Sasner Leads, Icewomen Follow

"Julie Sasner has proven throughout the year to be a premier hockey player--our leader off the ice as well as on the ice." Harvard women's ice hockey Coach John Dooley said.

The stats certainly back up the latter part of his claim, as Sasner's 22 tallies on the year tied Harvard's single-season goal-scoring record.

"The people she tied, Kathy Carroll and Diane Hurley, were just superb hockey players," Dooley added. "She's in with some very good company."

If Sasner scores only 15 goals in each of her remaining three years on the squad, she will break the career mark of 65, held by Hurley.

Her nine goals and three assists in Ivy contests made her the league's ninth leading scorer, just behind teammate Liz Ward (6-8).

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The Crimson wrapped up the year 5-5-0 in the Ivies, good enough for a third place finish behind Brown (7-3-0) and Princeton (6-3-1). The Bruins hadn't won an Ivy championship since 1981--which happens to be the last year that the Tigers didn't win the crown.

Cornell and Dartmouth (both 4-5-1) tied for fourth place, while Yale (2-7-1) had sole possession of the cellar.

"Our goal for next year has got to be the Ivies." Assistant Coach Bill MacDonald said.

"We're looking forward to a large crop coming back," Dooley added, referring to the 14 icewomen who are not graduating this year.

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Backup goalie Tracee Whitley put on an impressive show in Harvard's last game of the year--a 5-0 victory over Vermont--stopping two breakaways and recording four saves.

Prior to this season, Whitley, who hails from N.C., had never played hockey.

"She came out, fell down 1000 times a night, picked herself up, and worked hard to make herself a hockey player," Dooley said.

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Fun scoring facts: In just two games against the University of Vermont, the Cantabs (who played a total of 22 games) notched 20 percent of the season's goals...Freshmen accounted for 43 percent of the Crimson goals...Harvard was blanked only once on the year, a 2-0 loss to Princeton on Feb. 9...The tri-captains, all forwards, scored a total of 22 goals--Kelly Landry (10), Geme Simmons (7), and Dinny Starr (5)--or as many as freshman blueliner Sasner notched on her own. The trio combined for 45 assists, however, compared to Sasner's 11 and a team total of 105...The longest scoring streak of the year belongs to Starr, who had a point in 14 consecutive games...Ward scored goals in seven straight contests to lead the squad in that category.