A Crimson Tint

Before last season, there was never any question which team was tops on the Ivy League women's soccer circuit.

Harvard won the first Ivy tournament in 1978. Harvard won the second Ivy tournament in 1979 and added a share of the Eastern crown. And in each of those years, the Crimson amassed the best overall season record as well.

Brown always stayed in the race to the very end, and Crimson-Bruin matches provided some of the East's best soccer. Dartmouth and Yale featured a few quality players each year, but lacked the balance to compete on equal terms with either Brown or Harvard. Cornell and Penn struggled on the outside looking in, their club-status teams still learning the game.

Suddenly, in 1980, Princeton emerged almost from nowhere as the team to beat. The addition of freshman goalkeeper Kelly O'Dell, who played like a veteran from the start and quickly became the league's top goalie, seemed to make all the difference for the Tigers. They went through the regular season undefeated, a record which included a 4-1 win over the Crimson in Princeton.

When the seedings for the Ivy tournament were announced, it was only logical that Princeton would assume the number one spot and the first round bye that went with it. Harvard earned the second ranking, based on their 2-1 overtime win at home against Brown.

The Crimson rolled past a thouroughly overmatched Cornell, 5-0, in the first round. It appeared that Crimson coach Bob Scalise's plan to peak for the tournaments was panning out. In the other opening round games, Yale slipped by Dartmouth and Brown pranced all over Penn. Yale thereby moved into the semis against Princeton, while Brown and Harvard would renew their intense rivalry once more on the opposite side of the draw.

Harvard gave its all in that semi-final, but the Bruins came up with just a little bit more. Super-scooter Frances Fusco sealed a 2-1 Bruin victory with a goal midway through the second half. Princeton barely worked up a sweat in disposing of Yale 4-0.

Discouraged, but not without emotion, the Crimson quietly knocked off Yale in the tournament's consolation game, 3-0. The booters then took to the bleachers to witness Brown's finest hour, a 2-0 win over previously unbeaten Princeton in the finals. The game went on for more than 100 scoreless minutes before Bruin forward Cameron Tuttle knocked in two goals in the second overtime period.

And so, last season, picking the best women's soccer team in the Ivy League wasn't all that easy.

Princeton had the best regular season record; Brown staked its claim by winning the Ivy tournament; but Harvard went farthest in the Easterns and was the only Ivy League team to participate in the national tournament in Colorado Springs, Col.

The Crimson beat Brown two of the three times the teams met; Brown beat Princeton in that all-important Ivy League final; Princeton beat Harvard in their only meeting of the season. And so on.

Second guessing aside, in 1980 Princeton was the regular season champion based on its record. And Brown won the Ivy League tournament. They appear to be the teams to beat once again, with virtually their entire starting teams returning, and Princeton had a banner recruiting year as well.

Except that in 1981, Harvard wants "its" titles back.