Ironing out the W. Lax title race (or trying to.)

If the Penn women's lacrosse team wants to win its first outright Ivy League title since 1982, it has to follow a simple plan: win the next two games. Doing so would clinch the league's automatic bid to the team's first NCAA tournament since 1984.

Otherwise, it gets a little dicey.

The No. 3 Quakers (11-1, 5-0 Ivy League) will get their next chance to assert themselves tomorrow at 7 p.m. when they take on No. 15 Princeton (6-4, 2-1) at Franklin Field. Their last Ivy game will be on Saturday at Brown (4-7, 1-2).

A win over the Tigers would give Penn at least a share of the league. Right now the Tigers are in third place, with two fewer wins than No. 12 Yale (11-3, 4-1). Thus a victory over the Tigers would eliminate them from title contention and make Yale the only team that could tie the Quakers for the championship.

In the case of a tie atop the standings, the league would implement a series of tiebreakers. The first tiebreaker is head-to-head, and in that scenario the Quakers would win the league's automatic bid to the Tournament because they beat the Elis 9-3 on March 18.

This all would become irrelevant if Yale loses either of its two remaining games, at Brown tomorrow and hosting Cornell (3-7, 2-3) on Saturday.

Despite the importance of tomorrow's game, Penn coach Karin Brower has downplayed the title implications of the game.

"We're not paying attention to [title scenarios]," she said. "We're focusing on Princeton and beating Princeton and that's it."

At the same time, senior tri-captain Chrissy Muller understands the importance of this game.

"Considering what's on the line, it's probably the most important game I've ever played," she said.

Of course, if the Quakers lost to Princeton, they wouldn't be automatically eliminated from title contention.

If that happens, Penn would need Princeton to lose to No. 18 Dartmouth on Saturday, Columbia on April 27th, or Brown on the 28th to at least share the title with Yale, and thus get the NCAA bid.

However, if Penn loses to Princeton but beats Brown, and the Tigers and Elis win out, there would be a three-way tie for first place.

To decide the automatic bid from this mess, the league would go to the third tiebreaker, which is goal differential. As of now, that scenario would favor Penn, which has a +79 goal differential. Princeton has +47, and Yale sits not far behind at +45.

Even if the Quakers don't win the league, however, it would be a shock if they didn't earn an at-large bid.

And a victory at No. 10 Syracuse on May 6 would add another victory to Penn's already impressive non-conference resume. The Quakers have already beaten current No. 8 Penn State, No. 13 Johns Hopkins and No. 20 Delaware earlier in the season.

But at the end of the day, a win tomorrow over the Tigers would eliminate any and all hypotheticals.

Easier said than done.

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