F. Hockey Set for Battle to Death With Princeton

This Saturday, the Ivy League field hockey title will be all but decided.

That's because No. 18 Princeton (10-2, 4-0 Ivy) and No. 16 Harvard (7-4, 3-0) will meet that day in New Jersey. A Tiger win, and the Orange and Black wins its third straight league title. If not, then the Crimson would be practically assured of winning its first Ivy crown in five years.

Harvard has one more warm-up game before then, playing at Boston College tonight. Harvard was upset on Saturday by Providence, 3-1, while Princeton fell to No. 6 UConn on Sunday, 3-1.

A Harvard victory would put the team at 4-0 in the league with games left against Dartmouth and Brown. If the Crimson defeats one of them, then the worst Harvard could get would be a two-way tie with Princeton, and the Cantabs would get the nod because of their win over the Tigers.

A sweep of Dartmouth and Brown, meanwhile, would put Harvard alone in first at 6-0 in the league, while losses to both would either give Tigers the outright title, or, if Princeton loses to Penn on November 7, anything from a two-way to a four-way tie for first. That would make things really messy.

Realistically, however, that won't happen. A win over Princeton would give Harvard a lot of momentum, and although Brown and Dartmouth have been playing good hockey lately, the Crimson will battle both at home.

Still, the Bears (6-6, 1-2) should be commended for their season. Usually one of the worst Ivy teams, Brown is coming off of a 3-0 win over Rhode Island--the same one that lost to Harvard in two overtimes earlier this year. That win broke a two-game scoreless streak, losing 8-0 to Princeton and 3-0 to No.7 Northeastern.

Brown still has Ivy games left against Penn, Cornell and Harvard, and with wins in those three games and other fortuitous losses by Princeton and Harvard, Brown can still tie for the league title. Dartmouth and Penn are also in the same mathematically-alive situation.

The Big Green (7-6, 2-2) also ended a two-game losing streak over the weekend. After falling to UConn and Maine, Dartmouth blanked Yale 1-0 last Saturday and will play Cornell this weekend.

Penn (5-6, 1-2), who had not won a game since October 2, broke its three-game losing streak with a 1-0 win over Cornell, thanks to a goal by Tara Childs. The Quakers next play at Brown on Saturday.

The final Ivy teams, Cornell (4-8, 0-3) and Yale (5-6, 1-3), are both in the depths of the league, but they are also the only two teams that have played both Harvard and Princeton. Nevertheless, all they can do now is perform the role of a spoiler for Brown, Dartmouth or Penn.