Men's soccer looks to solidify tourney bid against top teams

Fall break soccer will be anything but relaxing for the men's team — there is simply too much at stake.

Eleven games into the season, the team's fate is still very much up in the air. With four games on the schedule this week, two of which are Ivy League contests, Princeton will have the chance to seal its position as one of the top two teams in the league and increase its chances of a berth in the NCAA tournament.

Princeton will face Cornell, Indiana, Villanova and Penn. Though there are three games to get through before facing the Quakers, who currently hold on to second place in the Ivy League, the league games are clearly the most important.

After the Cornell contest, however, it will be tough to keep the pending Penn game from lurking in the background of the teams' thoughts.

"We're focusing on the Cornell game first because if we win the rest of the Ivy League games we can't do any worse than second place in the league, and that should get us into the tournament," freshman forward Adrian Melville said.

The Tigers kick off the competition at home today against the Big Red (4-3-2, 0-2-2), who are currently ranked seventh in the Ivy League. This does not necessarily mean that the game is an easy Tiger win. Cornell's only two losses were to Harvard and Penn, currently one-two in the league. The Tigers past against Cornell may also continue to haunt them.

"We still have bad feelings from last year," head coach Jim Barlow '91 said. "We thought we played one of our best games of the season and the game had important postseason implications, but we ended up losing 1-0."

Despite this, Cornell should move into Princeton's win column so the team can focus on Penn. This matchup will be the Tiger's biggest game over break in terms of Ivy standings. If everything goes according to plan against Cornell, the Tigers will face the Quakers (6-4-1, 2-1-0) on Nov. 3 with second place on the line.

While Princeton tied with Penn in a preseason scrimmage, this time around the Tigers are looking for the win.

"They're a very athletic team," Barlow said. "They have a very good midfield with two solid freshmen there. I think it is really important to stay tight in the back and get the ball moving. We need to get them to spread out a little bit or their athleticism and ball-winning abilities can create problems."

In between the two league games is one powerhouse – Indiana – that cannot be overlooked. The Tigers play at home on Sunday against the team that is almost without a doubt the toughest on their schedule. The Hoosiers (10-3-2), who were ranked No. 4 last week before they fell to Notre Dame in their first loss in nine games, are now ranked No. 9.

"They won the national championship two years ago and they still have a lot of players from that team," Barlow said. "They are very athletic, very strong and they have a lot of special players, but we're not going to think about Indiana until after the Cornell game."

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After taking on Indiana, the Tigers travel to Philadelphia where they will play Villanova Oct. 31. Though the Wildcats (5-8) may not have the credentials of the Hoosiers, Villanova, has won three of its last four games.

"This is a huge week for us in terms of postseason chances," Barlow said. "We are happy to get through midterm week and have fall break so we can get our legs back. It is hard to predict exactly how we have to do, so many teams are still in the postseason hunt."

Our strength of schedule is very tough and we feel we have a chance to get in through both the league and the region at large. We need to take advantage of the next few games to secure our spot."