Around the Ivies: Men's Soccer

As the end of the season approaches, Harvard is in the lead but has by no means locked up the Ivy League title. Here's how the Ancient Eight stacks up with two games to go:

1. Harvard (5-7-2 overall, 4-1 Ivy League): The Crimson only has Columbia and Penn left to go before the end of the season. The Quakers pose the only realistic threat to the Ivy League Championship that is in Harvard’s reach, and even then Harvard’s multitalented roster is a force to be reckoned with —12 different Crimson players have found the back of the net this season.

2. Princeton (6-7-1, 3-1-1): The Tigers let a Harvard second-half comeback get the best of them last week and suffered their first Ivy League loss of the season. Princeton will now have to rely on half luck and half skill. The only chance the Tigers have at sharing the Ivy crown is if they win out the rest of their conference games against Penn and Yale and if the Quakers pull out a victory over Harvard on Nov. 16.

3. Penn (6-8-1, 3-1-1): The Quakers find themselves in the same precarious Ivy position as the Tigers. Their only league loss so far this year was to Brown, which has a formidable program this year and has a good chance of dashing Penn’s hopes. The Quakers will continue relying on forward Duke Lacroix, who is tied for most goals in the Ivy League with seven and leads the Ancient Eight in points with 17.

4. Brown (6-6-3, 2-1-2): The Bears deserve a lot more credit than they’ve been given this season. This year Brown has taken an Ivy League team to double overtime three times, tying two of those games and winning one. Brown has no chance of winning the league this year but has definitely been of the most persistent Ivy teams.

5. Yale (4-9-2, 2-1-2): The Bulldogs were the only Ancient Eight team capable of defeating Harvard so far this year. They are, however, going into their final games of the season on a two-game losing streak during which they weren’t able to get their offense going. Both Brown and Princeton, their final two matchups, will be tough opponents, and the Bulldogs will need to see more out of leading scorers Peter Jacobson and Cameron Kirdzik.

6. Columbia (7-4-3, 1-1-3): Like Brown, the Lions’ key feature this year has been persistence. They too have taken an Ivy team to double overtime three times this year and have tied on all three occasions. With technically only one league loss, Columbia is trapped in an awkward position toward the bottom of the standings despite being one of the toughest teams in the Ivy League to beat this year.

7. Cornell (6-5-4, 0-4-1): Cornell has been unable to pick up an Ivy victory at all this season, which is a huge turnaround from its 2012 Ivy League Championship on a 6-1 Ancient Eight season. Before scoring a lone goal against Princeton in a loss last week, the Big Red hadn’t scored a goal in three games. It sits at the bottom of the league in goals scored overall this season with 12, which is less than half the number of times that Penn has found the back of the net this season, 25.

8. Dartmouth (5-6-4, 0-5): The Big Green keeps Cornell company in the winless column, which is ironic because it finished second in league play last year, just behind the Big Red, with only two Ivy League losses. This coming weekend Dartmouth will face off against Cornell, where both teams will be attempting to end their seasons with at least one notch in the victory column.