A year ago, a complacent men's lacrosse team entered its Ivy League opener against Yale riding a 37-game Ivy League winning streak — just two games away from setting the all-time league record. The Tigers had not lost a game to an Ivy League opponent since 1995.
But the Bulldogs shocked the Tigers — and the entire lacrosse world — when they snapped Princeton's streak with a 15-13 upset.
This year, when then Warrior / Inside Lacrosse Power Poll No. 3 Princeton faced then-No. 16 Yale in its season opener, the Tigers knew not to be so complacent. They hammered Yale, 15-5, and improved to 4-2 overall with their fourth-straight win.
"We learned a lot from last year's game against [Yale]," senior midfielder Brad Dumont said after the Yale game. "We learned we need to be ready to play every single game."
Princeton (5-2 overall, 2-0 Ivy League), No. 2 in the most recent poll, must keep this lesson in mind as it switches gears from the hot competition of the preseason — in which the Tigers played all of the other Final Four teams of a year ago — to the traditionally tamer Ivy conference.
No. 15 Cornell (5-2 overall, 2-0 Ivy League) is currently tied with Princeton for first place in Ivy standings. The Big Red met its highest ranked opponent, No. 5 Georgetown, in its first game of the season and suffered a 13-6 defeat. Since losing to No. 14 Hofstra, 13-5, Cornell has won four straight contests, including a 9-8 nail-biter against No. 19 Penn State and sound defeats of Yale and Penn in its Ivy openers.
Penn (4-4, 1-2), following Cornell and Princeton in league ranking, began its season with a 14-5 loss to No. 12 Notre Dame. After losing to No. 1 Johns Hopkins, 14-5, on Mar. 8, they went on to beat Mount Saint Mary's, 11-9, and Army, 13-8.
In its Ivy opener on Mar. 22, Penn defeated Harvard, 8-6. Last Saturday against Cornell, however, a late three-goal rally was not enough to spark then-No. 20 Penn past the Big Red, who defeated the Quakers, 13-7, and dropped them out of the Top 20. Last night, Princeton dealt Penn its second Ivy loss.
The Dartmouth Big Green, tied with Brown for fourth place in the Ivy League, is off to a 6-1 start — its best since the 1995 season. The team has definitely improved since last year with the addition of talented freshmen; however, its lopsided record is deceptive in that none of the teams the Big Green have played so far are ranked in the Top 20. Its one loss was to Maryland-Baltimore County on Mar. 19.
Brown (2-4, 0-0) defeated Vermont in triple overtime to start its season. Since then, the Bears have won only a single game, against Hartford on Mar. 18, and have suffered crippling losses to ranked opponents including No. 10 UMass, No. 13 Loyola and No. 3 Syracuse.
Harvard (3-4, 0-1), who shares the Ivy League basement with Yale, has been outscored, 15-9, in the second period and 20-11 in the fourth this season, while owning an 11-8 scoring edge in the first and being dead even, 19-19, in the third.
In the Crimson's win column are unranked Hartford, Holy Cross and Providence. Both No. 9 Duke and No. 17 Bucknell rolled over Harvard, who also lost to Fairfield and its first Ivy opponent, Penn.
Despite Yale's (4-2, 0-2) No. 16 national ranking, it is in the Ivy League basement with Harvard because of its losses to Cornell and Princeton. In non-league play, however, the Bulldogs have a perfect 4-0 record, with wins against Drexel, Penn State, Quinnipiac, and Holy Cross.
The biggest challenge facing the streaking Tigers as they chase their ninth straight Ivy League championship will be to fend off complacency, which tends to grow with victory.
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