Tigers Play for Sixth Straight Ivy League Title on Saturday

Saturday, April 27

Ithaca, N.Y.

3:00 PM

Princeton University

Cornell

Photo by: Patrick Tewey

Tigers Play for Sixth Straight Ivy League Title on Saturday

April 25, 2019 | Women's Lacrosse

No. 10 Princeton at Cornell l Saturday, April 27 l 3 PM I Ithaca, N.Y.
ESPN+ l Live Stats

The Princeton women's lacrosse team knows that it'll be playing at the Ivy League tournament next weekend no matter what happens when it plays at Cornell to end the regular season.

For that matter, Princeton can be reasonably sure that with the resume it's built, its season will be extended into the NCAA tournament once again.

Still, there is a ton on the line as the Tigers and Big Red play at Schoellkopf Field. Both teams are thinking about an Ivy League championship, and for Princeton, there's still the possibility of a top eight NCAA seed and home field for the first two rounds of that tournament.

Princeton at Cornell: Five storylines

Who will be the champion(s)
Princeton and Dartmouth enter the final weekend of the regular season at 5-1 in the Ivy League, a game ahead of Cornell and Penn. Dartmouth is home against Yale, whom Princeton defeated 19-4 a week ago in New Haven.

Cornell and Penn are both a game back, at 4-2. The Quakers are playing at Harvard.

Depending on the outcomes of those three games, there could be anything from an outright champion to a four-way tie for the title.

Should Princeton win, it would be assured of no worse than a share of the Ivy League title. Should Dartmouth win, it knows the same. Should they both win, they'd be Ivy co-champs; should one win and one lose, the one who wins would be the outright champ.

On the other hand, if Princeton and Dartmouth both lose, they would still share the championship. In this case, because Cornell would have beaten Princeton, the Big Red would also get a share, making it three champs. Penn would be the fourth should it defeat Harvard.

Penn could only get a share of the championship in a four-way tie. There has never been a four-way tie in Ivy women's lacrosse, though it has happened on the men's side.

What does the Ivy League tournament look like
Princeton, Cornell, Dartmouth and Penn have clinched the four spots in the Ivy League tournament, to be held next Friday and Sunday at Columbia. What will the seeds and therefore matchups be?

Well, if Princeton defeats Cornell, it's assured of the No. 1 seed, since it would either be the outright champion or tied with Dartmouth, whom the Tigers have already defeated. Should Princeton and Dartmouth both win, they'd be seeded first and second. Should Penn defeat Harvard, it would be the third seed (since it has defeated Cornell), with whom it would be tied in this scenario.

Should there be a four-way tie at 5-2, then Princeton would still be the No. 1 seed, since the Tigers and Dartmouth would be 2-1 against Penn and Cornell and Princeton's head-to-head win would again break that tie. Penn would again be the three and Cornell would again be the four, since the Quakers have beaten the Big Red.

In the event of a three-way tie with Princeton, Cornell and Dartmouth, Princeton would again be the No. 1 seed. The teams would be 1-1 against each other, and Princeton and Dartmouth both have wins over the next highest team, Penn. This would make them the top two, and Princeton's head-to-head win would again break the tie.

If Dartmouth wins and Princeton loses, it would be the three seed if Harvard defeated Penn (tied for second with Cornell, but head-to-head would favor the Big Red) and the second seed if Penn defeats Harvard (tied for second with Penn and Cornell but breaking the tie with its win over Dartmouth).

And there you have it.

Series history
Princeton and Cornell first met on April 18, 1980, in a game Princeton won 12-4. The Tigers and Big Red have met at least once every year since.

Princeton leads the all-time series with the Big Red 39-5 and have won four straight, including three in the 2017 season, when the Tigers won in the regular-season, Ivy League tournament and NCAA tournament.

Princeton won last year's meeting on Sherrerd Field 15-10 behind four goals and an assist from Kyla Sears.

The resume
The NCAA women's lacrosse committee released what the tournament seedings would possibly look like if the selections were made prior to this week's games. Princeton was the No. 7 seed in that list.

Princeton is ranked 10^th in the IWLCA poll this week. The 11-3 Tigers have losses to No. 2 Maryland and No. 7 Virginia and wins over No. 11 Loyola, No. 12 Penn, No. 16 Stony Brook, No. 18 Florida and No. 19 Dartmouth.

40 goal club
Princeton has three players with at least 40 goals. Tess D'Orsi leads the team with 45, followed by Elizabeth George with 43 and Kyla Sears with 40. All three of them have passed the 100-goal mark for their careers this season, mostly recently Sears, who did it last week at Yale.

Princeton had three 40-goal scorers a year ago as well. In fact, it was the same three, D'Orsi, George and Sears.

In the 10 years prior to that, Princeton did not have three 40-goal scorers and had two 40-goal scorers only twice.

Other notes

* Princeton ranks fourth in Division I and first in the Ivy League in team shooting percentage, at .501. The Tigers trail only Northwestern, Boston College and Coastal Carolina.

* Princeton has won 51.8 percent of its draws; Cornell has won 51.4.

* Sam Fish leads the Ivy League in save percentage, saves and saves per game. Cornell's Katie McGahan ranks second in the Ivy League in all three but also leads the league in goals-against average.

* Marge Donovan continues to lead the team in caused turnovers (22) and ground balls (33).

* Princeton averaged 23.5 turnovers in its first two games of the year. Since then, Princeton has averaged 13.9 per game since.

* Princeton has 10 players who have started every game of the season: Kyla Sears, Elizabeth George, Tess D'Orsi, Kathryn Hallett, Nonie Andersen, Olivia Pugh, Marge Donovan, Mary Murphy, Alex Argo and Sam Fish. Five other players have started at least one game.