Sextet's Title Hopes Hinge On Toppling Tigers Today

Quick now, which Harvard varsity team has lost more than half its Ivy League games, hockey or basketball?

Amazingly enough, the answer is the hockey squad, whose 2-3 record is fourth best in the league. The skaters travel down to Princeton tonight, however, and a victory over the mediocre Tigers could start the Crimson on a climb which could conceivably lead back to the top of the circuit.

The sextet should be in top shape tonight after a five-day rest following Mondoy's lacklustre 7-5 victory over North-eastern. Before that, the Crimson had lost three in a row to Boston University, Cornell, and Dartmouth, indicating that this week's rest can do nothing but improve them.

Currently, Brown and Dartmouth share the Ivy lead with 4-1 records, with Cornell right behind at 4-2. But of the six games that these teams must play against one another, only one has taken place (Dartmouth beat Brown). If the wins and loses are evenly distributed over the remaining five, no team will have enough victories to assure it a higher position than Harvard at the end of the year.

The Crimson, on the other hand, has only one game (Brown) left with the league leaders, having already split two games each with Cornell and Dartmouth, and lost once to Brown. Two victories over less potent Princeton, two more against even feebler Yale, and a win over Brown next weekend could enable the Crimson to at least share the Ivy crown.

Tigers Not Toothless

The Princeton team that hosts the Crimson tonight is not to be written off as completely hapless, however. All three of their Ivy losses have been close games on the road against the league leaders. Their one league win, at home over Cornell, shows they're not averse to an occasional upset.

But the Crimson is a pretty good bet to be out to grab this one tonight. The team has no desire to relinquish the Ivy crown which has been Harvard's for the last three years. Nor are they in any mood to break an eleven-year tradition of not losing to the Tigers.