Two years ago the Harvard women's basketball team had one of the greatest freshmen classes in recent Harvard sports history. That season the Crimson finished 8-18, a big improvement from the 3-22 of the previous year, and showed promise.

In 1985-'86, the women cagers exploded from a half-decade of cellar-dwelling to shock the Ivy League with a 20-7 overall mark and a share of the league title. Then-sophomores Sharon Hayes and Barb Keffer emerged as two of the top players in the league. With the addition of up-and-coming freshman Sarah Duncan, the Crimson's future looked vast.

This year, the Class of '88 has continued its on-court maturation. Its stand-outs, Hayes and Keffer, are enjoying arguably their best seasons ever, while Duncan has amazed teammates and opponents alike with her sudden progression to all-Ivy caliber play.

So why are the women cagers entering the final games of the season 10-13 overall and mired smack-dab in the middle of the Ivy pack?

Crimson Coach Kathy Delaney Smith has an abundance of reasons.

Powerless

"Look at the rebounding stats," Delaney Smith said. "We definitely lost a major part of our defense."

The loss of power players Anna Collins and Beth Chandler left a large gap in the Crimson lineup--a gap which Delaney Smith has been hard-pressed to fill.

"We've been working on our rebounding all year," Delaney Smith said. "Chandler and Collins were very powerful. Sarah is not a power player, she's a quick player."

Duncan--who leads Harvard on the boards with 7.2 rebounds per game--is league with 38 blocks, but "literally crumples" when up against larger players, according to Delaney smith.

When facing Cornell and Columbia at Briggs Athletic Center this weekend, Delaney Smith will be concentrating on the Crimson defense, which has given up an average of 71.8 points-per-game in the league this season. "We're letting them score too many points," she said. "We have to be very careful not to take teams lightly."

Harvard took Penn a little too lightly in its Ivy opener--dropping a heartbreaking 76-75 decision to the Quakers in Philadelphia--and has felt the effects of the defeat all season.

"The loss to Penn was something we didn't recover from," Delaney smith said. "It had a major effect on our season."

"Maybe we thought it was going to be easy," she added. "Maybe it was that extra speck of hard work that was missing."

The Big Red