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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Tennis Teams Enter Final Weekend with Ivy League Title Hopes
April 15, 2009 | Men's Tennis, Women's Tennis
PRINCETON -- Both Princeton tennis teams still have a chance at the Ivy League title as the regular season heads into its final week and the Tigers wrap with Cornell and Columbia.
The teams will each split the weekend between the Lenz Tennis Center (or Jadwin Gym if inclement weather) and road venues at their New York-based Ivy foes. The men will start Friday at Cornell before meeting Columbia at home Sunday, while the women will start at home Friday against Cornell before heading to Manhattan Sunday for the Columbia match. The two Friday matches will start at 2 p.m., while the men's Sunday match will start at 1 p.m. and the women's Sunday match at noon.
Here's how the Ivy League standings shape up:
| Men's Team | W | L | | Women's Team | W | L |
| Columbia | 4 | 1 | Brown | 4 | 1 | |
| Brown | 3 | 1 | Yale | 4 | 1 | |
| Cornell | 3 | 2 | Princeton | 4 | 1 | |
| Princeton | 3 | 2 | Harvard | 3 | 1 | |
| Yale | 2 | 2 | Dartmouth | 2 | 2 | |
| Harvard | 2 | 2 | Cornell | 2 | 3 | |
| Penn | 1 | 4 | Columbia | 0 | 5 | |
| Dartmouth | 0 | 4 | Penn | 0 | 5 |
Mathematically, the men's team doesn't have to win both of its last two matches to win a share of the league title. But even if the Tigers went 2-0 this weekend, Brown would have to lose one of its last three matches, at Harvard Friday, vs. Dartmouth Saturday or at Yale Wednesday, for Princeton to grab a share. Before losing to the Big Red last season, the Princeton men hadn't lost to Cornell on the court since 1949. Sunday against Columbia, Princeton's men will be looking for their first win over the Lions since 2003.
The women's team will win its first Ivy League title since 2000 with two victories this weekend. Princeton hasn't lost to Cornell since 1996 on the women's side and has a three-match winning streak against Columbia. In order to win the Ivy League's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, however, Princeton will need Yale to drop at least one of its last two matches, at home against Dartmouth Friday or at Harvard Sunday. It would also be Princeton's first NCAA bid since 2000.
Thanks to the women's team's ITA ranking, however, Princeton has a chance at an at-large bid. The Tigers have been ranked all season, starting at 61 and rising as high as 39th. Princeton's current position is 46th for the second straight week. Elsewhere in the Ivy, Yale is ranked 44th and Brown 58th. Individually, Lauren McHale is the 120th-ranked singles player of 125 ranked, and Taylor Marable and Hilary Bartlett are the 42nd-ranked doubles team of 90.
Speaking of rankings, the Princeton men used last weekend's sweep of Harvard and Dartmouth to jump back into the ITA's top 75 for the second time this season, checking in at a season-high 71. Among other Ivy teams, Columbia is ranked 56th, Yale is ranked 64th and Brown 73rd.