Ivy League Sports

While Brown dominated Ivy League soccer competition in the 1980s, in the 1990s Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, and Yale also won at least one championship, and Brown (’94), Harvard (’97), and Dartmouth (’98) all advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals. In the midst of these team achievements, two individual players — Dartmouth’s Sue Eastman and Harvard’s Emily Stauffer — exemplified the spirit and success of Ivy women’s soccer.

An environmental studies major with a 3.64 GPA, Eastman ’99 was regarded as the heart and soul of one of Dartmouth’s most successful teams. Head coach Kelly Blasius Knudsen praised her for not being afraid to speak her mind, “even knowing that it may not be the most popular statement or decision. If she feels it is best for the team, she’s going to step up and take charge.” That’s why Knudsen calls Eastman “probably the best leader that I have ever worked with.”

Among opponents, Eastman had a reputation as a player who would do whatever it took to stop them. “If I don’t come off the field dirty,” she once said, “kind of bruised and have some blood, then it probably wasn’t a very good game for me.” An athlete who described herself as a “warrior protected and invigorated by my Big Green uniform,” Eastman was a 1997 All-Ivy and Academic All-Ivy honoree who spent one winter in Kenya on a foreign study program (where she played soccer with the boys since girls don’t play there). Eastman led her team to the 1998 Ivy title and the team’s first appearance in the NCAA quarterfinals in school history. In her senior year, she was one of four finalists for the NCAA Honda Award in women’s soccer and was named to the GTE/Co-SIDA Academic All-America national team.

Like Eastman, Stauffer accumulated both academic and athletic honors while helping her team to glory. Ivy League Player of the Year in 1995 and 1996 and a four-time first-team All-Ivy Selection, Stauffer was an Academic All-Ivy Selection in 1996 and 1998 and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Scholar Athlete of the Year in 1999.

A government major, she graduated with a 3.55 GPA and was a GTE-CoSIDA Academic All-American in 1997 and 1999. She helped lead her team to three Ivy League titles and two NCAA appearances. Head Coach Tim Wheaton credits Stauffer’s success to being “incredibly tactical,” having “great vision,” and being “able to play at a faster pace than other people.” But what makes her most valuable, he says, “is what she does for the team. She’s better than everybody else on the field, but she makes everyone feel good about themselves.”

Stauffer’s dedication to her family is equally memorable. In her sophomore year, her brother, Matt, was diagnosed with leukemia. Over the next two years, Stauffer spent countless hours with Matt, as he battled the disease through a series of apparent recoveries and remissions, and twice donated bone marrow to him. She then took off the first semester of her senior year to help him recover from the second transplant, staying involved with the Harvard team as a volunteer assistant coach, and helping the team to the Ivy League championship and a spot in the NCAA quarterfinals.

Eastman’s and Stauffer’s contributions have not ended with graduation. Eastman, now assistant women’s soccer coach at Stanford, says she is dedicating her life to “teaching, leading, and furthering women’s athletics at the turn of the century.” At Stanford, she has founded a program that pairs athletes with underprivileged girls from East Palo Alto to help them experience the benefits of team sports. Stauffer — whose brother died in January 1998 — expects to enter law school eventually, but she first signed up for two years with Teach For America, a program that sends new graduates into inner-city and disadvantaged rural neighborhoods. “After all the opportunities and privileges I’ve had,” she says, “it would be great to give something back and share with kids who are not so lucky.”

Eastman and Stauffer continue to garner honors for the Ivy League. In fall 1999 both were named state winners of the NCAA Woman of the Year award, and were selected as two of the ten finalists for the national honor.