Booters Favored for NCAA Tournament Bid

It's exactly one month until the NCAA men's soccer championship, and prospects are looking bright for the Harvard booters.

Bids for the 24-team, single elimination tourney will be announced Sunday, and the Crimson (11-0-2 overall, 5-0 Ivy League) is the clear favorite for the top seed in the New England region.

Early in the season, Harvard moved its final home contest with Penn forward to this Saturday in order to get in an extra game before the seeding decisions were made.

But with a fourth-place national ranking and the top spot in the New England soccer poll, the Crimson isn't worrying about the effect of this weekend's outcome on the committee's decision.

"I would be extremely surprised if we were not seeded first, no matter what the result on Saturday," Harvard Coach Mike Getman said.

Each of eight national regions receive two spots in the tourney, with eight more teams selected as at-large wild card entrants. Current favorite for the other New England bid is the University of Connecticut (ranked 13th nationally and second in New England).

UConn tied Harvard, 0-0, early in the season, but fell in the polls after losing to Brown a week ago. Also contending are the University of Vermont (currently ranked third in New England). Yale and Dartmouth.

"With Yale's recent losses, Vermont probably has the advantage," said Getman, referring to the wild card spots. "But Dartmouth also has a shot, and you never can tell what they will decide."

Tournament play commences next weekend, with sites chosen by the committee on the basis of the schools' record, ranking and crowd capacity. The finals are slated for December 6, and will be held at one of the Final Four schools.

Southern Soulmates: It's pretty well known that the Crimson is the only undefeated team in the national top ten. In fact, Harvard is one of only two unbeaten teams in the country--the other is Centenary College in Shreveport, La.

Before racking up a 19-0-1 record this season, Centenary had but two claims to fame: it's the alma mater of Celtic star Robert Parish, and it's the smallest Division I college in the country (943 enrollment).

And although the Centenary booters are nicknamed the "Gentlemen," they have yet to get any respect from the national polls.

A weak schedule in the little known Trans-America Athletic Conference (TAAC) has kept Centenary out of the ISAA Top 20, and only in seventh place in the Midwest Region.

"Louisiana and Texas aren't exactly hotbeds of soccer," Centenary Sports Information Director Pat Boores said. "It's a large travel distance for us to play top 20 teams, and they don't want to come down to Shreveport."

In recent years Centenary has played such top-ranked teams as SMU and Illinois St., but this season the Gentlemen were unable to make, so many long road trips--and the big names refused to come to Shreveport.

Ivy League Crash: A pair of upsets over the weekend started an Ivy league shakedown, with the Crimson left in sole possession of the top spot.

Dartmouth shocked the previously unbeaten Elis, 1-0, to take over second place, and cellar-dweller Cornell dragged Columbia into fourth with its 1-0 triumph.

With a win over Penn this weekend, Harvard will be guaranteed at least a share of the Ivy title, with only Dartmouth and Yale still in the race. The last time the Crimson copped an Ivy crown was in 1970.

Young, But Not Restless: The sophomores refuse to loosen their hold on the Harvard scoring leader list, with the frontfield trio of David Kramer, Derek Mills and Nick D'Onofrio pacing the team. Kramer's tally against UMass Wednesday gives him nine goals and two assists for 20 points. Racing from behind is Mills--last year's leading scorer--with six goals and one assist (13 points) and D'Onofrio (6-0-12).

Across the U.S.A.: Harvard moved up to fourth place in the ISAA national poll this week, bumping SMU into fifth. Indiana--Getman's alma mater--continues to hold the number-one spot, with Virginia ranked second and South Carolina third.

Yale's two losses last week (to Rhode Island and Dartmouth) dropped the Elis out of the top 20 for the first time in five weeks. Also absent from the poll was Columbia, the victim of Cornell's first Ivy triumph.

Is Goal Next?: After sitting on the bench the first few games, junior Louis Lyons has proved to be one of the Crimson's most versatile players.

Lyons, originally a forward, became a backfield starter when a rash of injuries left the defense shorthanded. Wednesday at UMass, Lyons took over at midfield when senior Nick Hotchkin went out with a minor injury. The move paid off--Lyons scored his first goal of the season off an assist by F.J. Gould.