An initial glance at the roster of the Harvard softball team can be deceptive.

Ordinarily, a team with 15 freshmen and sophomores but just five juniors and seniors would bring to mind the phrase “a rebuilding year,” but as the early results would indicate, this year’s Harvard softball team is far from ordinary.

Harvard’s 12-4 record at the end of spring break was the best mark the team has had since Coach Jenny Allard arrived in 1995, and it’s in no way due to a prior lack of success.

The Crimson has finished first or second in the Ivies in each year of Allard’s tenure, with championship rings in three of the last four seasons.

With this year’s team coming together nicely, the Crimson is poised to make another run at an Ivy title and an NCAA berth. The team accomplished half of their goal last year when a great second-half run secured them a share of the league crown, but fell short of a tourney bid when co-champion Cornell swept the Crimson in a best-of-three playoff.

“It’s funny when we’re wearing our Ivy League rings, you see the freshmen’s faces light up,” sophomore third baseman Breanne Cooley said. “They want it. So it’s nice to know they’ll definitely get a chance to get it. But it’s going take a lot of work.”

With such a young squad, Allard chose to play a significantly easier nonconference schedule, avoiding the West Coast trip against nationally-ranked top 25 teams that it played last season.

The result was a nonconference record even stronger than the easier schedule could explain.

“This year I felt that with 15 freshmen and sophomores, I really wanted to get their confidence up, and build them up as a team,” Allard said. “This team is as good as any team I’ve had—there’s no question about that. But it’s younger, so I was more concerned this year with us mentally.”

The main reason why the 2002 campaign doesn’t qualify as a rebuilding year is because there simply wasn’t much to rebuild. The Crimson lost just one starting position player and one starting pitcher from last year’s roster. The return of senior pitcher Suzanne Guy and the infusion of seven talented freshmen make this team as gifted and spirited as any before.

“It’s awesome because we have so much fresh energy,” said Cooley, who led all Ivy freshmen with a .355 average last season. “People say it’s hard when you have a young team, but it’s also great because they just come to play and have so much fun.”

A year ago, Harvard could start as many as six freshmen and often an all-freshman infield. That won’t happen this year—but not due to any lack of skill on the freshmen’s part.

This year’s recruiting class boasts an impressive list of accolades with two NFCA All-Americans and state players of the year, a Regional All-American and a host of players from the deep talent pools of Michigan, Washington and California.

When a team with so few openings to fill already receives such an influx of talent, the result is a team that’s deeper than ever before.

“Every position can be covered by two or three people,” Cooley said. “Anytime we need someone off the bench, everyone’s ready. We’re a really young team, and we may be a little less experienced, but there’s a little more enthusiasm.”