Ivy Soccer Raising Eyebrows Nationwide

For the second time in three weeks, a Harvard men's soccer player has taken home the Rookie of the Week award.

This time it was freshman forward David Bonita, whose game-winning goal last Wednesday helped the Crimson top Maine, then ranked eighth in New England while Harvard was not ranked, 2-1.

Freshman midfielder T.J. Carella won the award two weeks ago.

Ivy's Star Rising

If both Harvard soccer teams are having an off year, Ivy League soccer is not. On both the men's and women's side, the Ancient Eight is reestablishing itself as a league to be considered come the postseason.

Doing the most right now for the Ivies' image is the Brown men's soccer team. At a tournament in Virginia over the weekend, the Bears--who have stumbled to a 1-3 Ivy mark so far--stunned second-ranked Virginia, 2-0, and 10th-ranked North Carolina, 2-1.

The Dartmouth women's soccer team is 9-1, ranked 20th in the country and is expected to rise further after defeating Boston College and Princeton, 3-0 and 4-0 respectively.

Its main competition is Cornell.

The Big Red is undefeated in the Ivies but lost some of its luster with losses to seventh-ranked Massachusetts, 3-1, and fourth-ranked Connecticut, 1-0.

Neither Dartmouth or Cornell has allowed a goal yet in Ivy play, but something will have to give when the two teams face each other this weekend in Ithaca, N.Y. The winner of that game should take home the Ivy championship.

In the meantime, the Princeton men's soccer team stormed back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat defending Ivy champion Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H., 3-2, and stay undefeated within the league. Columbia and Yale (both 3-1-0) are the only teams left that can catch the Tigers.