Ivy Champs - Princeton Wins Outright Title, NCAA Bid

Saturday, November 10

New Haven, Conn.

4:00 PM

Princeton University

10-5-2(5-1-1)

Yale

7-6-3(2-3-2)

Princeton

Yale

Photo by: Patrick Tewey

Ivy Champs - Princeton Wins Outright Title, NCAA Bid

November 10, 2018 | Men's Soccer

Box Score

A run at an Ivy League championship that seemed like it might be over by halftime of the first game made it all the way to the finish line, with the NCAA tournament the next stop.

The Princeton men's soccer team won the 2018 Ivy League championship Saturday afternoon when its last challenger, Columbia, was eliminated before the Tigers ever took the field for their game against Yale. That Princeton lost that game 1-0 hardly mattered at all, as the celebration of an outright championship was the postgame order of business.

"Today demonstrates how hard it is to win our league, and a big thank you to Cornell from Princeton Soccer," said Tigert head coach Jim Barlow. "A few of us saw them score in overtime from the locker room and that set off a big celebration shortly before kickoff. While we lost today to a very good Yale team, we're proud of the resiliency we've shown this year, bouncing back from a 1-3 start, losing our home field and dealing with a ton of injuries. Our guys still found a way to win, and now the best reward is getting to extend the season."

Princeton entered the day with a 5-0-1 record in the league, one-half game ahead of Columbia at 5-1-0, and Columbia then lost 2-1 to Cornell in a game that ended about an hour before the Princeton-Yale game kicked off. With the Columbia loss, the Lions could no longer catch Princeton regardless of the outcome of the game against Yale, and Princeton started that game knowing it was the league champion and that its season would continue next week in the NCAA tournament no matter what.

Columbia's only chance to get to the NCAA tournament was to win its game against Cornell and then have Princeton either lose or tie against Yale. A Columbia tie against Cornell would have kept the Lions in the hunt for a share of the title but not the NCAA bid. Princeton held the head-to-head tiebreaker over Columbia by virtue of its 2-1 win over the Lions back on Oct. 13, so a co-championship would still have given the NCAA bid to the Tigers.

Columbia led 1-0 in the second half before Cornell tied it and then won it overtime.

The Ivy title run didn't get off to a good start as Princeton fell behind 2-0 in its league opener to Dartmouth before rallying for a huge 2-2 tie. Princeton then swept through its next five league games before the Yale game.

The NCAA tournament selections will be announced Monday at 1 on NCAA.com. The opening round game will be Thursday.