Harvard likely will be just fine, but I'm told they have lost super-star incoming frosh C. Chagares for the fall due to an ACL injury suffered a few weeks ago.
Harvard has to be the odds on favorite to win the Ivy League again. Purce is just too good. Penn returns the leagues defensive player of the year and also the leagues best GK. Harvard returns 6 all ivy players. Penn returns 4 all ivy players. Dartmouth and Brown each return 3 all ivy players. Princeton and Yale each return 2 all ivy players. Cornell returns 1 all ivy player. Columbia does not return any all ivy players. Dartmouth and Columbia both have 1st year coaches. Look for Princeton to jump back up the standings. One season after going 7-0 in conference and winning at West Virginia in the 1st round of the NCAA tourny they finished with 1 Ivy League win. That was a fluke.
Penn just beat La Salle at home 1-0 in the 73rd minute. They were wearing warm-ups without jersey numbers so I have no idea who found the back of the net. Penn also traveled to Georgetown earlier in the month. Does anyone have a report from the road? Is Harvard a returning favorite this year? I'd like to see Penn or Princeton in the at large category, but in order to do so it appears they need to earn a draw with Harvard or win even more frequently out of conference. Last year Penn at 12-1-3 and 40 RPI went nowhere in November, a real disappointing choice by the selection committee IMO.
The Ivy League teams looking for an at large bid to the NCAA tourny will need a quality win. 2 years ago Dartmouth missed out with no top rpi wins and this year Penn missed out with the same.
All the Ivy squads need to up their RPIs to be considered for the post season. I agree that Harvard will be tough to beat this fall in the Ivy, but if Penn can find somebody to put the ball in the net they will be tough. Penn's back-line is comprised of almost all rising juniors and IMHO, was the best in the Ivy last fall. I think Princeton will be scoring many goals in the fall. Dartmouth & Brown will be decent and Columbia, Cornell & Yale - none of which have returning great back-lines, will fight it out in the latter side of the league.
Seven of the eight schools have posted their schedules (Cornell is the exception), and I would consider the OOC games very unimpressive for Penn, Yale, and Columbia. Harvard (@BC) and Brown (@UCONN) have one solid OOC game amid many unimpressive opponents. Princeton has 2 stronger opponents at home (Rutgers, and a very interesting game against NC State late in the season). Most difficult OOC schedule has to be Dartmouth with away games at Portland and Washington to open the season.
Cornell's schedule, though not posted yet, will not likely have any real formidable OOC games, since Farmer is still trying to rebuild up in Ithaca. Expect the Cornell OOC games to be in the same mold of Penn, Yale & Columbia. I concur that the OOC games you mention in your post (BC, UConn & Rutgers) are quality from an RPI standpoint.
The Ivies 2014 opening weekend feature 4 road games and 4 home games. I think the following will be the outcomes of those games: Harvard vs. U of San Fransisco - Harvard wins Yale vs. Quinnipiac - Yale wins Columbia vs. Scared Heart - Columbia wins Princeton vs. Rutgers - draw UPenn @ Mount St. Marys - UPenn wins Dartmouth @ Portland - Portland wins Brown @ St. John's - St. Johns wins Cornell @ UMass - UMass wins 4-3-1...What do others think about the Ivy non-conference openers?
Opening games are always tough to predict, especially when the non-Ivy teams can have had significantly more practice time. Nonetheless, other than Princeton/Rutgers, those guesses look good to me. My guess is that Rutgers will beat Princeton, though.
The Ivy League Digital Network (now in its second year) will be having free-access (need to sign-up with an email address) on opening weekend (9/5-7): http://gocrimson.com/General/releases/ILDN_Free_Opening_Weekend
Ivy League just started practices last Friday. It is tough for them to play the big conference teams as they start 2 weeks later and most of the big conference schools are starting conference play earlier. Ivy League teams need to win the conference to make the NCAA tournament so does the non conference schedule matter? Dartmouth is going to Seattle to play UW and Portland. Very tricky 1st games of the year.
Dartmouth perhaps reacting to their not getting an at large position in 2012. Good for them, for recognizing their schedule wasn't sufficient to get an at large selection and making an adjustment, if that's what they did.
The Ivy League is finally starting their regular season. I will take a stab at the results for todays matches Harvard 3 San Francisco 0 Harvard is clearly the team to beat in Ivy League. Midge Purce 3 goals tonight Yale 1 Quinnipiac 0 local rivals, going with that score as QU has had that result the last 3 games Penn 2 Mt St Mary's 0 Penn has best defender in Ivy Columbia 2 Sacred Heart 1 who wants to win more, 2 very aggressive teams Princeton 2 Rutgers 2 this is the shocker of the night, game is at Princeton team is looking to rebound from horrible 2013 season, long time coach JS final season St John's 3 Brown 1 Rachel Daly is just too much to handle UMass 2 Cornell 0 UMass should have enough to handle Cornell but look for Big Red to be much improved Portland 3 Dartmouth 0 should be a rough weekend for the Big Green but at least Seattle is a beautiful place to visit
my picks: Harvard vs. U of San Fransisco - USF 2-1 Yale vs. Quinnipiac - Yale 2-0 Columbia vs. Scared Heart - Columbia 1-0 Princeton vs. Rutgers - Rutgers 2-0 UPenn @ Mount St. Marys - UPenn 3-0 Dartmouth @ Portland - Portland 3-1 Brown @ St. John's - St. Johns 1-0 Cornell @ UMass - Cornell 2-1
Is Harvard not playing Midge Purce?? She will win this game by herself. UMass has not been the same since their asst left for U Washington 2 years ago but if Cornell wins in Amherst it will be a major upset. I think Princeton will be dangerous going forward but suspect in the back, Rutgers will be able to call them out if they have issues in the back. Should be a fun weekend of soccer
Harvard 1 USF 0 Dani Stollar scored for the Crimson 5-3 Harvard for SOG USF almost scored in the last seconds.
Harvard 1 San Fran 0 Yale 2 Quinnipiac 0 Cornell 1 UMass 0 Brown 2 St. John's 1 Penn 1 Mt St Mary's 0 Columbia 0 Sacred Heart 0 Portland 1 Dartmouth 0 Rutgers 5 Princeton 0
Although this is 5-2-1 in results, from an overall perspective it is not good. There really are no outstanding wins. Looking at the teams St. Johns has beaten so far, none is good enough to characterize Brown's win as outstanding or even particularly good. Rutgers has yet to lose, but has not beaten anyone good enough yet to characterize it as a particularly good team (they might be very good, they just haven't shown it yet). The best score may be Dartmouth's against Portland. The problem for the Ivy League -- I'm think about possible multiple teams in the NCAA Tournament and the Dartmouth 2012 non-selection -- is a failure to schedule top quality opponents and achieve some good results against them. It takes both to get an at large selection and there's nothing here that's going to be helpful when the Women's Soccer Committee gets to making its decisions. I do think, however, that Dartmouth deserves a lot of credit for playing in the University of Washington's tournament. That is a step in the right direction, since it gets them playing against quality opponents. True, if they lose both games it won't help them, but to get an at large selection you must be willing to take chances with your non-conference scheduling. I hope no one takes this as anti-Ivy League. I'm just trying to be realistic about the League's chances of getting at large selections. And, good for Cornell. I used to play against their men back in the dark ages (in the bitter cold and sometimes snow) and it hasn't been fun seeing their women's team struggle. If I recall correctly, I played against UMass too.
The Ivy League teams have a few major issues. One is their location, not many top teams in the northeast region. Two is they start 2 weeks after every other team so playing a top 10 team is a waste for them. Slim to no chance of beating a top team that has around 4 games in hand. Another issue is that with these conferences getting so big they start their regular season earlier giving Ivy League schools very few options to play the big dogs. Dartmouth is on trimesters and I don't think they start classes until mid Sept. they don't have to miss classes to travel early in the year. Looks like no easy wins in Ivy League this year.
The only ranked D-1 team in the northeast right now is Penn State (#7). BU, BC & Rutgers are on the "other receiving votes" list. Given the late start of the Ivies coupled with the dearth of ranked teams in the region - I think upgrading scheduling is difficult for the Ivy league. If UConn, Rutgers and BC/BU can make the top 25 rankings at some point then perhaps scheduling upgrades will occur. Although I think I recall that Yale beat Penn State a few years ago, but I'm not sure if PSU was ranked when that match took place. BTW, I think the current Cornell coach, Patrick Farmer, was the original coach that began the Penn State women's program.
A few years back Brown got a few results at the UConn tournament vs Penn State and UCLA if I'm not mistaken. It will always be difficult for non BCS conferences to get at large bids. You will get the WCC with a few. But the inability to get a high rpi and the lack of a quality win in top 30 will always hurt teams from northeast.
Today's scores: Brown beat Delaware 2-1 Cornell beat Marist 1-0 Harvard beat Providence 2-0 Penn beat Old Dominion 3-2 (OT) Columbia lost to Army 2-1 Dartmouth @ U of Washington (tonight) Seton Hall @ Princeton tomorrow Yale vs. Scared Heart (Tuesday)