Ivy League 2022

[faircornell]

7-0 OOC! Wow. The fight for an ILT place will be challenging.

Brown and Princeton look much better than the early season predictions suggested. Yale seems to still be finding it's feet. Cornell and Penn are strong as generally predicted. Harvard seems reinvigorated. Dartmouth is improving.

Andy Shay seems to have a talent for getting his teams to peak around Ivy Tournament time. It'll be a greater challenge than usual to get in.

[DALaxDad]

Yup. Looks like a dog fight in the Ivy League. I’m old, and played long before the Ivy League tournament, but Ivy games meant more during the season, and the league championship had significance separate from however else your team did outside the league, because the league, theoretically, had teams all recruited under the same metrics. Nice to see Ivy teams rebounding from a lost year.

[Chousnake]

Where are all the posters who were sounding the death knell for Ivy League lax the past two years? All I read was that the loss of two seasons to COVID and the loss of transfers because of the extra year would mean the end of Ivy League lax. Instead, the league looks as strong as ever after this weekend. I know that is disappointing for some who were actually rooting for the league's demise.

[MDlaxfan76]

When are all the posters who were sounding the death knell for Ivy League lax the past two years? All I read was that the loss of two seasons to COVID and the loss of transfers because of the extra year would mean the end of Ivy League lax. Instead, the league looks as strong as ever after this weekend. I know that is disappointing for some who were actually rooting for the league's demise.

yup, some were indeed.
Obviously no one would want to go to an Ivy was a major theme.

[FannOLax]

When are all the posters who were sounding the death knell for Ivy League lax the past two years? All I read was that the loss of two seasons to COVID and the loss of transfers because of the extra year would mean the end of Ivy League lax. Instead, the league looks as strong as ever after this weekend. I know that is disappointing for some who were actually rooting for the league's demise.

yup, some were indeed.
Obviously no one would want to go to an Ivy was a major theme.

Other themes: the Ivies think they're smarter than everyone else; Ivy administrations want to end Ivy intercollegiate sports.

With Penn's late win over Penn State yesterday, the Ivies were 7-0 on the day. For me, the most impressive win yesterday was Princeton's 10-8 road victory over Georgetown. There was the idea out there that, without Sowers, Princeton couldn't possibly very good. Next weekend Princeton hosts the 6-0 Rutgers Scarlet Knights in what looks like a terrific match-up. Cornell is now 4-0, having knocked off them Buckeyes (AKA Ohio State) 14-11 in Ithaca. This next Saturday the Big Red travels to Central PA to play against former Cornell coach Tambroni's Penn State. PSU got off to a rocky 1-3 start this season, then shocked Yale 10-6 before giving Penn a very good game yesterday, with the Quakers prevailing 10-9 in Charlotte, NC. Yale was picked as the pre-season favorite to win the Ivy, but will need to improve to live up to that. Yesterday Yale found a way to win 13-12 in OT over UMass. Please don't overlook Brown. Yesterday the Bears walloped Providence 22-10 to move to 4-1. Harvard won 16-12 yesterday at Fairfield to move to 2-1, while Dartmouth also improved to 2-1, winning 11-9 at Siena. Great to have Ivy lacrosse not only back, but back and winning.

[The Orfling]

If I were an Ivy coach recruiting against ACC/Big10 etc., from a purely lacrosse perspective I might be focusing on how at the Ivies the depth chart is "real" -- you're not going to commit to a school seeing a path to play based upon where the school will need to plug graduation holes and then for the next three years have guys parachute in from the transfer portal. That argument looks even better if the Ivies are putting up good results on the field, and so far so good this year.

[Chousnake]

If I were an Ivy coach recruiting against ACC/Big10 etc., from a purely lacrosse perspective I might be focusing on how at the Ivies the depth chart is "real" -- you're not going to commit to a school seeing a path to play based upon where the school will need to plug graduation holes and then for the next three years have guys parachute in from the transfer portal. That argument looks even better if the Ivies are putting up good results on the field, and so far so good this year.

The 5th year of eligibility has a short shelf life. And with any lacrosse program, there is never a guarantee of immediate playing time nor protection against a new recruit taking playing time from an upperclassman. One of the benefits of playing lacrosse is that so many of the best programs are great educational institutions, including the Ivies. The Ivies essentially sell themselves. There are enough great high school players in the US to provide recruits for the Ivies in the foreseeable future. Those that were preaching/hoping for the Ivies to fall from the lax elite were just plain wrong. It didn't even take a year or two for the Ivies to return to the pre-COVID level. It took 3 weeks. Student athletes and their parents are pretty savvy. They mostly realize that lacrosse is not a career but for a minuscule few players. When my son was being recruited, the opening speeches given by Ivy coaches at their showcases was often "You are not a lacrosse player attending college. You are a college student who plays lacrosse. Choose a college because you want to spend 4 years there as a student. Don't choose a school solely based on lacrosse." Half of recruited players don't see the field in a game. Lacrosse careers end for most at 22 for all players and then they have a lifetime of the working world ahead of them. I don't see the Ivies having a shortage of students that want to attend as students and play lacrosse at a competitive if not championship caliber D1 level.

[Chousnake]

Double post

[faircornell]

The Dartmouth/UVM game on Tuesday should be interesting. Dartmouth seems to be improving with two straight wins. UVM has solid wins against Penn State and Bryant, and one goal losses to Brown and Utah.

Dartmouth has home field advantage, and Massey favors the Big Green by one. Game time wind chill is projected as a balmy 28 degrees.

[MDlaxfan76]

The Dartmouth/UVM game on Tuesday should be interesting. Dartmouth seems to be improving with two straight wins. UVM has solid wins against Penn State and Bryant, and one goal losses to Brown and Utah.

Dartmouth has home field advantage, and Massey favors the Big Green by one. Game time wind chill is projected as a balmy 28 degrees.

hmmm, much as I'd like to think otherwise, I think this is a big stretch for Dartmouth at this point. I'd have Vermont favored by 4 or 5.

Hope it goes the other way!

[Farfromgeneva]

The Dartmouth/UVM game on Tuesday should be interesting. Dartmouth seems to be improving with two straight wins. UVM has solid wins against Penn State and Bryant, and one goal losses to Brown and Utah.

Dartmouth has home field advantage, and Massey favors the Big Green by one. Game time wind chill is projected as a balmy 28 degrees.

hmmm, much as I'd like to think otherwise, I think this is a big stretch for Dartmouth at this point. I'd have Vermont favored by 4 or 5.

Hope it goes the other way!

I’d say like 3 but surprised to see UVM as dog on paper for Massey.

[RopeUnit]

Vermont is solid, win over PSU. 3 losses to Brown, Utah and Duke don't look terrible after this weekend. Feels like A 20+ save performance gets Dartmouth deep into the 4th quarter. Good luck Big Green!

[middleAgedBear]

Big win for Dartmouth, way to close it out. They’ll win an Ivy game (or more) this season I think. Hopefully not vs brown.

[b1w7o9y7h]

Nice nail biter for Dartmouth over Vermont 8-7. Up 8-5 with 4 minutes left. Certainly encouraging for the Big Green. Seems like a few easily tweaked things might be good for the Big Green: Don't telegraph/force passes. And don't try to work through double teams. Find the open man and move that rock. All in all, though, this feels better than just a few short years ago. Building toward and experiencing better days. Good goalkeeping for Dartmouth, too. Stopped some really tough ones.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Big win for Dartmouth. I said it a few years ago, program turned the corner. Sometimes it takes a while before the improvement is reflected in wins.

[calourie]

Vermont is solid, win over PSU. 3 losses to Brown, Utah and Duke don't look terrible after this weekend. Feels like A 20+ save performance gets Dartmouth deep into the 4th quarter. Good luck Big Green!

Excellent prognostication. Hincks with 20+ saves in a nice win for the Big Green.

[bearlaxfan]

Break up Dartmouth! Nice win, and they certainly look better than the last time I saw them; admittedly that was 2019. Goalie looks good. Maybe I'll pay more attention to Massey. Glad their game vs Bruno is in PVD this year.

[RopeUnit]

Vermont is solid, win over PSU. 3 losses to Brown, Utah and Duke don't look terrible after this weekend. Feels like A 20+ save performance gets Dartmouth deep into the 4th quarter. Good luck Big Green!

Excellent prognostication. Hincks with 20+ saves in a nice win for the Big Green.

Love the W for Dartmouth--well done gents.
I tuned in for the 2nd half, and to put it nicely, wasn't either team's best day. Hincks was great though, at least three one on one stuffs in the half. He's a real player.

[Can Opener]

Congrats to the Big Green on a clutch 8-7 win over the Catamounts today in Hanover. Hincks, as usual, came up huge with 20 saves. He is a lock for All Ivy, but I'd like to see his name more often in national consideration. He had a heads-up play after making a save with 27 seconds to go in the game. Rather than force a clearing pass, he worked with his poles to use all 20 seconds of the time available to clear and then Gilmanned down the field. This is a tough Vermont team that lost by a goal to Brown and a goal to Utah, and beat Penn State 16-10 on the road.

[check sticks]

Big win for Dartmouth. I said it a few years ago, program turned the corner. Sometimes it takes a while before the improvement is reflected in wins.

TLD.
So many doubters, haters, naysayers, pessimists, and all around jamokes casting their negative views towards Coach Callahan and his efforts to turn the D program around since his arrival.
Even Andy Shay had a very tenuous 6-7 year run before Yale found its footing and pivoted towards the current road of success.

Let's see an Ivy win come out of this Dartmouth season as the REAL tell the "corner has turned". But it sure feels like this team chemistry has the potential.

GBG