W. Soccer Dreaming Of Ivy League Crown

One game--90 minutes--for the Ivy League title.

That is what the Harvard women's soccer team faces this Saturday at Brown. A win or a tie clinches the title for the Crimson. Interestingly enough, Harvard has Brown to thank for this clear shot at the title.

The big result of the week was Brown's 1-1 tie with former league co-leader Cornell. The tie dropped the Big Red's record to 4-0-2, just below the Crimson's own record of 5-0-1.

The Cornell-Brown standoff means that Harvard can forget about its early season tie with Cornell and focus on one game--against Brown--for the title.

This was a big week for the Crimson inside and outside the league.

The biggest game of the year--at least by national standards--for Harvard came Tuesday at UConn. The Huskies were ranked No. 4 and the Crimson No. 18, UConn would have been a chance for the Crimson to solidify its standing in the eyes of the NCAA action committee. Unfortunately the result--a 3-0 loss--put the Crimson's prospects for the 24-team NCAA Tournament in question.

The Huskies and Crimson played evenly for much of the first half and the teams looked to go into halftime in a scoreless tie. Harvard only wishes that the game were scoreless when the whistle blew.

UConn notched a heartbreaking goal with only half a minute to go in the opening stanza. The goal gave the Huskies a commanding momentum advantage and put Harvard in a catch-up position. An early goal in the second half put the nail in the coffin for the Crimson on Halloween.

The Crimson did have an important Ivy League win against Dartmouth (2-4-0). Dartmouth played the Crimson tough all day but the Crimson prevailed by a score of 3-2.

The game-winning goal came off the foot of freshman defender Jaime Chu, who took a rebounded corner kick and blasted a shot from 30 yards out into the back of the net. It was Chu's first career goal.

Chu's goal-scoring heroics as well as her stellar defensive play earned her the title of Ivy League Rookie of the Week.

Harvard is beginning to look like the Los Angeles Dodgers of women's soccer. Last year Emily Stauffer was Ivy League Rookie of the Year. This year a Harvard player has won the Rookie of the Week award four out of the seven weeks. Goalkeeper Jen Burney, (one) forward Naomi Miller (two) and Chu (one) have split the awards for the Crimson. The future certainly looks bright.

The Ivy League Player of the Week was Yale junior forward Molly Woodroofe. Woodroofe has scored goals in each of the Elis' wins in a three-game win streak. She also added two assists against Providence last week.

Sophomore Keren Gudeman made the Ivy League Honor Roll for her assist against Dartmouth.

Harvard's players continue to dominate the Ivy League's individual statistics categories. Stauffer is the leading overall scorer in the league with 34 points (13 goals, eight assists). She is followed by two of her teammates: Miller (10, six) and Gudeman (seven, 11). Lindsay Minkus (seven, four) is the sixth leading scorer in the league and the fourth Harvard player in the top six.

On the other end of the field, Burney is the overall goal-keeping leader in the Ivies with a .59 goals against average. IVY STANDINGS   IVY  OVERALL Team  W  L  T  PCT  W  L  T  PCT Harvard  5  0  1  .017  23  1  1  .900 Cornell  4  0  2  .833  9  4  3  .656 Yale  4  2  0  .667  8  7  0  .533 Brown  2  2  2  .500  5  6  3  .429 Princeton  2  4  0  .333  8  6  0  .571 Dartmouth  2  4  0  .333  7  7  1  .500 Penn  1  4  1  .250  8  4  2  .643 Columbia  1  5  0  .167  5  8  1  .393