Out-of-town scores key as w. soccer closes in on crown

The Dartmouth-Harvard women's soccer game has determined the Ivy League champion for the past six years.

This year should be no different.

If No. 11 Harvard (10-4 overall, 4-1 Ivy League) is victorious Sunday in Hanover, N.H., it will almost certainly finish atop the Ivy League and take the coveted automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

If the Crimson cannot pull out the win, the Ivy title will be up for grabs.

It will probably not go to No. 21 Dartmouth, however. Even if the Big Green (10-4, 3-1) wins this vital contest, the title and the berth will head south to Princeton, assuming the Tigers can defeat Cornell and Penn over Fall Break.

Scoreboard watching

"Well, now we're rooting for Dartmouth," head coach Julie Shackford said last week after the team's 2-0 loss to Harvard on Oct. 20.

Because the Ivy League race is still so close, the eventual champion will most likely be determined based on head-to-head competition. If Princeton (10-4, 4-1) and Harvard end the season in a two-way tie, the nod would go to the Crimson.

On the other hand, if Harvard loses any Ivy game, the Tigers would control their own destiny, having defeated both Dartmouth and Brown — the other possible co-champions.

"The ideal situation would be for Harvard and Dartmouth to tie, because we would then be outright champions," junior defender and captain Kelly Sosa said. "But if one of them has to win, we'd rather it be Dartmouth."

Princeton travels to Cornell (3-12, 1-4) tomorrow, then returns home to Lourie-Love Field for its last two games. The Tigers will face Stony Brook (7-9-1) Tuesday and local rival Penn (7-6-1, 2-3) Nov. 4.

Unlike the rest of the title contenders, the hardest part of the Tigers' Ivy schedule has passed. Cornell is a struggling team, with only three marks in the win column this season, and Princeton has already defeated Penn once this year, in a preseason tournament.

Should the Tigers lose either of their Ivy games, however, the outcome of the Dartmouth-Harvard game will still probably determine the Ivy champion, but Princeton would have a hard time reentering the race.

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In the final week of the season, Dartmouth will be taking on both Harvard and Brown (11-3, 3-1), both of which have a shot at the title.

"We know we can beat [both teams]," Dartmouth head coach Erica Walsh said. "Anything less than that would be disappointing.

"Right now we're focusing on the Harvard game. That's a long-time rivalry, so it's really going to be a mental battle."

While the battle for the Ivy title seems to be closing in on Hanover, N.H., the Tigers know they still have two games of their own to win.

"We're trying to regain our focus, which can be tough to do after two losses," senior forward Amee Reyes said. "We've definitely thought about the different possibilities [surrounding Dartmouth] but we need to pay attention to how we're playing."