Yale F. Hockey Almost Tops Princeton; Gives Harvard Hope

The Ivy League field hockey world sure got a whole lot more interesting this past week.

Sure, No. 13 Princeton is still undefeated at 8-0 overall, 3-0 Ivy; but besides that, everything that fans could take for granted has gone away.

For instance, what's the deal with Brown? The Bears (5-4, 1-1) won three games this past week, over Providence, Fairfield and a 3-0 shutout of Dartmouth, and is in third place in the Ivies. Yale is now looking awesome for beating Brown 1-0 earlier on.

Or take Princeton's last league game. Sure, the Tigers won, defeating the Elis of Yale. But the Bulldogs (3-4, 1-2) took them to overtime, losing 3-2 on a goal by Amy MacFarlane. With that loss, Yale has been the only team thus far to even get close to Princeton, as Cornell and Dartmouth have already lost to the Big Orange Machine by a combined 11 goals.

So although Princeton is undefeated in Ivy play with only three more league games to go, Yale showed that Princeton is defeatable.

This is good news for No. 16 Harvard (5-3, 2-0), because the Crimson seems like the best bet to dethrone the defending Ivy League champions. Of course, "best bet" doesn't mean perfect; Harvard got thumped by Boston University last Wednesday, 7-1, amid a downpour of rain and goals.

But when the opponent is an Ivy team, Harvard has found a way to win. Two weeks ago it was a double-overtime victory over Yale, and last Saturday it was a 2-1 defeat of Penn in which a Quaker shot glanced off the post as time expired. Harvard next plays Cornell at home on Saturday.

Whenever the Big Red (4-5, 0-1) plays tough teams, the offense seems not to score. Cornell has been shut out by Princeton, Rider and most recently, Syracuse and Boston College. Cornell did beat Columbia, 4-1, and Millersville, 3-2, but that won't help the team contend for the crown.

Penn (3-6, 0-2), meanwhile, is really having trouble. One of the Ivy contenders last year, the Quakers have been defeated by the Crimson and Big Green, so this team has to get its act together before its next Ivy game, October 19 against Cornell.

Thus far, Yale is the hard-luck team of the Ancient Eight. The Elis have lost twice in overtime, both by 3-2 scores despite beating the Bears. Last week, Yale also fell to No. 20 Maine 4-3; however, the Bulldogs should be able to get back on track with their next game, against the Friars of Providence.

Finally, Dartmouth (5-4, 1-2) is watching its stock fall fast. The Big Green started the league season by blasting the Quakers, 6-1, but since that Dartmouth has lost to Princeton 7-1 and Brown 3-0.

More recently, the team shut out Siena on Monday, 9-0, but games next week against No. 8 UConn and Maine will force Dartmouth to play some tougher competition. IVY STANDINGS   IVY  OVERALL Team  W  L  PCT  W  L  PCT Princeton  3  0  1.00  8  0  1.00 Harvard  2  0  1.00  5  3  .625 Brown  1  1  .500  5  4  .556 Dartmouth  1  2  .333  5  4  .556 Yale  1  2  .333  3  4  .429 Cornell  0  1  .000  4  5  .444 Pennsylvania  0  2  .000  4  4  .500 Columbia  --  --  --  3  6  .333