

“I think his real impact really comes at the younger level for kids who look up to him and are able to see that professional sports is something they can aspire to,” Lee says. “I think it’s incredible the kind of energy it has created in the Asian-American community, and I hope that it’s something that can be followed up on by other Asian-American athletes.”

Lee would like to see more people in the Asian-American community follow Lin’s lead and achieve success.

“It would be really sad to see Jeremy Lin being the only Asian-American athlete in this decade or this generation,” Lee says. “It would be really nice to see people take his lead and really change sports into something Asian-Americans can pursue so that they can feel sports is something that Asian-Americans have had success in in the past.”

Lin’s stories of persistence as an Asian-American athlete live on through New York University sophomore guard Ryan Tana, a fellow Asian-American basketball player from the Bay Area.

“I basically grew up with [Lin] because I played with his brother Joseph in AAU. It’s given me and a lot of other Asian-American players confidence in basketball and the things that they can get accomplished,” Tana says. “It makes me proud to be playing basketball at such a high level. You hear so much about it. Just this past season, on road trips the fans would call me Jeremy Lin and stuff like that, so you’re exposed to it all the time.”

Tana, a guard who excelled in both athletics and academics at Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo, Calif. admits that race may have been a factor during his college basketball recruiting process.

“There are definitely stereotypes about Asians, and coaches see them. I think that definitely plays a part in recruiting in terms of all Asian-Americans who are trying to play basketball at the next level,” Tana says. “Besides the coaches, other players would also not really see me as a legitimate threat. They would not really take me seriously. I had confidence that I could play at the D-I level, but that didn’t really happen, you could say, because I’m Asian.”

While Tana believes that there is still a long way to go until Asian-Americans are afforded the same respect during the recruiting process, he is heartened by the increasing prevalence of Asian and Asian-American athletes at the collegiate level.

“At my school, at NYU, they are starting to recruit more Asian players,” Tana says. “This year we have a freshman from Hong Kong, Adam Zhu, and next year we have a Korean player coming in. On our level, there are definitely more Asians. But there’s a lot more work to do. America in general has a long way to go in terms of race relations and how we perceive different people.”

LEAP OF FAITH

Yet another layer of Jeremy’s story can be found in his devotion to Christianity. Much like New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow, Lin has very publicly and adamantly expressed his faith.

Sophomore Harvard College Faith and Action member Terrance Moore thinks that Lin is within his boundaries to express his faith on the professional stage.

“I feel like [Tebow and Lin] are doing exactly what we are called to do,” Moore said. “God put certain skills, certain distinctions and gifts, for us to use it for His purpose on earth. They are being very bold in that, it takes a lot of courage. It takes a lot of faith and trust to get all that money and all that fame but still remember what your purpose is.”

Lee seems to agree with Moore’s sentiments.

“For me, I see Jeremy as a role model as a Christian athlete more than as a role model as an Asian-American athlete,” Lee says. “It’s really encouraging for me personally to see someone who can hold on to their identity as a Christian so strongly as a professional athlete, in a place where I assume it is easy and tempting to be someone different.”

Harvard sophomore and HCFA member Christopher Cleveland is equally inspired by Lin’s expression of his Christianity.

“I don’t see any difference in expression of faith between professionals and any other individual who expressed their faith,” Cleveland says. “I think the more people who are open about their faith and the more people who live by the things they say they believe helps me be equally strong in my own faith.”

LINSPIRATION

Lin continues to be a positive role model and example for many different communities and groups of people as a multi-faceted individual on the biggest stage in basketball. Different people want to see Lin influence and impact the world in different ways.

“There aren’t too many players like him as far as in the way he carries himself, his ethics,” Diepenbrock says. “I would like to see him as a really positive effect on his colleagues and for him to have a tangible influence on NBA players and how they conduct themselves.”

But perhaps Amaker sums it up best.

“Jeremy is who he is, and he sets an example for himself,” the coach says. “He makes other people better. But he has a way of not trying to force who he is or what he believes in on others. He’s been able to galvanize folks; he’s been able to lead folks. But he has a way of doing it in his way. And that’s the best way because that’s who he is.”

—Staff writer Joseph Pak can be reached at jpak@college.harvard.edu.

That is the case for Denis Nguyen, a rookie out of Anaheim, Calif., playing for the Harvard men’s tennis team. On the year, Nguyen has played all but one match in the No. 2 singles position, winning almost 80 percent of the time.

“When Denis came in, we saw that he had the potential to be a great player for us this season,” co-captain Alistair Felton says. “He’s really put the hard work in and stayed focused in order to fill his potential this year. Most impressive, I think, has been his poise and calmness in tight situations.”

One of the first showings of Nguyen’s importance to the team came on Feb. 3 in a 4-3 win over Vanderbilt.

It was the Crimson’s opening road trip of the winter season, and the team was facing a possible first loss of the year. The match was tied, three apiece, when Nguyen began to take control.

After dropping the first set, 5-7, Nguyen began to mount a comeback, point by point. He won the second set, 6-4, and, after saving five match points, was able to take the lead in the third and the eventual win, 7-5.

On April 28, a win against Dartmouth and the Ivy title all came down to the freshman in a similar manner. Nguyen, on that day, broke a three-all tie when he rallied back from that same 5-7 first-set loss that he faced against the Commodores. Over two and a half hours after singles play began, Nguyen brought home the championship for his team.

Throughout the season, Nguyen has been one of only three players on the team who consistently took part in both singles and doubles play.

He has spent much of the season paired up with junior Andy Nguyen (unrelated), and together, the duo has gone 25-7.

The freshman attributes much of his success this year to his growing strength and agility.

“I definitely think I grew physically,” Nguyen explains. “In both the weight room and conditioning, we worked really hard. It helped me improve my overall game, and, [in doubles], especially my net game.”

And since Jonathan Pearlman, the current holder of the No. 1 position, is graduating, it looks as if both Nguyen’s play and court number will be even higher next season.

—Staff writer Juliet Spies-Gans can be reached at jspiesgans@college.harvard.edu.

With its spot in the NCAA tournament secured, Harvard did not disappoint in the first round, topping Virginia Tech, 4-2. But the Crimson could not solve its second-round opponent, Florida, and a 4-0 loss to the Gators ended what had been a historic season.

In 26 matches, Harvard won 23 times, giving it a winning percentage of .884, the best mark of any Crimson team since 1968.

“Our record this year was certainly something we’ve been really proud of, especially compared to the last couple of seasons when our record was maybe not as good as we would’ve liked,” co-captain Alistair Felton says. “This season has just been incredible. A number of tight matches that we’ve somehow managed to get through have enabled us to set this record.”

The first sign of the team’s arrival onto the elite Ivy tennis scene may have been its Feb. 3 victory over Vanderbilt. The Commodores, at the time, were ranked 34th in the nation, and, perhaps indicative of the season as a whole, it took a Crimson freshman to propel the squad past its opponents.

“I think that win was certainly a catalyst for us,” Felton says. “It gave us belief that we could beat teams that are some of the best nationally. Also, to win the first really close match made us more comfortable when we got into tight situations in the future because we could look back and not think, ‘Oh no, this is going to be like that match where we lost 4-3.’ Instead, it was more like, ‘We’ve been in this position before, and we got through it, so we can get through again.’”

For the next two months and four days, Harvard lost only once—to Indiana, a team then ranked 27th nationally. During that stretch of time, the Crimson not only won the ECAC title but also the Hilton Mission Valley Spring Classic, a spring break tournament in which it upset No. 16 University of San Diego to win the championship.

Harvard’s winning streak reached 13, a number two less than its win total in 2011, one less than its victories in 2010, and tying the amount of wins it had in 2009.

“Even during that time, our mentality stayed the same,” freshman Denis Nguyen explains. “It was to play like a strong, mentally tough team out there every time we compete. That goal has always worked well for us.”

And, despite one league loss to Columbia, the Crimson finished Ivy play with a 6-1 record, earning its first Ivy title since 2008.

The championship-clinching win against Dartmouth was largely thanks to the clutch performances of Nguyen and fellow rookie Alex Steinroeder. The freshmen won consecutive matches to bring the Crimson back from a 3-2 deficit to take the match and sole possession of the Ivy crown.

“We really didn’t want to have to share the title with two other teams,” Steinroeder says. “Even though we technically would’ve been Ivy League champions still, this was a much sweeter way to earn that title.”

The championship marked Harvard’s first since 2008, meaning that none of the current players had won a league title prior to the Crimson’s 2012 run.

The addition of rookies Steinroeder and Nguyen, along with Shaun Chaudhuri and Henry Steer, meant a complete transformation in the starting six for Harvard. Though it is rare in itself to have four freshmen make the starting team, it is even rarer to have them be some of the most consistent players throughout the season. In singles play, the four starting freshmen went a combined 112-36 on the year, a winning percentage of over .750.

“The freshmen really changed the team this year,” Felton explains. “Not only with their level of play but also with their attitude towards training and the game. What is really great is that they are such a tight knit group within the team so that they have really supported and pushed each other all throughout the season.”

As the team has officially broken out, next year will be all about keeping the fire alive.

—Staff writer Juliet Spies-Gans can be reached at jspiesgans@college.harvard.edu.

After a nail-biting, 11-10 overtime win against MIT in the first round of the CWPA Northern Division tournament, that goal was finally realized.

“I think it was the guys really working hard all season,” Crimson coach Ted Minnis says. “They stayed focused on the goal. When we had some losses early in the year, we didn’t dwell on it. They stayed persistent with [their] work ethic.”

Despite finishing 10-20 overall, Harvard improved on its 2010 performance, going 5-9 in CWPA Northern Division play—up from 2-5 last year.

“[The 2010] season wasn’t as successful as we’d hoped for,” co-captain Kevin DiSilvestro says. “But this year, everyone came in from the summer in the best shape they’d been in, and everybody was completely focused.”

The Crimson kicked off the 2011 campaign with a pair of matchups at the MIT Invitational in Cambridge, taking down the hometown rival Engineers before falling to No. 18 Cal Baptist. Harvard’s senior goaltender Alexandre Popp recorded 13 saves in the latter game, but the Lancers’ offense prevailed to get the win.

Popp and the rest of the senior class, motivated by the goal of making it to Easterns, led the Crimson throughout the year. Popp had a season total of 244 saves, while co-captains DiSilvestro and Luka Babic contributed a combined 55 goals. Classmates Mike Katzer and Evan Zepfel, who is also an inactive Crimson sports editor, added 24 and 14 more, respectively.

Following the MIT Invitational, Harvard continued the season with trips south to the Princeton Invitational and the North-South Tournament, in Annapolis, Md., where the Crimson picked up three wins and four losses in a seven-game stretch against conference opponents.

One of Harvard’s wins came in an overtime thriller against George Washington in which the Crimson built up an 11-6 lead only to see it dwindle as the Colonials went on a 6-1 run in the final period to put the game into overtime.

But junior Max Eliot, a member of the All-CWPA Second Team and Harvard’s leading scorer with 44 goals on the year, put in a game-winner in the second overtime period to secure the win, 13-12.

After narrowly falling, 10-8, to Navy in the last game of the North-South Tournament, the Crimson went on a six-game losing skid. But Harvard finally put an end to the streak when it beat conference foe Connecticut College, 16-7, in the Crimson’s first stretch of home games at Blodgett Pool.

Rookie Evan Ramsey led Harvard with five goals, three assists, and two steals in the game, part of the impressive season that earned him a spot on the All-CWPA Northern Division Second Team along with Eliot.

But while it found some success against conference opponents, Harvard came up empty when it made its annual midseason trip to the West Coast to face off against five nationally ranked California teams in three days.

“That roadtrip is always really fun because most of the guys on the team are from California,” DiSilvestro says. “It was just great to see that we could play with teams that were ranked much higher than us, and then it was awesome to be able to look up into the stands and see a bunch of family and friends in Harvard gear.”

The trip’s highlight came as the Crimson got its chance at redemption against Cal Baptist in the first matchup of the roadtrip.

The Lancers gained a one-goal advantage in the first period, and although they maintained a lead for most of the game, Harvard kept the score close, and DiSilvestro scored one of his three goals on the day in the last frame to force overtime.

But unfortunately for the Crimson, it could not complete the comeback, as the Lancers scored two more goals to finalize the score at 12-10 and send Harvard home empty-handed.

“We definitely didn’t get the wins we would have liked to get because we played such good teams, but the lessons we learned and how much we grew as a team were important,” Minnis says. “It was definitely the springboard to the Easterns.”

The Crimson regained momentum when it returned to Blodgett Pool, handing Cornell and Columbia losses in the Ivy Championship before heading to the CWPA Northern Division Championship.

Facing MIT once again at the Engineers’ home pool, Harvard needed just one win to achieve its goal of making it to the Eastern Championships for the first time in four years.

In another hard-fought overtime battle—this time with their postseason fate on the line—the Crimson’s seniors stepped up their game yet again. Katzer put three goals past the MIT goalie—two of which came in overtime—to earn Harvard its biggest win of the season.

With a spot in the Eastern Championship secured, the Crimson went on to drop its next four games, but finished the tournament and the season with a win over Iona to capture seventh place.

—Staff writer Madeleine Smith can be reached at smith21@college.harvard.edu.

But, with one final swing from Laser, the ball collided with the net. Dead silence filled the Baren Tennis Center for three, two, one. And then a final, unifying yell came from all those clad in Crimson.

With that shot in the net, Harvard won a come-from-behind victory that not only gave it the 4-3 win over Dartmouth, but also earned it the title of sole Ivy League champions.

“It was a pretty indescribable feeling,” freshman Alex Steinroeder says. “We were all so happy that after all the hard work we’ve put in and the long season, we were finally able to show that we were the best Ivy team and could finally grab that title.”

It was not an easy match for the Crimson, though. The team trailed early after dropping two consecutive tiebreakers to lose the doubles point.

Following Nguyen and partner junior Andy Nguyen’s 8-1 win the troubles began.

“It was hard not to be nervous,” co-captain Alistair Felton says. “You try all these various techniques to focus on the game and not think about the score, but it’s really difficult, especially when you are playing for the whole team, and it just comes down to you. That’s where it is especially nerve-wracking.”

In both of the doubles matches that Harvard lost, the Big Green had to make up deficits. In senior Jonathan Pearlman’s and sophomore Christo Schultz’s contest, the Crimson duo was up, 4-2, before the Big Green came storming back to take the 9-8 victory. Felton and sophomore Casey MacMaster went down similarly as they relinquished an early 5-4 lead, and a late 8-7 lead, to eventually fall, 9-8.

An hour and a half of doubles play led to zilch on the scoreboard for the home team, and a plus-one for its counterparts.

And, after Harvard nabbed a short-lived lead from two singles contests, Dartmouth came storming back and took control of the match, 3-2.

At that point, two individual matches were left in play, both of which featured Crimson freshmen against Big Green seniors. On court No. 2, Nguyen battled Laser, as Steinroeder took on Chris Ho on court No. 5.

“I was pretty frustrated at the beginning of the match because I was playing so badly,” Steinroeder explains. “I knew it was such a big match, and I didn’t want to lose for the team. I just never gave up. I started playing a little bit better, which put a little more pressure on my opponent.”

After dropping his first set, 6-1, Steinroeder battled for 90 more minutes to come back and earn the “W” for his team. At 5:45 p.m., three hours and 45 minutes after the day’s competition began, Steinroeder took down his upperclassman opponent, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3.

“The feeling after was just pretty much relief,” Steinroeder says. “Relief and excitement.”

With the overall match at a draw, Nguyen’s individual match was just warming up. Nguyen followed Steinroeder’s lead, as he avenged a 5-7 loss in the first set with a 6-0 win in the second.

The freshman’s first two points following Steinroeder’s win were consecutive aces, tying the third and deciding set at 2-2. Four points later, a sliding shot from Nguyen tied it up at 30-all and led the way to wins in two consecutive games. After Laser rebounded to decrease his deficit, 4-3, Nguyen fought back and took the next game without losing a single point. Only a minute later, though, Nguyen’s Dartmouth counterpart once again seized control. With that game, the score was 5-4.

Nguyen took the next two points to take a 30-0 lead. After the rookie double faulted, momentum swung momentarily back to Laser, who tied it up at 30 apiece. But thanks to a shot that sliced down the line, crosscourt from where Laser stood, Nguyen retook a slender lead. The game was 40-30. The next shot was match point.

Nguyen served the ball and, after a short rally, the ball was in the net and the match was won. Though Harvard trailed, as a team and individually, it only took a couple of freshmen to rally and earn their team the thing that it had been fighting to reclaim since 2008: sole possession of the Ivy crown.

“It obviously would’ve been less nerve-wracking if we hadn’t have had that final situation, but I think it showed that we are able to fight through adversity and come together as a team,” Steinroeder says. “That match just culminated everything we’ve stood for this season, as we came together and proved that we were the strongest team mentally.”

—Staff writer Juliet Spies-Gans can be reached at jspiesgans@college.harvard.edu.

“I was really happy with the way the women played this year; we had some big wins,” says Minnis, whose squad went 17-12 overall and 4-1 in conference play.

The season was highlighted by a victory over No. 20 Hartwick at home on Senior Day. The win was Harvard’s first over the Hawks in the last 27 matches between the schools, a streak dating back to 2001. In a game that went into overtime, it was the senior Purcell who scored the winning goal.

“The win on senior day was huge,” Minnis says.

Right before the season kicked off, the team went on a training trip to Hungary. Specifically traveling to the cities of Eger and Budapest, the Crimson scrimmaged local teams and held a few training sessions, while it quickly learned how prevalent water polo is in Hungarian culture.

When not in the pool, Harvard took advantage of the vast history, tastes, and sites of Hungary and experienced all that the country had to offer.

“You don’t think of Hungary as being a vacation spot, but water polo is huge there,” Minnis says. “It was a great opportunity for our kids.”

Besides being a great experience, the Crimson’s expedition to Hungary provided invaluable experience heading into its 2012 campaign.

“The trip in Hungary really prepared us better than anything else could,” Kennifer says.

Coming back to America, the Crimson enjoyed several close wins, though it also had some tough losses to ranked teams throughout the season.

The squad had two five-game winning streaks for the season, and it ended the year with a seventh-place finish after being seeded seventh in the CWPA Eastern Championships.

“We showed that we were a team that would never give up,” Kennifer says. “We came from behind in a lot of games.”

The women faced some of its toughest competition when it took its annual spring break trip to California in March. While the trip to the Golden State brought more than half of the team home, it also allowed the Crimson to match up against top teams. The Crimson went 1-4 on the trip, but Harvard kept many contests close, falling by one to UC Santa Barbara and two to Cal Baptist.

“We learned some great lessons from that trip and playing against the tough teams,” Minnis says.

With a spot open in goal to open the season, a freshmen stepped up to the plate. Ariel Dukes spent the majority of the season in net, earning three Southern Division Defensive Player of the Week awards along the way.

While Dukes will return next season, the Crimson will lose four seniors: Kennifer, Purcell, Lizzie Abbott, and Monica Zdrojewski.

“I think we, as a [senior] class and as [a team], have been building toward this point for a while,” Purcell says. “We have grown a lot in the past year, and we have been building on our improvements from previous years.”

Until this year, the Crimson had not boasted a winning record in back-to-back years since the 2004 and 2005 seasons.

“We brought the program further than any other year during my time here at Harvard,” Kennifer says. “And I think we left the program with great momentum going into the following years.”

“We have four seniors who have done a lot for the team and the program,” Minnis said after the final game of the season. “This will go down in my mind as one of the best teams of all time.”

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

Junior co-captain Walter Peppelman, who had a national ranking as high as No. 4 during the year at 157 pounds, and junior Steven Keith, who ranked as high as No. 9 during the regular season in the 133-pound weight class, led the Crimson on the mat, both placing eighth at the NCAA tournament.

The eighth-place finishes earned the two juniors All-American status and marked the first time two Crimson teammates made the podium at the NCAA tournament since J. P. O’Connor ’10, Louis Caputo ’09-’10, and Max Meltzer ’07 did so in 2007.

Also competing in the NCAA tournament were co-captain Corey Jantzen and freshman James Fox. Jantzen, who played with an injured shoulder, began his final NCAA bout with a 10-8 decision over Cam Tessari of Ohio State at 149 pounds. While Tessari went on to finish fourth, Jantzen dropped his next two matches against the No. 7- and No. 4-ranked opponents to end his college career.

“Corey is one of the hardest workers I’ve ever met,” Keith says. “Unfortunately, he fell short of his goals, but he was a huge impact to the team and really carried guys through and really pushed people to their limits to make them the best wrestlers they could be.”

“It’s heartbreaking to see him go out the way he did,” Peppelman adds. “But with an injury-plagued career, he made the best of what he had.”

Fox, Harvard’s final wrestler in the tournament, did not win a match in the 197-pound class, but his two close matches seemed to prove him worthy of his at-large bid. Unranked, he dropped a 12-8 decision against the No. 8 seed before falling, 4-1, in the first round of Wrestlebacks. According to his teammates, the freshman also set a strong example for the Crimson’s future rookie grapplers.

“Fox kind of paved the way for the other freshmen, proving that even though it’s your first year in college wrestling, you can have a great season,” Keith says.

NCAAs were not the first time Harvard wrestlers had performed well in tournament matches. To start the year, the Crimson had six on the podium at the Binghamton Open. Sophomore Paul Liguori paced Harvard, finishing second in the 149-pound class, while Peppelman and Keith both finished third. Fox and sophomore Cameron Croy (184 pounds) each gained fourth-place honors, while freshman David Ng placed sixth in the heavyweights.

The Keystone Classic was one of the Crimson’s most successful bouts all year. Peppelman won a tournament for the first time in his college career, Keith and Croy earned silver, Fox took bronze, and Liguori and Ng both placed fifth. Freshman Joe Barbato, in one of his few competitions of the season, rounded out Harvard’s performance by taking sixth place at 125 pounds. As a team, the Crimson placed fifth—its best team finish all year.

While the next tournament—the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational—saw Peppelman go down with a knee injury that would keep him out for a few weeks, Keith placed third and Fox took seventh in their respective weight classes.

“I think that the tournament in Vegas in December…really proved to me that I belonged on the podium at the NCAA tournament,” Keith says.

Keith continued his winning ways at Harvard’s final tournament until the EIWAs at the end of the spring, finishing eighth at the Midlands Championships. Though other Crimson grapplers won a few matches, Keith was the only one to earn a medal.

The beginning of Harvard’s 15 dual meets in the spring looked promising. In its opening match against Rider, the Crimson registered four decisions, a major decision, and a fall en route to a 22-15 victory.

Though Harvard lost, 33-12, later that afternoon against Rutgers, the Crimson showed promise that day. Having to take the fall semester off due to injury, Jantzen returned to the mat full-force, pulling an upset against previously unbeaten and No. 3-ranked Mario Mason of Rutgers. Peppelman, meanwhile, pinned his two opponents, adding to his current career total of 27 falls that ranks him third all-time in Harvard’s history.

The Crimson went on to only win four more team matches—including a 43-0 shutout against Millersville—but still managed to merit a No. 22 national ranking before heading to the EIWA Championships.

There, then-No. 6 Peppelman and then-No. 12 Keith recorded their best EIWA performances yet, finishing second and third in their weight classes, respectively, automatically qualifying them for the NCAA tournament.

Then-No. 5 Jantzen recorded a major decision and fall at 0:36—guaranteeing him sixth place and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament—before dropping out due to a medical forfeit. In their respective weight classes, Croy finished sixth and Fox placed seventh, putting them in positions to earn at-large bids to the NCAA Championships, though only Fox ended up getting the call.

“We’re a great team; we’re a great family,” Peppelman says. “I’m really proud of what we’ve done and what we’ve accomplished, from having the second-best GPA in the country this year to organizing and coming together on National Coming Out Day to putting four guys in the national tournament. I think overall we had a really productive season, both on and off the mat.”

—Staff writer Taryn I. Kurcz can be reached at tkurcz13@college.harvard.edu.

Freshman Steve Michalek had surrendered a trio of goals in the opening period to put the Crimson in a 3-1 hole. With a 6-5-8 record at that point, the netminder had enjoyed a solid rookie season, but he wasn’t doing enough to help turn those ties into wins and get his team over the hump.

So Donato replaced Michalek with Raphael Girard, a sophomore who had barely played as a freshman and had struggled in a pair of early-season appearances.

The left-handed goaltender took his place between the pipes as the second period began. By the end of the night, Donato had found his spark, as Girard saved all 26 Bobcat shots fired at him over the final two periods to help Harvard escape the hostile road environment with a 6-3 win.

“I just kept working during practices, even though at some point it was hard to find motivation because Steve was playing so well,” says Girard of his season before replacing Michalek. “It was hard sometimes to find a way to push myself, but I kept on doing that. Maybe that was why I ended up playing against Quinnipiac, because my coach knew I kept working in practice, and that if he put me in there, he had confidence I could make some saves.”

Upon getting his chance, the sophomore did just that, and he continued to make clear over the following month that his hard work had paid off.

Though Donato decided to give Michalek the start in the squad’s next game, the first round of the Beanpot against Boston University, the freshman gave up three quick goals to put Harvard in another early hole. In came Girard, who for the rest of the contest was perfect again—saving all eight shots fired at him by the then-No. 1 team in the country—and Michalek would not get his job back for the rest of the season.

Following that game, Girard sparked the Crimson—which had been picked to finish dead last in the ECAC Preseason Media Poll—to a 3-0-2 record down the stretch, propelling Harvard’s surge up the conference standings.

In two must-win conference home games during the regular season’s final weekend, Girard saved 31 of 32 shots in Harvard’s 4-1 victory over St. Lawrence and 27 of 29 shots in its 3-2 win over Clarkson to help the Crimson earn the No. 3 seed in the ECAC playoffs. With that came a vital first-round playoff bye and home-ice advantage in the quarterfinals.

For his efforts, Girard was named ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Month in February, in which he had registered a 1.75 goals-against average and a .944 save percentage.

“The guys in front of me really helped me perform well,” says Girard, who finished the regular season with a .933 save percentage, tied for fourth-best in the country. “It’s always encouraging to see guys who put the team’s success in front of their individual success. I was pretty pumped up when I saw guys blocking shots and giving all they could.”

Then came the playoffs, when the goaltender was at his absolute best.

The Crimson lost Game 1 of its first-round playoff series against Yale, 2-1 in overtime, despite Girard saving 42 Bulldog shots. But in the subsequent pair of must-win contests, the sophomore willed his team to victory, refusing to let his team’s season end on its home ice.

In Game 2, Girard stopped 48 of 51 Bulldog attempts, making save after save as the game rolled into double overtime. Sixteen of those stops came in the first extra period alone, when any slip-up by the goalie would have ended Harvard’s season. During that stretch, the sophomore shut the Bulldogs down on two power plays, making seven saves in man-down situations to keep the Crimson alive until sophomore Dan Ford was able to score the game-winner in the second OT.

“[Girard] was outstanding,” Donato says. “His performance, especially in game two in overtime, was incredible.”

Building off the momentum provided by the sophomore’s spark, the Harvard offense scored eight times in Game 3 to make things easier on the goalie, who nonetheless made 39 saves in the Crimson’s series-clinching 8-2 win. The Harvard offense continued to feed off of Girard’s energy in the semifinal, as the netminder denied 18 of 19 Cornell attempts in the Crimson’s 6-1 upset of the No. 13 Big Red.

“You need a goalie that can make saves under pressure,” Donato says. “He made some huge saves. His confidence, his ability to play the puck out of the net, those were all key aspects of the success we were able to have down the stretch.”

All of a sudden, the sophomore who had started the year as a backup had become a star.

“There were a lot of guys that were very happy for him,” Donato says. “He’s a great character in the locker room; he’s liked and respected by his teammates; and he definitely has a little bit of flash and confidence to his game that were a big boost of confidence to the team itself.”

Girard’s stunning run finally came to an end in the ECAC championship game. The goalie was brilliant through two periods, saving all 27 shots he faced from then-No. 6 Union to equal his Dutchman counterpart Troy Grosenick—who would be named a first-team All-American after the season—even though Grosenick only needed to make 10 saves over the same span.

In the third period, Union—a future Frozen Four participant—finally got to Girard, registering two goals to put an end to the Crimson’s season with a 3-1 win (the final score was an empty-netter).

“I really love our seniors,” Girard says. “[In the playoffs] I knew every game could be my last game with them, so I just wanted to [extend their careers] as much as I could. I wish we had made it to the NCAAs just for them, because they deserved it.”

Though it fell just short of its first tournament bid in six years, the Crimson had finally found an answer between the pipes in Girard, who finished 6-3-1 over his final 10 appearances and whose postseason save percentage of .947 was the best in the country.

“We definitely had a good end to the season,” Girard says. “I wish I could’ve played like that the whole year, but we’ve all got our ups and downs.”

But following his breakout performance, from now on, it would appear that Raphael Girard’s career is exclusively on the way up.

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.

In a 14-day span in September, the Harvard men’s cross country team seemingly changed its identity in the Ivy League. Once an inexperienced squad that was simply too young to be anything but a non-factor, the Crimson appeared to be a legitimate contender in the Ancient Eight.

“We had a ton of talent and we were in great shape,” sophomore James Leakos says. “The first couple of races, we crushed it.”

On Sept. 17, the squad cruised to a 23-34 victory over Yale at the annual Harvard-Yale dual meet. Two weeks later, the Crimson toed the line against some of the nation’s best teams at the Paul Short Invitational in Bethlehem, Pa., and put together its best performance of the year, finishing in ninth place out of 45 teams. In those last two weeks of September, seemingly everything went right for Harvard’s young harriers.

But unfortunately for the Crimson, the cross country season does not end in September.

“Right after [the Paul Short Invitational], everything just started going wrong,” Leakos says. “Unfortunately, literally, like, our entire team got hurt. And that was pretty much that.”

All five of Harvard’s scoring runners from the Paul Short Invitational sustained injuries following the meet. Both Leakos and freshman Billy Orman, who had been the squad’s No. 1 and No. 2 runners, respectively, at Harvard-Yale and Paul Short, were unable to compete at the team’s next scheduled race.

Just two weeks after its resounding performance in Bethlehem, the decimated Crimson squad competed in the ‘B’ division at the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational. Going into the Heptagonal Championships, the once competitive team was back at square one.

Led by junior Jakob Lindaas (28th) and sophomore Aaron Watanabe (32nd), the team finished in seventh place at Heps. Placing four runners in the top 10, Princeton took home the men’s team title. Columbia and Dartmouth, which narrowly edged the Crimson at Paul Short, finished in second and third place, respectively.

“Injuries certainly curtailed the potential that we had, in terms of where we finished in the final [Ivy] League standings,” Harvard coach Jason Saretsky says.

Leakos indicated that the squad’s training after the Paul Short Invite might have played a role in causing the ensuing slew of injuries.

“We had a great opportunity to do some really cool stuff, and we knew that,” he says. “I think we just got too excited…. The next couple of runs [after the Paul Short meet], I straight up crushed. I took very little recovery days, and I just really hammered the next week or so.”

Going into the year, a lack of experience and leadership was a major concern for the Crimson, which fielded a roster of mainly sophomores and freshmen. Having graduated Dan Chenoweth in the spring of 2011, Harvard entered the season without a clear No. 1 runner.

“I think a number of guys saw that opportunity and were maybe a little over-eager to fill those big shoes that [Chenoweth] left,” Saretsky says. “I think it was a real learning process for the team, and we’ll be in a much better situation come next year.”

While the Crimson men suffered from inexperience, the women’s team boasted a veteran squad led by seniors Jeanne Mack and Kailyn Kuzmuk.

After a disappointing third-place finish at the Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet, the Harvard women followed the lead of the men’s squad and had their strongest outing at the Paul Short Invitational.

Kuzmuk led the seven competing runners at the invite, covering the six-kilometer course at Lehigh University in 21:51. All seven of the Crimson’s competitors finished within a 40-second span, allowing the squad to finish in 14th in the deep 45-school field. Some of the best programs in the country took the top spots in the women’s standings—Providence College and Villanova University earned first and second place, respectively, and eventual national-champion Georgetown finished in fourth place.

At the Heptagonal Championships, Mack (13th) and Kuzmuk (21st) once again paced the Crimson. Following the veterans was a trio of fresh faces: freshmen Viviana Hanley and Alaina Alvarez and sophomore Morgan Kelly. The squad earned sixth place in the Ancient Eight, with Cornell topping Columbia to take home the Ivy title.

“I think the cross country season had some really outstanding highlights,” Saretsky says. “I was really proud with the way that some of our younger athletes stepped up when they were called upon to run in the major championship races as we got to the end of the season.”

—Staff writer Dominic A. Martinez can be reached at dmartinez@college.harvard.edu.

Pegged to finish seventh in the 12-team ECAC in one poll and dead last in another, the Crimson, it seemed, had been written off before the puck was dropped in the year’s first contest.

Instead, Harvard finished one win away from an ECAC championship.

After fighting through an injury-filled regular season, when the team set the NCAA record for most ties in a single season while simultaneously boasting the nation’s top power play, the Crimson finished third in the conference and earned a first-round bye.

“I think the ties actually say a lot about the team,” junior defenseman Danny Biega says. “We always found a way to come close and do what we had to do to stick with any team in the league.”

After the team’s bye, the Crimson quickly found itself on the brink of elimination after falling to Yale, 2-1, in Game 1 of the three-game quarterfinals series.

But then, things started to click.

After taking Game 2 in double overtime, 4-3, Harvard cruised to back-to-back wins over the Bulldogs in Game 3 and Cornell in the semifinals, beating its two fiercest rivals by a combined score of 14-3 to advance to the ECAC Championship final for the first time since 2008.

In the process, the team earned a top-25 national ranking.

“Really, towards the end of the year, we started stringing together wins because we got more confident and players started feeling more comfortable,” Biega says. “With wins comes more confidence, and I think those two are definitely correlated.”

But the magic ran out there. A tough Union squad proved too much for the Crimson in a 3-1 loss, ending Harvard’s hopes of an NCAA berth.

Offensively, Biega and senior forward Alex Killorn led the way all year long, tallying 46 and 35 points, respectively, en route to First Team All-American selections.

But perhaps no one played a more important role in the team’s late-season run than sophomore Raphael Girard, who replaced freshman netminder Steve Michalek between the pipes near the season’s end. The sophomore’s defining performance of the year came in the second playoff game against Yale, when he stopped 48 of 51 shots to keep the team’s season alive.

“The play of Raphael Girard at the end of the season gave us some outstanding goaltending and gave the team another level of confidence,” Harvard coach Ted Donato ’91 says.

Thanks in part to the play of Girard, Biega, and Killorn, the Crimson defied preseason expectations, both with its bold run through the playoffs and by becoming the first Harvard team in four years that finished with more wins than losses. In doing so, the Crimson may have shut the book on a series of painful and underperforming seasons and officially turned the corner.

—Staff writer Robert S. Samuels can be reached at robertsamuels@college.harvard.edu.

But perhaps it’s best to begin where everything got started for Harvard (13-10-11, 8-5-9 ECAC): with first-team All-Americans senior attacker Alex Killorn and junior defenseman Danny Biega.

“They elevated their game at the end of the season and were absolutely sensational,” Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91 says.

Killorn, who was third nationally with 0.68 goals per game, and Biega, who was second nationally among defensemen with 1.06 points per game, were the first All-Americans to play at Harvard since Noah Welch ’05 made the first team and Dov Grummet Morris ’05 made the second team, both in 2005.

Killorn is currently making strides towards a professional career with the Tampa Bay Lightning, while Biega was recently named the 120th Crimson captain for next season.

“[Killorn] had a tremendous year, going from being a very good player to a guy who night in, night out was a threat,” Donato says. “With Biega coming back to lead the defense, there’s a lot of optimism and a lot of excitement.”

But the story of Harvard’s season goes well beyond the two Quebecois. With sophomore goalie Raphael Girard starting in goal for the last month of the season, Harvard finally found its stride, going 6-3-1 in its last 10 games. Thanks to the late charge, the Crimson earned a first-round bye in the ECAC playoffs, home ice in the quarterfinals, and advanced to the conference championship against eventual national runner-up, Union.

“I think it was great to get back to the championship game,” says Donato, who until this season had not reached the title game since 2008. “It was a group that was resilient and hadn’t experienced a ton of success over the last couple years, but we set our sights on trying to get home ice and ended up making a run of it.”

2011-12 marked the first winning season since 2007-08 for a program that boasts 12 Frozen Four Appearances and 21 Ivy League titles in its illustrious history. Despite the strong finish, the Crimson extended an unfortunate streak during the regular season, failing to win the Beanpot for the 19th year in a row.

But Harvard did manage a couple key late-season victories over traditional Ancient Eight opponents.

“That taste that we left in our mouths of having some success and beating a couple very good Yale and Cornell teams, two of our big rivals—that taste of success is one that I think our guys recognize and are hungry to improve upon this upcoming season,” Donato says.

The Crimson bested the Big Red in the semifinals, 6-1, after beating the Bulldogs in a three-game ECAC quarterfinal series, which saw two games go to overtime. Harvard went to extra time in 14 of 34 games over the season and tied an NCAA record 11 times.

“There is certainly a mixed bag of feelings with ties,” Donato says. “We had a good many of them on the road, and getting points on the road is very important with securing home ice in the playoffs. So I think you can look at it [as], ‘Ah geez, we were that close to winning some of those games and having a more impressive record.’”

“But on the other side,” Donato continues, “you had an incredibly resilient group that defensively played in an intense environment and rose to the occasion. It built poise under fire for the group that really paid off at the end of the season.”

The challenge will be carrying that resiliency over to next season. Harvard has made a habit of starting slowly. The Crimson went 5-6-8 to start the 2011-12 season and 3-15 the year before. With nine of its top 11 scorers and Girard and freshman keeper Steve Michalek returning, the Crimson has reason for optimism going into next season.

“At the end of the season we established a new identity as a team and really finished off the year on a positive note,” Biega says. “It’s important to continue on that path and build off of it next year. This is a building block for the future of Harvard hockey.”

—Staff writer Alexander Koenig can be reached at akoenig@college.harvard.edu.

The Crimson (22-9-1, 17-4-1) first showed its grit on Jan. 14 when it responded to an early 3-0 deficit against Rensselaer.

Harvard scored five unanswered goals in the final 25 minutes as it went on to defeat its opponent and improve its postseason prospects.

“It was symbolic of our season,” junior forward Jillian Dempsey says. “We didn’t always have our best, but we worked hard, gritted it out, and never went away.”

Climbing as high as No. 7 in the national rankings, the squad only got stronger as the season wore on. Between the pipes, junior goaltender Laura Bellamy recorded six of her seven shutouts in the new year.

The outstanding individual effort corresponded with increased pressure on the other side of the ice. Dempsey led the charge with 2.1 points per game, and the Crimson won eight of its final 10 contests.

“As the year went on, the forwards really began to click,” junior alternate captain Josephine Pucci says. “If we can stay in the offensive zone, there is that much less we have to do on the defensive end, so that was huge.”

The squad saved its best all-around performance of the season for a pair of one-sided affairs against rivals Yale and Princeton, surrendering just 24 combined shots.

On Jan. 27, Harvard skated all over the Bulldogs in New Haven, scoring two unassisted goals in the first five minutes en route to an 8-0 victory.

Eight days later it returned home to thrash the Tigers. After losing to Princeton earlier in the season and allowing an early goal, the Crimson unleashed its fury, scoring seven goals in the second period alone.

When it was all said and done, Harvard was on top, 10-1.

“I’ll always remember [the Princeton] game,” says Dempsey, whose five goals came just one shy of tying the NCAA record.  “They scored in the first shift and that put us on our toes right away. [For us to score 10 unanswered goals] was something that I didn’t even think could actually happen.”

The team’s triumphs did not end there. Three players—Dempsey, Pucci, and freshman defender Michelle Picard—continued to build off of the season’s momentum by contributing to a United States silver medal at the 2012 IIHF Women’s World Championship coached by the Crimson’s own Katey Stone.

Since 1998, 20 former Harvard skaters have represented their respective countries in the Olympics.

Bellamy, whose 1.86 goals-against average was good for seventh nationally, also received recognition for her performance this season with two ECAC Goaltender of the Week awards.

But with all of success’ sweetness came some bitter moments.

Perhaps the most disappointing results of the season fell under the bright spotlight of the 34th annual Beanpot tournament. For the first time in five years, the Crimson failed to reach the finals of the four-team single-elimination tournament.

Harvard fell to Boston College, 4-2, in the consolation game after losing, 5-2, at the hands of Boston University.

“Unfortunately, we biffed against BC and BU,” Pucci says. “Those games showed us where we needed to be.”

The Crimson also came up short in the postseason. Harvard finished second in the ECAC during the regular season but bowed out to fifth-ranked St. Lawrence in the conference semifinals.

In what would prove to be the season’s final game, the Crimson outshot the Saints, 30-27, and had seven power play opportunities compared to its opponents’ three in the 2-1 overtime loss.

But with the core of the team returning, Harvard is hopeful for the upcoming season.

Despite its early postseason exit, the Crimson showed it could hang with the nation’s best.

In its first of two losses to eventual national champion Minnesota, Harvard fell by a single goal, 2-1.

“To lose to them, 2-1, is kind of a good feeling in that we were right there and we know we can play with them,” Dempsey said. “That [result], in addition to many other things, means that we can very much be national champions.”

—Staff writer Daniel A. Grafstein can be reached at dgrafstein@college.harvard.edu.

There may or may not have been fat ladies present at the NCAA Championships in Montana, but on the last weekend of the skiing season, the Harvard ski team finally broke its ninth-place streak in Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association competition thanks to strong performances by its two top athletes, sophomore alpine skier Rebecca Nadler and junior Nordic skier Alena Tofte.

Nadler’s national title in the giant slalom was, of course, the headliner, but Tofte also posted strong results with a 27th-place finish in the individual start 5k skate and 35th in the 15k classic.

“I thought that this year during the season compared to last year, [Tofte] had a lot of strong, consistent results,” Nadler says. “We never actually got to see her racing in season, but I did catch her race when we were out there [in Montana], and I was impressed.”

“She had less than a day to adjust to the altitude…and she works so incredibly hard,” she adds. “It was awesome to see. I felt really proud to be her teammate.”

The duo, the Crimson’s only skiers at the event, gave Harvard a 15th-place finish overall that was seventh among EISA schools at the NCAAs. The EISA once again made its case as one of the nations more dominant conferences in the country despite competing out west, led by the University of Vermont, which became the first East Coast school to win nationals since Dartmouth in 2007.

“I think it was really great to see an Eastern team win the overall title,” Nadler says. “The West has been a seemingly stronger division. But in the giant slalom, four of the top five individuals were from the East, and the guys did well, too. It’s cool to know that maybe you’re racing against top racers in the country, and it definitely was exciting to see an Eastern school take home the championship.”

Over the course of the season, Harvard saw breakout performances from several other athletes, most notably sophomore Chris Stock, who took fourth in the 1.2k sprint at the UNH Carnival. Junior Esther Kennedy finished 12th in that same event and finished her season with a 17th-place finish in the 5k skate race at the EISA Championships, and freshman Akeo Maifeld-Carucci took 15th at the EISA Championships in the 20k classic mass start, and fellow rookie Cate Kister led the alpine women in the slalom event, taking 16th.

“In terms of the team as a whole, there was a lot of improvement,” Nadler says. “We had some fourth-place and fifth-place finishes on the women’s team, which is good and something we can build on for next year. The men’s team is also improving and working in the right direction.”

These breakout performances were not consistent enough to allow the Crimson to move past the ninth-place pole during the season, especially with the men’s alpine team often set  back by injuries and all of the teams boasting relatively small rosters compared to their powerhouse competitors to the north.

But while the team may not have had the depth to go toe-to-toe with the top teams in the region, it did boast two skiers in Nadler and Tofte who could compete with—and, in Nadler’s case, beat —athletes from the strongest schools in the nation.

“I’m excited for our team to keep building and improving,” Nadler says. “I’ve been here for two years, and a lot of times have had conversations where I say I’m on the ski team and the other person says, ‘We have a ski team?’ I hope I’m going to be having that conversation less and less.”

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

The jubilation was the result of a 73-71 win over the Pride in the first round of the WNIT tournament, a game that culminated a record-breaking year for Harvard. The victory was not only the first WNIT win for the Crimson but also in the history of the Ancient Eight.

Though Harvard (18-12, 10-4 Ivy) fell late to a surging Temple team in the next round, a stand-out performance from co-captain Brogan Berry, with key shots from juniors Emma Golen and Victoria Lippert as well as sophomore Christine Clark, turned the game into a near-upset. Berry led the team with 21 points on 50 percent shooting from the field and 60 percent shooting from beyond the three-point line.

“I’m very, very proud of them,” said Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith after the game. “I wish they could have been rewarded with a win. I thought we were mismatched…but I thought we outplayed them. I just couldn’t be prouder of everyone.”

And only weeks after this narrow defeat, the work of the team was acknowledged as Berry and Clark were named to the All-Ivy First Team and junior Victoria Lippert was named to the second team.

The season did not start out quite as promising, though. After losing both games in the Hawkeye Challenge, including a matchup against Iowa in which the Crimson gave up a late 14-point lead, the ball club headed back to the Northeast for a Rhode Island two-step. Harvard lost the first to Providence but won the second against a struggling Rhode Island College team.

The following five games were up and down for the Crimson, as it went 3-2, including an impressive 62-57 win over Boston University.

But all of that was just a lead-up to Dec. 22 when Harvard took on Big East powerhouse St. John’s. Against the team that would eventually make it into the NCAA tournament’s Sweet Sixteen, the Crimson not only put up a fight but took control of the game and ended up with a 63-56 victory.

The contest came down to a diving steal and two pairs of clutch shots from the charity stripe.

“It was definitely very exciting to be able to get over on a team that has a lot of respect and is from the Big East,” Lippert says. “It’s really satisfying knowing that we executed to the best of our abilities and were able to overcome an opponent people thought we would be unable to beat.”

After a loss against Hartford the following week, Berry guided her team to three straight wins, nabbing a double-double and an induction into the Ancient Eight’s top 10 all-time scorers along the way.

The streak featured victories against UMass, TCU, and, in the squad’s first league game, Dartmouth.

Next up was its last regular season non-league opponent, North Dakota. The game seemed out of reach early in the second half for the Crimson, as it faced a 12-point deficit.

But, a key steal by Lippert and shots by Lippert, Clark, and Berry cut the lead to three going into the contest’s final moments.

Following a missed free throw by the Fighting Sioux and a rebound by junior Miriam Rutzen, Harvard had a chance to send the game into overtime with a three-pointer. It was not meant to be, though, as Clark’s attempt came up short as the final ticks went off the clock.

At that point, league play began in full. Despite a loss to Yale at the front end of a back-to-back game weekend, the Crimson won four out of its next five Ivy matchups.

As a product of increasingly efficient shooting from the free-throw line as well as an upsurge in points from Berry, Clark, and Lippert, with Lippert scoring her 1000th point in a matchup versus Penn, Harvard was able to take these victories handily, winning by no less than eight points during the 12-day period.

Rutzen attributed her team’s success at that point in the season to the close-knit nature of the group.

“We’re a family, and when you’re a family you don’t want family vacation to end,” Rutzen says. “So we just wanted to keep playing, winning, and having fun as long as possible. It worked out.”

A 28-point blowout loss to Princeton, though, quickly stopped the streak. The skidding lasted into the next weekend, as the Crimson could not make up a 14-point deficit late in the second period and fell to a Brown team that it had defeated only three weeks prior.

In its next few matchups, Harvard, had success against its Ivy foes with, once again, the exception of Princeton. The Crimson took down the Quakers, Columbia, Cornell, and Dartmouth in an orderly fashion, needing those wins in order to clinch its bid to the WNIT tournament.

And clinch it did, paving the path to its record-breaking defeat over Hofstra and near upset of Temple.

—Staff writer Juliet Spies-Gans can be reached at jspiesgans@college.harvard.edu.

But on Dec. 22, 2011, when the Crimson took on St. John’s, it all came down to the last thirty seconds.

It took a trap, a diving steal, four clutch free throws, and eight years, but when the final buzzer finally sounded, Harvard escaped with the 63-56 win over the Red Storm.

“It definitely showed what we are capable of and how we can get over tough opponents and really play to the best of our ability,” junior Victoria Lippert says. “It’s just indicative of how much talent and potential we do have and that we can compete with anyone [when] we step on the floor.”

That game eight years before was against Providence, a team that went 4-23 overall and 0-16 within its conference. The Crimson defeated the Friars 73-59 in a contest in which Providence shot only 34.4 percent from the field and 57.1 percent from the charity stripe.

This season, Harvard’s Big East opponent was a little more impressive. St. John’s amassed a 24-10 record on the year, going 13-3 within one of the most competitive conferences in the nation.

Not only did it make it to the NCAA tournament, the third-seeded Red Storm reached the Sweet Sixteen before eventually losing to No. 2 Duke.

In order to beat its talented guest, the Crimson relied on an evenly balanced attack. Co-captain Brogan Berry, juniors Emma Golen and Victoria Lippert as well as sophomore Christine Clark each scored 12 points, while Clark grabbed nine boards and both Berry and junior Miriam Rutzen dished out five dimes.

Harvard started out the game with the momentum, taking advantage of its hot shooting to gain an early 14-4 lead. But, as would become somewhat of a common theme throughout the season, the Crimson slowly let the Red Storm creep back into the game, and, at halftime, Harvard held only a three-point lead, 32-29.

The second half followed a similar pattern as the Crimson pushed its lead into the teens before St. John’s instigated a full-court press and stole its way into a tight game going into the final few minutes.

And then the adrenaline kicked in.

“I just remember being excited, thinking, ‘Cool, we’re going to get this one; let’s go out and finish as strong as we can,’” Rutzen says. “I think that physically showed on the court at that point.”

With 30 seconds left and a 59-56 Harvard lead, a Crimson trap enabled Clark to run the lanes and pick off a telegraphed Red Storm pass. After diving for the ball, the Harvard guard signaled to the referee for a timeout. When the break was over, Clark inbounded the ball to Berry, who was quickly fouled and sent to the line for two shots.

The senior sunk both attempts and, from there, the game was all but over. After another failed attempt from St. John’s and two more successful free throws from the home team, the Crimson’s first win over a Big East team in eight years was officially complete.

Immediately following the game, Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith attributed her team’s victory to its composure throughout the contest.

“I just loved our poise, [and] I loved our teamwork,” Delaney-Smith said. “We have the tools to do it, but sometimes we panic, and we did not panic [today].”

After mid-December only five teams defeated the Red Storm. Along with the Crimson, Marquette, Duke, UConn, a No. 1 seed at the NCAA tournament, and Notre Dame, another No. 1 seed who went all the way to the NCAA championship game, also defeated St. John’s.

For Berry, one of the biggest benefits of the win was its positive effect on the rest of the season.

“It was definitely a huge confidence booster for us,” Berry says. “We knew that if we could play with a team like St. John’s, we should be able to play with any team in the Ivy League…. It came at a great time in the season, and we really hit our stride going into league play.”

—Staff writer Juliet Spies-Gans can be reached at jspiesgans@college.harvard.edu.