Women’s basketball on way to NCAA’s

Despite the numbers – 13 straight wins and a No. 13 seed – it’s not luck that’s taken the Harvard women’s basketball team to its 4th appearance at the NCAA Tournament this Saturday (March 16) in Chapel Hill, N.C. That fact can be squarely blamed on forward Hana Peljto ’04 and center Reka Cserny ’05. Harvard’s fab frontcourt – recently named the Ivy League’s Player and Rookie of the Year, respectively – led the Crimson with 36 combined points per game, a 22-5 overall record, and an Ivy title.

And now this: Harvard’s fourth trip to the NCAA tourney against the No. 4 seeded University of North Carolina Tar Heels. Enjoying the highest seeding ever granted to an Ivy League competitor, the Crimson, rounded out by Harvard’s all-time assist leader Jennifer Monti ’02, look to avenge a 1997 tournament loss at the hands of the Tar Heels, when the Crimson fell 78-53.

The winner of Saturday’s match-up will face either the University of Minnesota or the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in second-round action on Monday, March 18.