A Chance at Redemption

One more win.

That is the theme of the upcoming year for Harvard’s softball team. One more win last year, and the squad would have been Ivy League Champions.

The Crimson will look to rebound from last year’s loss to Cornell in the league finals and step up to take the Ancient Eight crown.

“I think we will focus on using the feelings [of despair] that we felt at the end of the year when Cornell took the championship right out from under us,” junior infielder Whitney Shaw said. “I think we are doing a good job of using [last year’s loss] to turn it around and use it to fuel us.”

Harvard opens its season this weekend in the Florida Atlantic Tournament, the first chance for the team’s six freshmen to see live action. Its next stretch of games is in California from March 11-13 in the UCR Tournament.

“I’m really looking forward to these preseason trips, [especially when we play] Seton Hall and Stonybrook, who are in our region, and playing Michigan State, the preseason favorite.” Harvard coach Jenny Allard said. “It’s going to be a good comparison for us to go back to Southern California, playing UC Riverside this year and comparing our play this year versus last year...I think that’s going to be a good benchmark.”

For Harvard to reach its preseason goals, it must have strong play from returning players Ellen Macadam—a team co-captain—junior pitcher Rachel Brown, and Shaw.

Macadam commences her senior season looking to continue her solid play of a year ago, when she hit .365 and stole 16 bases. The Crimson will look to Shaw to repeat last year’s performance as well, when the team’s power threat tallied 14 of the Crimson’s 27 home runs and hit .333.

Brown was Harvard’s ace last year, leading the league in most pitching statistics and earning first-team All-League honors.

The Crimson has the potential to win often this year, but it knows that the goal of an Ivy League championship is a long way away, and it will require excellent team play to wrest away Cornell’s league title.

“One thing we are focusing on is attacking every single game, even [if] it’s the preseason,” Shaw said. “We are focusing on every single aspect of our game and not only working on the obvious skills like fielding, hitting, pitching and throwing, but also our mental game.”

In order to stay grounded, the team has set many goals for both the short- and the long-term in order to improve everyday until the playoffs.

“Our team is pretty big on setting goals,” Shaw said. “The main goal is to win the Ivies, and I think we are doing a good job of breaking down and thinking about the steps that it takes to get there...[We’re] working on not striking out; these are definitely things we are working on and building on that will hopefully cultivate [into] our final goal.”

The team will face stiff competition in its quest for an Ivy title, especially from the two-time defending champion Big Red.

“I think the league is just going to be a pure dogfight,” Allard said. “It’s going to be tough. I think we’re anxious to play Cornell again—there’s no question. I think the team has made huge strides against Cornell in the last few years.”

One more reason for optimism is that the Big Red has graduated many of its best players from a year ago.

“They’ll be an interesting team to see how they reshape after losing a pretty phenomenal class,” Allard added. “That class [of 2010] was the reason they won back-to-back titles.”

But for now, the Crimson is concentrating on itself. It knows that there is a lot at stake and is taking it one step at a time to reach its goal.

“We always come out with that fire [to start the season], especially with last year leaving a bitter taste in our mouth,” Shaw said. “Because none of us have experienced [winning a championship], it adds an extra dimension of not only playing for that ultimate goal, [but also] for playing as a team in order to achieve for all of us that experience of winning it.”