Princeton University Athletics
Your Guide To The Ivy League Men's Lacrosse Tournament
April 23, 2011 | Men's Lacrosse
There are three Ivy League men's lacrosse games remaining to be played, and the outcomes of those three games will determine the field for the second Ivy tournament.
Unlike a year ago, when those same three matchups produced three one-goal games that finally set the pairings and site, there is a great deal more known about this year's tournament prior to the last weekend of the regular-season.
For starters, Cornell will be the host, for the second straight year. Also, three of the four spots have already been decided.
A year ago, all four teams in the field were 4-2. This year, one team will be at least 3-3 or possibly even 2-4
Let's start with what is certain.
Cornell is the top seed and the outright Ivy League champion. Penn will be the second seed. Yale will also be in the field.
The rest depends on what happens after Princeton plays at Cornell, Yale plays at Harvard and Brown plays at Dartmouth.
Cornell is 5-0 in the league. Penn, who plays Virginia next weekend in Charlottesville, has finished its Ivy League schedule at 4-2. Yale is 3-2 in the league, and Penn would win a tiebreaker with Yale because the Quakers defeated the Bulldogs 10-9 in three overtimes back on April 1.
Harvard and Princeton are 2-3; Brown and Dartmouth are 1-4.
Yale can finish third or fourth but no lower. Why? Should Yale beat Harvard, it would have the scenario mentioned above, where it would tie Penn at 4-2 and lose the tiebreaker, which would decide only which team would wear white jerseys for the semifinal.
Should Harvard beat Yale, then both would finish 3-3 and in a two-way tie, the third seed would go to Harvard based on head-to-head. If Princeton were to also beat Cornell, then all three would be 3-3, and the tiebeakers would again come into play.
The first is head-to-head among all three. In this case, Harvard would be the No. 3 seed, by virtue of its win over Princeton and presumed win over Yale for this scenario, which would leave the Crimson at 2-0 against the other two. Yale's win over Princeton would then give the Bulldogs the fourth seed and knock out the Tigers.
In other words, a Harvard win over Yale eliminates Princeton and Dartmouth.On the other hand, a Yale win over Harvard and a Princeton win over Cornell gives the Tigers the fourth seed, since they would be the only 3-3 team.
And what if Harvard and Princeton both lose? For starters, it guarantees a 2-4 team will be in the tournament field, and which team that would be would depend on the winner of Brown-Dartmouth.
Should Brown win that game and force a three-way tie at 2-4, then the Crimson would get the fourth spot, since again they would be 2-0 against the other two, as they have already beaten Brown and Princeton.
Should Dartmouth win that game and force a three-way tie at 2-4, then it gets murkier.
In that case, Dartmouth, Harvard and Princeton are already all 1-1 against each other. The next tiebreaker is how each team did against the teams in from the top of the standings down, but all three would have lost to Cornell, Yale and Penn and beaten Brown, so the tie could not be broken.
As a result, it would be settled by a random draw.
Team-by-team:
Cornell - No. 1 seed and host
Penn - No. 2 seed
Yale - In the tournament; could be third or fourth seed
Harvard - In the tournament with a win.
Princeton - In the tournament with a win and Harvard loss OR a loss, a Harvard loss, a Dartmouth win and a win of the random draw; out with a Harvard win or Princeton loss and Brown win
Dartmouth - In with a win, losses by Harvard and Princeton and a win of the random draw
Brown - out