Ivy League Soccer Begins to Heat Up

While a 2-1 upset of No. 23 Dartmouth allowed Yale to continue its reign at the top of the Ivy standing this week, the goaltending in the Harvard-Cornell scoreless tie provided the most excitement.

Freshman Jennifer Burney, the Crimson's league leading goalkeeper, had six saves to hold the Big Red scoreless. The Harvard (6-1-1, 1-0-1 Ivy) forwards kept Marybeth Bell busier in the Cornell (3-2-2, 2-0-1) goal, forcing her to stop 13 shots.

Earlier in the week against BC, however, the ball managed to find the back of the net with frequency as the Crimson defeated the BC Eagles 6-1. Sophomore Lindsay Minkus had two goals in the contest and leads the team in scoring with 11 points (five goals and one assist). The team total to date of 29 goals has already surpassed last year's total of 27.

In the Yale (4-3-0, 2-0-0) victory, sophomore Jill Rubinstein scored both goals and was the Ivy League Player of the Week. Rubinstein tallied her first point after only 6:28 had elapsed in the game and cemented the win late in the second half.

Despite receiving eight stitches in her head, sophomore Kelly Totte, stood out defensively for Yale holding Dartmouth junior Melissa McBean to only one shot. She netted it, however, to register the Big Green's only goal. The Elis' 2-0 start in the Ivy League is its best ever.

In other Ivy League contest Princeton (3-3-0, 1-1-0) defeated Brown for the first time since 1982, 2-1. Earlier in the week they defeated Temple by the same score; these victories ended the Tigers' three-game losing streak. The defeat marked the second of the week for the Bears (2-5-1, 0-2-0), who had already been shutout by Connecticut 3-0.

Ivy League Rookie of the Week Kelly Stevens, a Pennsylvania (4-3-1, 1-2-0) freshman, scored the only goal in the Quakers' 1-0 win over Columbia (2-5-0, 0-2-0). She also scored the game-winning goal and registered an assist in Penn's 5-1 victory over Lehigh.

This week the Yale faces UMass, No. 13 nationally, before hosting Princeton on Saturday. Brown faces off against Dartmouth, Columbia travels to Cornell and Harvard hosts Pennsylvania.