Ivy League

[MolonLaxe]

Really surprised by Brown. Didn't have much hope for them coming into the season but Katrina Dowd has coached them up into a good squad almost over night.

I was hyping up Dartmouth as a riser but brown might be ahead of them currently due to coaching.

The coaching matters.

[Bystanders]

After last night, Penn has to be top 10.

We’ll see if Yale is as well after Brown, BC, and Penn games over the next eight days.

Should be a third in the NCAA tourney across Princeton, Harvard or maybe the next tier.

[laxlaxlax]

After last night, Penn has to be top 10.

We’ll see if Yale is as well after Brown, BC, and Penn games over the next eight days.

Should be a third in the NCAA tourney across Princeton, Harvard or maybe the next tier.

Yale is an interesting one - I’m not sure about Top 10. They might be 8-0 but their SOS is 33rd and the worst of any team currently ranked above them in the IWLCA polls.

Along with the Penn, BC and Brown games they also still have to face Denver so their RPI and record could change dramatically before the end of the season. Not to mention last year they failed to close their ivy schedule out and lost to Harvard and Cornell.

I do think they are a better team this year though and will still get an AL spot but I’m not sure Top 10 is realistic unless they pull off some big wins in the BC, Penn or Denver games.

Agree Penn is Top 10.

[Bystanders]

Yup agreed. You can only win the games on your schedule and with longstanding local rivals and real academics, it’s hard to book a full out of conference slate. Getting Denver, BC and Stanford on the schedule was well done.

You’re right - the sophomores did fade a bit last year, but they’re now juniors - likely not enough to beat the Penn seniors, but they seem better than a few in front of them. The defense in particular. Only time will tell.

[flushlax77]

I think the Ivy League will get 3, I don't think they will get 4. Strength of schedule for the Harvard, Brown, and Cornell crew is not great. Dartmouth is in a hole in regards to the Ivy Tournament with losses to Cornell and Penn already. Cornell has to beat Harvard in order to get in since Brown already lost to them. Harvard losing to the bottom of the ACC (vs Duke) is a huge hit if they are the 4 seed in the Ivy Tournament. I think that hurts them a ton.

As pointed out in another thread, The Penn State win for Princeton took a big hit last night. Penn State is in the danger zone of not being tournament eligible at 6-5 with Vandy (Win), Maryland, Hopkins, Michigan (Losses). That is going to hurt come tournament selection. The good news for Princeton is that they have loyola and Maryland to get big wins over. They get one of those OR beat Penn, and they are in.

[laxlaxlax]

The Ivy League is interesting after today’s games.

Yale 3-0
Harvard 3-1
Princeton 3-1
Penn 2-1

Brown 2-2
Cornell 2-2

Tomorrow’s Yale v Penn game is a big one. I’m sure Penn will come out angry after their loss to Princeton midweek and the bulldogs will be aiming to take a clear lead in the conference standings. If Penn win, we have the top four all at 3-1 and would make the next three weeks fun to follow.

Meanwhile Dartmouth are having a tough time, currently with the same conference record as Columbia at 0-4 after losing to Brown today. They have games against Penn and Princeton still to play. They could potentially end the year 1-6… I think last year they lost players to some injuries but anyone know what the deal is with the big green this year?

[watcherinthewoods]

I am perplexed about Dartmouth this year ... they did not lose a single starter from last year's line-up that was trending in the right direction to close out 2023 (beat Princeton to close out the season), but they have a whole host of new faces on the field this season. They are uncharacteristically (for McFadden) not game ready and lack discipline all over the field. I have turned off games out of frustration because "they just do stupid stuff."

The defense has been inconsistent at best, and the personnel has been a revolving door from game to game and not due to injury. The attack is full of rookies who show promise but do freshman stuff.

The younger kids (freshman and sophomores) are the first classes of "McFadden" recruits, so I am hoping the plan is to build the future. Hard to watch this team RN

[flushlax77]

Ivy League

Yale- At 5-0, they are all but assured that they will host the ILT as long as they beat one of Cornell/Columbia. They own head to head vs Princeton.

Princeton-Sitting at 4-1 and coming off a big victory vs Brown. Can afford to drop a game to Dartmouth and get the 2 seed. Game vs Harvard to round out the regular season has implications.

Penn- The darling of the early season has hit a bit of rut lately. They get a wounded Brown team coming up to try to get things back on track IF they beat brown, they are at least assured a spot in the tournament. If they lose to Brown, they gotta rely on Cornell to help them out or risk being left out on tiebreakers

Harvard- Yale exposed their high flying offense last weekend. Nice get right game vs Columbia and a date with Princeton to muck up the seeding at the end of the year.

Brown- Great first season for Dowd and her staff. They have an outside shot at the tournament…consider the following:

Brown beats Penn and Cornell
Penn loses to Brown and beats Dartmouth
Harvard beats Columbia and loses to Princeton

All teams would be 4-3. Brown beat Penn, Penn beat Harvard, Harvard beat brown. One of those teams are not going to the conference tournament.

Cornell- At 2-3, they have Yale and Brown left. If they win both, they are 4-3. Harvard and Penn both have the tie breaker on them. They are pretty much eliminated from consideration for the ILT but can play spoiler for Yales perfect regular season or Browns hopes of going to the tournament.

Dartmouth- My dark horse to win the league proves how little I know about lacrosse. The talent is there, but they haven’t been able to put up a fight in their ivy games. I just don’t understand why they aren’t a little better in Ivy games. At least they exposed the weakness of the PAC-12 with their resounding win on the road.

Columbia- Beat Villanova this year!

[Bystanders]

Great summary. Thanks for this.

And with the win Penn should have earned their automatic bid, joining Yale in the NCAAs. Princeton with their chance in a couple hours, but less likely.

Harvard and Brown’s RPIs will tick up as Yale and Penn climb a bit in the rankings but they’ll likely miss the NCAAs due to weak OOC scheduling. Understandable by Brown’s new coach. Likely rectified next year by both if they finish top 25. Remember this league still has Covid “seniors” with another season of eligibility. Many will be good next year as well - Yale has a double junior class for example - 17 juniors.

[laxlaxlax]

The Ivy League tournament schedule is now set for next weekend, hosted in New Haven by #1 seed Yale:

Friday 5/3
#1 Yale v #4 Harvard at 7pm
#2 Princeton v #3 Penn at 4pm

Championship game on Sunday 5/5 at noon.

At this point it looks likely that Yale, Penn and Princeton are all locks for the NCAA tournament but Harvard may need to pull off an upset against Yale next weekend to have any small chance of sneaking in.

*edited as original game times were wrong