Runaway Train

For the Harvard women's basketball team, everything is coming together at the perfect time.

The Crimson is playing its best basketball of the season and rolling over the competition like a freight train without brakes. With only seven regular season games remaining, Harvard seems headed for a second consecutive Ivy League Championship and NCAA Tournament berth.

But perhaps more importantly for these players, Harvard is also trying to make history.

No women's team has ever gone undefeated in league play. That all may change this year.

The 1997 version of the Crimson is halfway towards achieving its goal of an undefeated Ivy League season. Harvard has already defeated every team in the league once, and the Crimson is improving its play with every game.

In its last four games, Harvard has shot better than 50 percent from the field. Its average margin of victory in these games is an incredible 24 points. The Crimson has now won 19 consecutive Ivy League contests.

If Harvard continues to perform as it has been, there is no team in the Ivy League that can even play in the same gym with the Crimson.

This train is barrelling straight into the record books while leaving other teams wondering what hit them.

The latest victim to be derailed by Harvard was the Princeton Tigers, 80-53, on Saturday night.

And if what this Crimson team is doing as a unit is not amazing enough to attract fans by the herd, the individual accomplishments should be.

Saturday's annihilation of Princeton was highlighted by co-captain Jessica Gelman's record-breaking performance. Harvard's engineer broke the school's career assist record early in the game. She finished the night with eight points and a phenomenal 11 assists.

The recipient of Gelman's record-breaking pass was the locomotive that powers the Crimson machine, junior forward Allison Feaster. Feaster's recent performances have been nothing short of sensational.

She netted 25 points against the Tigers and 23 points the previous night against Penn, while pulling down 13 rebounds in each game.

All this came after a 30-point effort at Brown last weekend. Her six steals against Princeton were just two shy of the Harvard single-game record.

Co-captain Kelly Black, sophomore Suzie Miller and junior Alison Seanor join Gelman and Feaster to round out a starting lineup which has finally gelled.

Black has asserted herself underneath the basket and is playing excellent low-post basketball, while Miller and Seanor have stepped up their games on both ends of the court.

But the reason this team keeps dominating its opponents is because of its depth. Harvard's pressure comes in waves, and it is relentless.

It begins with the starting five and is heightened by every player that comes off the bench.

With the constantly improving inside game of Rose Janowski and the perimeter games of guards Megan Basil and Sarah Brandt, Harvard has the luxury to substitute freely without losing any of its advantage. This luxury is present all the way the down the Crimson's roster.

Sophomores Sarah Russell and Kelly Kineen and freshmen Laela Sturdy and Courtney Egelhoff complete Harvard's roster and its excellence. These players contribute to the Crimson's success in ways that aren't statistically obvious, but which are worthy of mention nonetheless.

The point is that the Harvard Crimson does not have a weak point.

There is no soft spot in this iron horse.

The rest of the league must be cringing. Harvard is peaking at the ideal moment and chugging along toward the Big Dance. And as the Crimson heads toward an unprecedented achievement, it seems as though nothing is going to slow the train down.