Going the Round Robin Route

For the fledgling women's ice hockey team, the Ivy Championship tournament has always been the high point of the season, the equivalent of the Beanpot for the men. But the league's athletic directors are now in the process of phasing out the Ivy Tournaments for women's basketball, swimming, ice hockey, softball and soccer in favor of round robin matches, with the championship to be decided based on regular-season Ivy League records.

The athletic directors were hardly rooting out an ivy-encrusted tradition when they made their decision last May: women's athletics at Ivy League schools have only been flourishing for the past seven or eight years. Rather, the athletic directors feel that round-robin matches will upgrade women's athletics at Ivy schools and encourage them to put the same amount of commitment and funds into the women's programs as they have for men's sports.

"We want to establish a strong committment to women's athletics," said Brown University athletic director John Parry. The round-robin system is "a purer way to define a champion" He added, "If a team can sustain its winning streak through seven games, that team is certainly worthy of the Ivy championship. But what happens if the star player happens to be injured the one weekend of the tournament?"

Harvard swimming coach Vicki Hays feels that Ivy championships in the past years have been somewhat of a detour on the route to Easterns and Nationals. It is the swimmers' times that qualify them for these latter, much-anticipated events, regardless of how they place in the Ivies Eliminating the tournament for Hays and her charges means "one less meet to prepare for, both mentally and physically."

Ivy directors say the new format will help them provide their female athletes with a fuller schedule, and, as Parry points out. "It's more valuable to fill up our schedule with schools that share our philosophy about college athletics We don't give any scholarships."

The round-robin system will force coaches to reassess their teams, especially the fledgling one such as ice hockey--to which the commitment and intensity of the Ivy schools ranges from "quasi-club" to varsity. Coaches will have to ask themselves if their team is of a high-enough caliber to survive continuous Ivy League competition. Before, Parry said, "it was all too easy to jump into a championship meet." The round-robin system, he added, "will lead to consistency in all our programs."

Ivy Women's basketball teams have been under the round-robin system for two years but have also participated in an Ivy tournament at the end of the season with the seeding for the tournament determined from the results of the round robin. But change will not rebound off the hoopster's backboard; next year, women's basketball will switch to a double round robin in lieu of the tournament, with every team playing each other twice during the year.

The change will not affect an Ivy school's chances of going to the Eastern Championships; those teams who qualify for Easterns will do so on the basis of regional wins, both Ivy and non-Ivy.

"I think it has served its purpose well," Harvard basketball coach Carole Kleinfelder said of the tournament system, which started when there were very few women's teams. Any Ivy tournament presently needs only five participating teams for a legitimate title to be awarded.

"Our team really enjoyed the Ivy championships," Kleinfelder said, adding that such tournaments usually attract more media publicity than an individual Ivy game. But Kleinfelder says she is pleased with next year's system and the planning that went into it "It's not something we just jumped into."

Harvard hockey coach John Dooley is one who's sad to see the Ivy championships go. "It's my gut feeling that we're losing a great tradition," he said.

Dooley feels the Ivy tournament adds a lot to his team's season, "It's a season withing a season," he said. "A team could have a dismal record, but still win the Ivy championship. It's one more opportunity for the team to feel success--the same sort of feeling as the Beanpot. I don't think what you gain [by eliminating the tournament] will be better than what you lose."

Hayes admits that the new system will make next year's season different, but that it will soon be the standard for women's teams to operate.

But most Ivy Athletic Directors and coaches agree that the decision will afford long-range benefits for women's teams. "It will give an identity to women's sports," said Yale's assistant athletic director, Gilb Holgate. "Having more home games, and a different schedule from the men will draw more spectators."

The decision then marks a continuing transition in Ivy women's athletics from fledgling club to full-fledged varsity. The often enjoyable Ivy tournaments will be gone, but the hope of all involved is that women's sports will have achieved new status in Ivy athletics.