League Races Winding To a Close This Week

Ironic story of the week: Hours after the Ivy League honored women's soccer sweeper freshman Cara James with its Rookie of the Week award, she damaged her knee in a game against Providence yesterday and could be out for the season.

Bitter stuff.

James was the second player on the women's team to be honored; senior goalie Brooke Donahoe took home the Player of the Week award in September.

James scored a dramatic goal with seven seconds to go in regulation against Princeton to force overtime on Saturday and scored the game-winning goal against New Hampshire last Wednesday.

The Dartmouth women's soccer team defeated Cornell, 1-0, to all but clinch the Ivy League title on Saturday. Dartmouth goalie Michelle Conroy earned Player of the Week honors for her six-save performance in goal against the Ancient Eight's top offense.

The only stumbling block for Dartmouth is Harvard, which the Big Green faces on Saturday, then Columbia to finish out the season.

Cornell, in the meantime, will duel Brown this weekend for second place, assuming Harvard and Columbia cannot stop the Big Green juggernaut.

On the men's side, the battle for the Ivy League title occurs in Princeton Friday night when the Tigers take on Columbia. The mathematics are complicated, but every other team has been eliminated from the race.

The odds on this game are absolutely even. Columbia's offense is largely powered by sophomore Rikki Dadason, the leading scorer in the Ivy League by a huge margin--32 points to Princeton forward Jacob Dowden's 22, But four of the Ancient Eight's top nine scorers play for the Tigers--Dowden, Mark Shumka, John Talbot and Andre Parris.

Harvard can provide a measuring stick: The Crimson lost to Princeton, 1-0, but lost to Columbia 4-1. Hmm.