Ranked League Foe To Host Crimson

The halfway point in the Ivy League season presents an opportunity for teams to take a moment to assess their season so far.

With three out of seven Ivy League matchups completed, Harvard has played itself into a position where there will be little margin for error here on out.

After racking up a win over Yale and a pair of draws against Brown and Cornell, the Crimson (4-4-5, 1-0-2 Ivy) looks to remain in the hunt for the league crown this Sunday when it visits No. 23 Princeton (10-2-0, 3-0-0 Ivy) at Roberts Stadium in an Ancient Eight showdown that will be broadcasted nationally on ESPNU.

One more conference loss or draw could seriously cripple Harvard’s hopes for the Ivy League title.

Last season, the Tigers knocked off the heavily-favored Harvard, ranked ninth at the time, in double overtime with a 102nd minute goal to win, 2-1.

Though the Crimson eventually went on to capture the Ancient Eight title, while Princeton finished third, last year’s match nonetheless left a bitter taste in the mouths of many players on the Harvard sideline.

“We felt that we gave one of our best performances of the year during that game,” co-captain Robert Millock said. “But unfortunately we also had a lot of guys that just had bad games. So even though we were solid defensively throughout the game, but we just didn’t execute, we didn’t play well offensively.”

This year’s Tigers—unlike the underdog Princeton teams of past seasons—have shown themselves to be of a radically different character than squads Harvard has faced in recent years.

The Tigers are currently riding a seven-game winning streak—with three of the victories coming against Ivy League competitors—to put themselves tied with Penn for first place in the conference standings with nine points.

In that same span, Princeton outscored its opponents, 21-5, netting an average of three goals per contest.

As a result, Sunday’s matchup against the red-hot Tigers likely presents the Crimson’s toughest competition so far in the Ivy League season.

“Right now we are in third place in the Ivy League with five points, within striking distance of both of the first-place teams, and we still have both those teams on our schedule,” Harvard coach Carl Junot said. “So we feel that we have control over our Ivy League season…but another tie would only keep us below Princeton and Penn in terms of the points race.”

In its last outing, the Crimson held a 1-0 lead over No. 20 Boston College in the second half, but could not hold on in the end, as the Eagles came back with two late goals to earn a 2-1 victory.

“I think we learned a lot about ourselves going forward, which was important because our goal is the Ivy League,” Millock said. “We used the game against BC to try out our new formation and see if we could be more dangerous. Everyone was pretty happy with the chances that we created, so overall we were pretty disappointed with the outcome of the BC game.”

By contrast, in the Tigers’ last match, late game action served them well. In the 82nd minute of play, senior Josh Walburn scored the game-winning goal to lead the squad to a win over Columbia, 3-2.

It is clear that Harvard must play to its highest potential for a whole 90 minutes in order to beat the Tigers.

“As a team coming off a really hot streak, Princeton is playing with a lot of confidence, and I have a lot of respect for their individual players,” Junot said. “I’ve gotten to know some of the players through recruiting. I have a lot of respect for their coaches so we certainly have a lot of respect for Princeton as an opponent but if we play to the top of our ability, I feel that we are by far the stronger side.”

Much like Junot, Millock also remains hopeful about the team’s prospects against Princeton.

“We feel confident,” Millock said. “We still feel that we are the team to beat in the Ivy League. If we play well and execute out game plan, we believe that we will have success against anyone that we play.”