Stickwomen Pass Princeton in Polls

Who would have thought that the Harvard field hockey team would ever be the highest-ranked squad in the Ivy League?

Heck, who would have thought that the Harvard field hockey team would ever be ranked this year?

Weird things happen, and collegiate field hockey is not immune to this. No. 16 Harvard (6-3, 3-0 Ivy) defeated Cornell 3-2 in its only game last week, while No. 18 Princeton (9-1, 4-0) blasted Brown 8-0 but fell to No. 20 Lafayette, 3-2, which dropped the Tigers from their previous perch of No. 12.

Was the six-place drop deserved? It's easy to argue against--Princeton has scored 10 goals or more twice and has outscored four Ivy teams by a combined score of 23-3. Harvard, meanwhile, has won its three Ivy games by a combined total of, well, three goals.

Fair or not, the Crimson and the Tigers will meet for the Ivy League title two weekends from now in New Jersey. No other Ivy squads have two league wins yet, so although no one has been mathematically eliminated from the title yet, it would take some doing for the champion to be other than Princeton or Harvard.

In any case, the Crimson will have its hands full. Sure, the Tigers' regular season 18-game winning streak is over, but they can still pile up the goals. Sophomore Kirsty Hale won her second Ivy League Player of the Week award for her two goal, three assist performance in the demolition of Brown.

Tiger goalkeeper Gia Fruscione will also be a difficult problem for the Crimson. She leads the Ivies in league save percentage (92.1) and in goals against average (0.77).

However, Harvard will have a week and a half to get ready, playing UNH tomorrow, Providence on Saturday and Boston College next weekend. In the Providence game, Harvard would do well to be cautious, for the Friars just knocked off Yale (4-5, 1-2) last week by a 2-0 score.

This coming Saturday, the Elis will take on Dartmouth (6-6, 1-2) in a battle for third place in the Ancient Eight. Dartmouth is coming off a busy week, topping UNH 2-1 but falling to Maine and getting thumped by No. 6 UConn, 5-1.

In the only other Ivy game this weekend, Penn (4-5, 0-2) takes on Cornell (4-6, 0-2). The Quakers fell to West Chester, 3-2, while the Big Red's only game was the loss to the Crimson.

Brown (5-5, 1-2) stays away from the Ancient Eight this week but will be busy with No. 7 Northeastern today.