Comeback Kid

Last Friday, three minutes and 31 seconds into the women's soccer game against the University of New Hampshire, co-captain Emily Stauffer arrived. Of course, she had been there before.

In her last season with the team, two years ago, Stauffer tied for the team lead with 13 goals.

At 3:31 of the first half on Friday, she hoisted a shot from 20 yards out over the heads of several helpless Wildcats and into the back of the net, scoring Harvard's first goal of the season, Stauffer's first since 1996.

"[Scoring] was just awesome," said Stauffer after the game, which the Crimson won 3-0. "It started off the game for me, and for us, on a really positive note."

Stauffer added assists on each of Harvard's subsequent goals, as well as an assist on Harvard's lone goal in its 2-1 loss to then-No. 16 Penn State on Sunday. Her final assist on Friday, on a goal by senior Naomi Miller, gave Stauffer 27 in her career, a new Harvard record.

The All-America selection and two-time Ivy Player of the Year has now had a hand in each of Harvard's four goals this season, and there's no sign of slowing down. Cobwebs are for wimps.

After donating bone marrow to her brother, who was battling the leukemia that eventually took his life, Stauffer took time off from school last fall to spend time with him.

Quite simply she endured the kind of year that could shatter the strongest of wills, was literally placed in the middle of a championship team with whom she had not competed in nearly two years and did not skip a beat.

I think we can safely call it a comeback.