Men's soccer defeats Yale, clinches share of Ivy title

After falling to Dartmouth in its Ivy League opener back in October, it would have taken some creativity to imagine the men’s soccer team ending up sharing the league title with the Big Green. But that’s exactly what happened on Saturday, as the Tigers (11-3-3 overall, 5-1-1 Ivy League) took down Yale (1-13-3, 0-6-1) in New Haven to clinch at least a share of the Ivy League title. After a scoreless first half, senior forward Cameron Porter picked up the rebound on his own initial shot and put it away in the 58th minute. Porter nearly struck again in the next minute, when another attempt hit the crossbar. But the minutes seemed like hours as the clock crawled to the 90th minute mark, as Yale had the majority of scoring opportunities over the last 20 minutes of play. But a save by junior goalkeeper Ben Hummel in the 88th minute would be the last chance the Bulldogs had on net, as the Tigers held on to extend their unbeaten streak to nine games.

“It was a tough game, as expected, against Yale,” junior forward Nico Hurtado said. “Pretty even first half, and we were able to come out fast in the second half to get the goal and then defended extremely well the rest of the game. Amazing to be able to say that we are Ivy League champions after all the hard work and losing the first game against Dartmouth.”

A few hours later, though, Dartmouth (11-4-2, 5-1-1) shut out Brown at home to not only clinch a share of the Ivy title, but to also clinch the Ivy League’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, on account of their regular season victory over Princeton. The Tigers will thus have all eyes turned to the NCAA Selection Show on Monday at 1 p.m, when they will find out whether or not their recent work has been enough to earn them an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

As of Nov. 9, the Tigers ranked 36th overall in the RPI rankings, and their acceptance into the NCAA Tournament will not only depend upon Ivy results but on non-conference performance as well. This is a time in which individual match results could push Princeton over the edge, such as the team’s Nov. 5 victory over American University, which ranked 31st overall in the same RPI rankings. Given the fact that the Tigers have not lost since Oct. 4, they are confident that their names will be called for one of the bids.

“We are hopeful now that the committee thinks we should be in the NCAA Tournament with an at-large bid. 11-3-3 is a really solid record, and we have confidence we will make it, but are still nervous for Monday,” Hurtado said. “Just have to hope for the best and see what happens.”