Exhilaration, Angst, Glory And Suffering in 1990-91

In 1989, the Harvard men's hockey team travelled to St. Paul and nabbed the NCAA title in a dramatic overtime victory.

Last year, the women's lacrosse team bade goodbye to the tournament tragedy it had experienced for the past two years, and captured the NCAA title in Princeton, N.J..

In 1990-91, no Harvard teams brought NCAA titles back to Cambridge. Nor did the Crimson shine in Ivy League competition. Harvard picked up a respectable--but unimpressive--seven Ivy titles.

The men's hockey team flirted with destiny this year, but the dreams of super-seniors Ted Donato, Peter Ciavaglia and Mike Vukonich collapsed in the Boston Garden, when Clarkson knocked the Crimson off, 3-2.

Peter Roby's basketball squad, too, climbed to the top, raising hopes among the Crimson faithful that Harvard would secure its first Ivy League hoops title. But there again, Harvard fell short.

NCAA quarterfinalists the year before, the men's lacrosse team tumbled to a dismal 3-10 record. And the men's heavyweight crew squad--once the dominant force in Eastern and national competition--won its early races, but dropped to an uncharacteristically low third at the Eastern Sprints, falling again to Penn and Northeastern.

But while the big-time sports failed to bring home the glory, previously unheralded teams filled the void. From field hockey to women's basketball, the Crimson proved it can compete among the Ivy--and sometimes national--elite.

The women's field hockey team captured its first-ever Ivy League title. And the women's hoops squad blitzed by its competitors to an impressive 12-2 Ivy record and the conference championship.

Moreover, the men's tennis and squash teams made claims to national greatness. The netmen cruised by their Eastern competition to secure an automatic NCAA bid, while the racquetmen reclaimed the national title for their eighth championship in the past nine years.

It was a fairly unusual year, then, for Harvard sports. The big names tumbled, and the little ones emerged as legitimate contenders.

The year cannot be defined by overall records and notable honors. Rather, it was the individual moments--those few minutes of exhiliration or angst, glory or suffering--that make the 1990-91 sports year so special.

September 15, 1990

As the Harvard football team's season opener against traditionally lowly Columbia approached, the most outstanding question for the Crimson was who would take the initiative at the quarterback position.

Harvard had gone through its previous two seasons behind the strong arm of seniors Tom Yohe '89 and Tim Perry '90, but in this new year, no one emerged decisively at the helm of the Crimson offense.

On this warm early fall day in the Big Apple, senior Tom Priore got the nod from Coach Joe Restic to start against the Lions. Priore did little to assuage Harvard's offensive worries, completing 2-of-7 passes for 15 yards on the afternoon. The unproductive passing game forced Harvard to run the football, and the Crimson achieved only limited success on the ground.

Harvard did win the ball game, 9-6--or perhaps more accurately, Columbia lost. But the lackluster offensive performance highlighted a problem the Crimson (5-5 over- all, 3-4 Ivy) had all year long.

The Crimson did not salvage its season by winning the Yale game, as the Elis prevailed at The Stadium, 37-10.

If there was one outstanding Crimson performance in the Columbia game, it was the play of senior linebacker Joe Gordian. Gordian picked off Lion quarter-back Bruce Mayhew twice on the afternoon, including an interception with one minute remaining to seal the Harvard win.

Gordian also added eight tackles, three assists and a forced fumble in an effort which forecasted his incredible season.

October 19, 1990

There was no love lost on the men's soccer team on October 19.

Still holding some hope of remaining in the Ivy League race, the Crimson travelled to Princeton, N.J., to face the Tigers on Lourie-Love Field.

Characteristic of the squad's problems all season, Harvard could not put the ball in the net. Princeton tallied twice in each half to blank the Crimson, 4-0, and take Harvard out of the race.

Princeton improved to 5-1 and needed only a win over Columbia the following day to clinch the title while Harvard fell to 1-3. The Crimson's somber performance against the Tigers exemplified its season--another empty showing.

December 8, 1990

In sports, there is hardly anything more frustrating than coming back to tie a game in its final seconds, only to lose it in overtime.

In a game that typified the Harvard men's hockey team's whole season, the Crimson did just that against RPI.

Like Harvard's season, the game bounced up and down. Like its opening wins against Brown and Yale, Harvard scored the first goal against Rensselaer, as Mike Vukonich beat Engineers goalie Sean Kennedy.

Like the Crimson's up-and-down December and January, Harvard won some and lost some. The Crimson and Engineers swapped goals and shared ties of 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5 and 6-6.

Like the effect of four straight losses in January and a last-place Beanpot finish on Harvard's psyche, Rensselaer's Derek DeCosty pushed the Crimson to the brink of defeat with a late goal to make it 7-6.

Like Harvard's key ties at Colgate and Cornell and its win at Rensselaer on Feb. 15, Harvard did not give in to defeat. With one minute to play against the Engineers in the Dec. 8 contest, Coach Ronn Tomassoni pulled Harvard goalie Chuckie Hughes in favor of an extra man.

Eleven seconds. Harvard forward Ted Donato--having corraled the puck behind the Crimson blue line--sprints down the left flank. Six seconds. A low screamer finds net behind Kennedy's left pad.

But like Harvard's finale--a 3-2 loss to Clarkson at the Boston Garden in a snoozer--the overtime was bound for disappointment. In overtime, Engineers forward Bruce Coles, the burly, long-time Harvard nemesis, sped into the Harvard zone on a two-on-one break. He fed linemate Joe Juneau in the crease, and the rest was history.

February 8, 1991

If there was one aspect of the women's basketball team's play that brought Harvard the Ivy League title last season, it was the team's ability to come from behind.

And on the night of February 8, the women cagers pulled out arguably the most dramatic come-from-behind victory in Harvard sports this year.

Playing on the road is always difficult, but playing in the unfriendly confines of Brown's Paul Bailey Pizzitola Memorial Sports Center that night was especially tough. The heckling given the Harvard players, particularly from behind their bench, bordered on the obscene. The Crimson, however, managed to block out the crowd's taunts and staged a dramatic second-half rally.

Regulation ended in a 77-77 tie. Harvard then proceeded to run an offensive clinic, scoring an amazing 24 points in the five-minute overtime period. Sophomore Erin Maher led the deluge with three three-pointers in the overtime session.

A stunned and silenced crowd looked on as the final buzzer sounded and the Crimson walked off the court with a 101-86 victory.

That night, Harvard proved it was truly the team of destiny.

February 20, 1991

Last year, Yale squash Captain John Musto scraped out a fifth-match, fifth-game victory to clinch the competition for the Elis and wrest the national championship from Harvard.

But this year, that exhiliration turned to pain, as top-seeded Harvard junior Jeremy Fraiberg battled him to a decisive fifth-game. Fraiberg prevailed in an overset match to nail the coffin on the Elis.

Fraiberg's victory, however, was only part of the story. The Crimson put in a gritty performance all night long, crushing Yale, 7-2, to capture the 1991 national squash title, its eighth in nine years.

Sophomore second-seed Marty Clark put on a clinic for Yale's Chip Goodale, knocking him out 15-3, 15-12, 15-12.

Freshman Adrian Ezra, who later went on to claim the national single's title, demonstrated the fortitude and resolve of the Crimson that day. Plagued by nose and shoulder injuries, Ezra came back from a two-game deficit to provide a big fifth game win.

"The guys played great out there because they never stopped believing in themselves," Harvard Coach Steve Piltch said.

February 22, 1991

The Harvard men's basketball team's 90-77 loss to Yale seemed to sum up the whole season. The Crimson hung tough before a hostile New Haven crowd, but were eventually run out of the building by a faster and healthier Elis team.

The loss marked the fourth consecutive Ivy defeat for the Crimson, which found itself atop the Ivies just two weeks ago. Princeton's victory over Columbia the night before officially ended Harvard's title hopes and left the Crimson looking to salvage some pride as it closed out the season.

Harvard erased a 21-14 first half deficit as Co-Captain Ralph James, returning from a shoulder injury that had plagued him for most of the season, ignited a run that brought Harvard to within five at halftime.

But the hosts dominated the final half, outscoring Harvard, 46-27. Travis McCready, who exploded for a career-high 32 points, led the Yale run with three three-pointers and numerous transition baskets. Teammate Dean Campbell did the dirty work, grabbing 14 rebounds as the hosts took control of the boards and the game.

February 22-23, 1991

While Harvard fans flocked to Bright Center over the weekend to watch the men's hockey team garner a spot in the ECAC play-offs, the women's swimming team travelled down to Princeton, N.J. with more important things on its mind.

This was the Easterns, and Harvard was to face traditional spoilers Princeton and Penn State. And the Crimson had made a calculated gamble. While Princeton had shaved down and rested up for its meet against Harvard three weeks earlier, winning the Ivy title in a decisive victory, the Crimson decided to train through the competition.

The gambit played off. That weekend at Easterns, Harvard raced by 25 competitors to garner 558 points--31 more than Penn State and 85 more than the Tigers--to capture the Eastern Championship in what Harvard Coach Maura Costan-Scalise called "the sweetest victory" of her eight-year tenure.

"In previous years, the team has been divided into cliques but this year we've been really happy to hang out as more of a team," Co-Caption Jill Hutchinson said. "We really wanted to win for the team, instead of just as individuals."

May 9, 1991

It started out ugly, but ended up beautiful.

After a sluggish start, the Harvard men's tennis team rallied in time to defeat Princeton, 7-2, and capture its third straight Ivy League title and its second EITA championship in three years.

The victory over Princeton solidified the Crimson's spot among the national elite. Harvard was given an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, but lost in the first round in Athens, Ga.

Despite the loss of Co-Captain second-singles Michael Shyjan to a knee injury, the Crimson demonstrated poise and resolve in its strong victory. Number-six Michael Burroughs rallied back from a 6-0 first-set loss to down Tiger sophomore Tom Orvald.

From there on, Harvard rolled over the once-mighty Tiger squad. Towering freshman Ian Williams pounded Princeton Captain Greg Finck, 6-2, 6-0, while Michael Zimmerman, playing at number-two, sealed the Crimson victory.

"I moved Zimmerman to number-two singles because he has been a little sore," Harvard Coach Dave Fish said. "Princeton sensed a weakness and went for it, and Zimmerman somehow found ways to pick apart his opponent."

The netmen have done that all year.

May 11, 1991

It wasn't supposed to end this way.

After capturing the NCAA title one year earlier in Princeton, N.J., the Harvard women's lacrosse team entered Durham, N.H. in the first round of the tournament hoping to walk the championship trail one more time.

But an aggressive and emotional UNH squad victimized the laxwomen en route to an 11-10 victory, prematurely ending the Crimson's season.

It was a frustrating contest for the young Crimson squad (11-3 overall, 6-0 Ivy), who watched a 6-3 lead evaporate into the cloudless blue sky as UNH made ample use of Harvard miscues to generate fast break and free position goals.

There was no final-game celebration for Harvard this year. But as friends and family descended to the field after the game to console Crimson players, talk inevitably turned away from the day's game to a more optimistic topic: next year.

May 12, 1991

The Harvard men's lightweight crew is going to Henley. The Crimson earned the right to pad its frequent-flier miles with an impressive victory at the 46th annual Eastern Sprints in Worcester.

The Crimson, which was seeded second going into the regatta, covered the 2000-meter course in 5:48. Princeton came in second in 5:53 and Cornell followed in third.

The heavyweight crew couldn't match the lightweights' success, however, finishing third, six seconds behind top-seeded Penn, which took the title in a record time of 5:36.

Northeastern, which defeated the Crimson the previous week, placed second in 5:38, while Harvard remained true to its third-seeding and followed in 5:42.