Year in Sports 2014
Upset Game of the Year: Men's Lacrosse vs. Cornell
At halftime against Cornell, the Harvard men’s lacrosse team was tied, 6-6, with the then-No. 2 Big Red. But this was not just halftime for the game. This was the halftime for the season.
Women's Lacrosse Season Recap
Coming off of a 2013 season that saw the team win just three games, the Harvard women’s lacrosse team improved its record greatly in 2014, going 9-7 and gaining a berth in the Ivy League Tournament for the first time in two years.
Female Breakout Player of the Year: Miye D'Oench
Heading into its 2013-2014 season, the Harvard women’s ice hockey team was already facing an uphill battle. The Crimson had graduated its leading scorer, Jillian Dempsey ’13, and had lost three other key players along with long-tenured coach, Katey Stone, to the Olympic roster.
Men's Hockey Season Recap
The Crimson’s 2013-2014 campaign, which ended in a two-game sweep by Yale in the first round of the ECAC tournament, offered few rivalry victories or memorable upsets.
Women's Crew Season Recap
It’s been a successful season so far at Weld Boathouse, as both the women’s heavyweight and lightweight crews head into their respective national championship regattas ranked in the top 20 nationally.
Finding Something We Can Believe In
What would you put on your bucket list if you found out you only had a few months left to live? It’s a question people love to speculate about, but I don’t think you could possibly know the answer until you are actually faced with your own mortality.
Men's Water Polo Season Recap
With its late-season surge, Harvard seized the regular season conference title and finished its 2013 campaign with an overall record of 18-14 and a home record of 7-1 at Blodgett.
Women's Squash Season Recap
It may not have had the perfect ending, but that may have been the only flaw in the Harvard women’s squash team’s impressive 2013-2014 season.
The Reason I Wrote
Often times, things turn out exactly as planned. But sometimes, the unexpected or, to paraphrase Vin Scully, the impossible happens. The hero becomes the goat, or the goat the hero; the heavily-favored defending champion allows 29 unanswered points in the fourth quarter and, inexplicably, loses.
Female Player of the Year, Runner-Up: Amanda Sobhy
For the third straight year, Amanda Sobhy cruised through the CSA Individual National Championships on her way to a Ramsay Cup victory. With the triumph, Sobhy became the first player in Harvard history to win the Ramsay Cup three times.
Baseball Season Recap
After graduating only three seniors from the 2013 squad and returning a host of players to its roster, the Harvard baseball team had its sights set on the top of the Ivy League—a place the program had not been since 2005.
Softball Season Recap
Just five games from the end of the Harvard softball team’s 2014 season, everything was looking up for the Crimson.
Team of the Year, Runner-Up: Men's Squash
The Harvard men’s squash team executed a nearly flawless season: not only did the No. 1 Crimson (18-0, 7-0 Ivy) go undefeated in the regular season and go on to secure the national title with three 9-0 wins, but senior Ali Farag also captured the individual national crown.
Comeback Player of the Year: Laura Ricciardone
Instead of staring down opposing teams’ batters from the mound, Laura Ricciardone was facing a much bigger challenge. Then a rising junior, she made the decision not to return to campus for the academic year in order to stay home and take care of her mother after she received a cancer diagnosis.
Male Player of the Year: Ali Farag
Last year, then-junior Ali Farag ended his season early when St. Lawrence’s Amr Khaled Khalifa unseated Farag in the semifinals of the CSA Individual Championships in five games. However, this year the senior was able to reclaim his title as collegiate squash’s national champion in a 3-1 victory over the same opponent.
Men's Volleyball Season Recap
In 2014, a season-ending playoff loss in the semifinals to Princeton thwarted any attempt at another title run for the men's volleyball team. But even the loss could not diminish the success of the Crimson’s 2014 season, which was full of program bests in conference wins, national rankings, and all-EIVA player selections.
Male Rookie of the Year, Runner-Up: Dylan Murray
Dylan Murray already had a decorated squash career before he ever stepped onto a Harvard court. The five-time U.S. Junior National Champion and three-time Boy’s U19 U.S. National title-holder was also a 2013 WSF Men’s World Team Championship member.
Women's Volleyball Season Recap
Only a year after finishing in the bottom half of the Ivy League, the Harvard women’s volleyball team climbed the Ancient Eight rankings in its 2013 campaign, claiming second place in conference play.
Female Career Achievement Award: Peyton Johnson, Women's Soccer
Peyton’s tangible contributions to helping our team win games can be looked up in statistical archives and box scores, but what I think is even more worth mentioning are the intangibles that have made her a great leader in our program and in athletics in general at Harvard.
Female Rookie of the Year: Midge Purce
Naturally, Harvard coach Ray Leone hoped Midge Purce would make an immediate impact upon her arrival in Cambridge, as the Crimson looked to rebound from a fourth-place finish in the Ivy League in 2012. Purce, on the other hand, had only one expectation for herself and all of her teammates.
Women's Water Polo Season Recap
Despite a strong start to the 2014 season, the Harvard women’s water polo team could not continue its winning ways towards the end of the campaign, finishing 15-20 overall and 2-3 in the Collegiate Water Polo Association Southern Division.
Women's Soccer Season Recap
Harvard opened its campaign with three consecutive losses for the first time since 1996, but a 1-0 win at home against LIU Brooklyn turned its season around and the squad went undefeated over its next 14 games.
Wrestling Season Recap
For Harvard wrestling, the 2013-2014 season was a roller coaster of highs and lows from the very beginning. The squad saw injuries, comebacks, upsets, and no shortage of tough competition throughout the year, finishing with an overall record of 4-8 and going 4-7 in EIWA conference competition.
Comeback Player of the Year, Runner-Up: Todd Preston
Harvard wrestling’s Todd Preston has seen no shortage of tough competition. The sophomore has matched up against some of the top wrestlers in the country in several tournaments. However, even with this experience under his belt, the toughest match of Preston’s career took place entirely off the mats.
Female Player of the Year: Adrienne Jarocki
Freshman Adrienne Jarocki won the national title for women's sabré this year, the first time that crown has been won by a Harvard fencer. Jarocki’s NCAA individual trophy is also the first since outgoing senior Alexandra Kiefer won the women’s foil event three years ago.