Harvard senior point guard Jenn Monti has seen it all in her four years in Cambridge. Monti came to Harvard with the school still riding high from the biggest victory in Crimson women’s basketball history. She’s led the team through a rebuilding year, a disappointing yet moderately successful 1999-2000 season and last year’s disastrous campaign. Now, though, the Crimson is finally back on top, and Monti likes her current vantage point better than any she’s tried before.

As a freshman, Monti joined the women’s basketball team immediately following the defining moment in the program’s history: an upset of top-seeded Stanford in the 1998 NCAA Tournament, which remains the only victory ever by a No. 16 seed—men’s or women’s—in the “Big Dance.”

Unable to compensate for the graduation of current Charlotte Sting forward Allison Feaster ’98, the 1998-1999 team struggled through a rebuilding season. Still, Monti and classmate Lindsay Ryba became the first Crimson players ever named to the Ivy League All-Rookie Team, fueling visions of an Ivy title the following year.

It was not to be, however, as Harvard was left with an empty feeling after its second place finish in the Ivies. Monti proved to be a bright spot for the team, setting the school single-game assist record with 14 at home against Yale. That helped her finish the year 15th in the nation in helpers, averaging 6.1 per game, en route to a Second-Team All-Ivy selection.

Then came the disaster that was last season. Something was wrong with the team chemistry from the outset, and feelings of helplessness, disgust and blame defined the locker-room atmosphere. Everything culminated in a meltdown against Central Connecticut, after which the team, watching the tape, felt it was wasting its time and energy.

With winter break, though, the recovery process began. The players went home and began to reevaluate their goals and commitment to the sport. When they returned, they rededicated themselves to the upcoming Ivy League campaign.

“We knew the Ivy season was the light at the end of the tunnel,” Monti said.

The Crimson placed a distant second behind undefeated Penn, but the players could sense they were on the verge of something special.

“We had such a bad feeling about how it all turned out,” Monti said. “But we knew that almost everyone would be coming back hungry.”

And indeed they did. After taking a break from basketball over the summer to rejuvenate herself, Monti has regained her love of basketball. Under her leadership, Harvard has blossomed, winning the Ivies and matching the conference’s best-ever seeding in the NCAA Tournament at No. 13.

Now, with the Crimson poised for its match-up Saturday with fourth-seeded UNC, Monti is finally enjoying herself again.

“I think this year has been a reinvention of all the things I’d forgotten from last year,” she said.

Monti got her start on her road to Lavietes Pavilion when her father, a basketball fanatic, encouraged her to take up the sport. She did but was hesitant to admit her left-handedness and risk being labeled as “different,” so she learned to play with her right hand. By the time she reached high school, she had become serious about the school, she had become serious about the sport, attending camps throughout the summer to hone her skills. Once she got to Ellington (Conn.) High School, she established herself as a dominant scorer, netting 2,200 points over a stellar career.

Excited by Harvard’s urban environment and academic freedom, Monti decided the next phase of her career would take place in Cambridge.

A point guard on the collegiate level, Monti’s scoring diminished as her role became more cerebral. She established herself as the floor general, taking responsibility for directing the team.