Dartmouth leads pack in league marked by parity

Ivy League women's soccer has been defined this year by a healthy mix of dominance by the usual powers and surprises by teams which are faring differently than they did last season.

Heading into the last weekend of the 2003 campaign, Dartmouth and Princeton have clearly established themselves as the class of the Ancient Eight for the second year in a row, with the Big Green on top and the Tigers in second place.

Dartmouth clinched at least a share of the Ivy League title last weekend with a 2-1 double-overtime win over Harvard in Boston. The Big Green's record now stands at 5-0-1 in the Ivy League and 8-5-2 overall, including shutouts of league foes Brown, Yale and Penn, and a dramatic 3-2 home win against Princeton.

Dartmouth senior co-captain Janet Light connected on the game-winner -- and potentially the Ivy League Championship-winner, if the two teams hold their places in the standings -- with 48 seconds left to go when she headed in a corner kick from fellow co-captain Anne Peick.

The Big Green's leading goal-scorer is senior Fort Washington, Pa., native Lea Kiefer, a graduate of Germantown Academy. She has 10 goals on 35 shots this season and brought many fans to this year's Dartmouth-Penn game at Rhodes Field.

Perhaps the Big Green's most impressive statistic this season, however, is that they have only conceded four goals in Ivy League play.

Quakers assistant coach Chris Kouns, finishing up his first year in Philadelphia, has done his homework on Ancient Eight women's soccer history and admits that the Big Green's success this year is "a little bit of a surprise."

"If you look at the heritage of Dartmouth, certainly they have a nice pedigree," Kouns said. "You have to give a lot of credit to Ben Landis because he's stepped into the situation as a new coach, replacing some great players like Mary McVeigh, and they have done a really great job."

McVeigh joined the Philadelphia Charge of the now-defunct Women's United Soccer Association after graduating last year. She was the second Big Green player to turn professional, following Kristin Luckenbill, who was the goalie for the Carolina Courage.

For Princeton, this season has been business as usual, after finishing 6-1 in the Ivy League last year and placing two players on the All-Ivy first team. This year, the Tigers -- who face Penn on Saturday at Rhodes Field -- are 4-1-1 in the Ancient Eight and 11-1-3 overall, including a 1-1 tie against traditional Pacific 10 powerhouse California in Berkeley, Calif.

Princeton leads the league in goals scored with 13 in league play and 35 on the season, and the Tigers have made their home into a difficult trip for the opposition -- the Tigers finished the year undefeated at Lourie-Love Field, posting a record of 7-0-0.

Junior Esmerelda Negron has done the bulk of the finishing this year for the Tigers. She has 13 goals this season and 27 for her career -- tying the single-season Princeton record and putting her in second place all-time in career goals.

"Princeton is everything you expect," Kouns said. "They are a very good team."

Although Harvard has traditionally been considered one of Ivy League women's soccer's powerhouses, they have not won a title since 1999 and only have one conference win so far this season.

Kouns attributed the Crimson's struggles to an extraordinarily difficult out-of-conference schedule.

They play "arguably the toughest schedule in the Ivy League," he said.

This year, Harvard has played three teams that are ranked in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America's Top 25 poll -- No. 7 Penn State, No. 9 Virginia and No. 16 Auburn, and Dartmouth has also received votes for the poll. Harvard is 0-3-1 against those four teams.

Harvard is a clear example of what may be the biggest theme in the Ivy League this season -- parity. Three teams -- Yale (9-6-1, 2-3-1 Ivy), Penn (8-5-3, 2-3-1) and the Crimson (5-5-5, 1-2-3) -- are currently tied for fourth, with Brown in third place at 3-3 in the Ivy League and 9-4-2 overall.

Additionally, the tie in Dartmouth's 5-0-1 league record came at home to seventh-place Columbia.

This logjam could prove quite beneficial to Penn if some results fall their way.

If the Quakers can beat Princeton Saturday afternoon at Rhodes Field and Brown and Yale tie when they face off Saturday night in New Haven, Conn., Penn would finish tied for third with Brown. Although the Ivy League does not officially use tiebreakers to determine its standings, Penn's 2-1 win over the Bears last weekend in Providence, R.I., would give them reason to claim third place as their own.

"The parity from top to bottom in the league is very much there," Kouns said. "A better judge of the parity is that you look at the overall scores of the games for the entire year."

Another indicator of this season's parity is the fact that there have been five league ties this season, up from four in all of 2002.

There are many reasons to believe that the Ivy League will continue to improve across the board over the next few years as well. In particular Brown's freshman sensation Katherine Moos is making names for herself already and looks to be settling in for extended periods in the spotlight.

Moos has eight goals so far this season, including the Bears' only tally against Penn last weekend. She has three goals in her last six games for the Bears.

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