Princeton and Penn Battle for Ivy Positioning Wednesday Night

No. 11 Princeton at No. 12 Penn l Wednesday, April 17 l 6 PM I Franklin Field
TV: ESPNU l ESPN+ l Live Stats

You have to go back a long way to find a year that Princeton or Penn (or both) didn't win the Ivy League women's lacrosse title. How far back? All the way to 2005. Is that far back enough?

When you have two teams who are used to winning championships, then you know that the regular season game between them is going to be big and is going to have a significant impact on the standings. The 2019 Princeton-Penn women's lacrosse game certainly fits both of those.

Princeton and Penn meet on Franklin Field in the 52nd meeting in the series. The winner of this game will have taken a giant step towards a league championship in what is a very crowded field.

There are a ton of scenarios still to play out, but the Princeton-Penn winners knows that no matter what else happens, if that team wins its final two games after this one, it'll be assured of no worse than a share of the Ivy title.

Princeton vs. Penn: Five Storylines

The league race
With less than two weeks remaining in the regular season, there are four teams who are still in contention for a share of the championship or the outright championship. These four teams all have one league loss, and no team is currently unbeaten in the league.

Right now the standings have Cornell and Dartmouth at 4-1 and Princeton and Penn at 3-1. Brown is next at 2-3, and Harvard, Yale and Columbia are all 1-4.

Cornell and Dartmouth still play each other, this Saturday in Hanover, which means that two of the four one-loss teams will definitely have two after their next game. Princeton and Cornell still have to play as well, April 27 in Ithaca, after the Tigers play at Yale this Saturday.

The top four teams will reach the Ivy League tournament at Columbia the first weekend in May. There are nine remaining Ivy League games (Princeton vs. Penn and then four each of the next two weekends), which leaves any number of combinations regarding who will be in New York City and what their seeds will be.

As far as Princeton is concerned, the Tigers would be the No. 1 seed if they win out no matter what else happens – or they could miss the tournament altogether if they lose their last three and Brown wins one or if Princeton and Brown tie at 4-3 and the other three teams are at least 5-2.

Series history
Princeton is playing Penn for the 52nd time, which is the most it has played any opponent. Princeton and Harvard played for the 51st time in the game Saturday, which Princeton won 14-12.

These teams met for the first time on April 13, 1974, in a game Penn won 19-7. Despite going 0-11-3 in the first 14 meetings, the Tigers lead the all-time series 26-22-3.

Princeton and Penn have played in six of the first nine Ivy League tournaments, including in last year's championship game, which Princeton won 13-10. Elizabeth George was the tournament MVP.

Ivy champs
Princeton (14) and Penn (13) have won more Ivy League titles than any other teams.

Penn and Yale shared the first Ivy League championship, back in 1980. Princeton's first didn't come until 1993.

Since the start of the 2006 season, Princeton and Penn have combined to win 17 Ivy League championships and have shared the title four times in the last five years. Princeton won the 2015 title outright, giving the Tigers five straight Ivy League championships.

Polling
Princeton is ranked 11th in this week's IWLCA poll, one spot ahead of No. 12 Penn. That's also one spot behind No. 10 Loyola, whom Princeton defeated 14-10 last Wednesday.

Princeton has four wins over teams in the Top 20, having beaten Stony Brook, Florida and Dartmouth in addition to Loyola.

No. 2 Maryland is the only non-league team that both Princeton and Penn have played, and both have lost to the Terps, Princeton by a 15-7 score and Penn by a 14-9 score.

Pointing
Penn has one player in the top 10 in the Ivy League in points per game, while Princeton has three.

For Princeton, Kyla Sears is third in the league (and 20th in Division I) at 4.50 points per game, Elizabeth George is fifth at 4.42 and Tess D'Orsi is 10th at 3.83. On the other hand, Penn's Gabby Rosenzweig is first in the league (and eighth in Division I) at 5.33, with a league-best 64 total points.

Princeton will be facing a Rosenzweig sister for the second time in a week, after facing Livy Rosenzweig from Loyola last week. Livy, who had two goals and two assists in Princeton's 14-10 win, ranks 15th in Division I in points per game.

Other notes

* Princeton ranks fifth in the country and first in the Ivy League in team shooting percentage at .496.

* Penn's Mikail Cheeseman and Sam Fish rank 1-2 in the Ivy League in goals-against average.

* Kyla Sears has had at least one goal in every game of her career. She enters the Penn game with 96 career goals.

* Julia Haney has 23 points this year (10G, 13A) after having 24 points for her first three years combined.

* Elizabeth George broke the Princeton career record for draw controls in the win over Harvard. George now has 154 for her career.

* Princeton starts three sophomores on defense. Mary Murphy has started every game of her career, while Olivia Pugh has started all but one and Marge Donovan has started all but two. Donovan leads the team in ground balls (32) and caused turnovers (22).

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