With the amount of parity in Ivy League women's soccer the past few years, it would have been nearly impossible to predict the champions coming into this season. As expected, two weeks remain in the Ivy schedule and the title picture remains unclear.
Although Penn and Princeton have the inside track to the title, tied atop the standings at 4-1, five schools in the Ancient Eight have a legitimate shot at grasping the crown. Harvard, Yale and Brown - which handed Penn its first league loss of the season Sunday - all sit at 3-2, only three points behind the leaders.
The race will become much clearer after this weekend, when four out of the five teams in contention will face each other. Princeton will visit Penn in a showdown between the co-leaders, and Brown and Yale will do battle as well.
While the title race will be far from decided after these games, the bottom line is that the winner of the Penn-Princeton game will have a better shot at taking home the title.
On the other hand, the loser of that game, despite being very much in it record-wise, will be all but locked out of contention for the automatic NCAA Tournament bid because the tie-breaker is based on head-to-head results.
Thus, if Penn were to lose Saturday but come back to tie Princeton in the standings the following weekend, the teams would be considered Ivy co-champions, but Princeton would gain the bid because of its victory over Penn.
A draw between the two leaders would complicate things further, as the head-to-head tie breaker would no longer be valid. In the case of a draw, both Penn and Princeton could claim the championship with wins the following weekend, but the NCAA bid would then be based on each team's head-to-head mark against the third place team.
Penn could make its road to the tournament easier with a win over Princeton, but its work would be far from over. If its next opponent, Harvard, wins this weekend over Columbia, the season finale between these two teams would effectively turn into an Ivy League championship game.
Coming into the game three points ahead of the Crimson, the Quakers would only have to gain a draw to clinch the Ivy title. But a Harvard win would give the Crimson the NCAA bid because they would now be in a tie with Penn in the standings, and having already defeated Princeton, Harvard would have head-to-head victories over both.
Despite the many scenarios, Penn and Princeton remain as the only two teams that control their own destinies. The Quakers can avoid relying on other teams losing if they can win their last two games.
The first step though - beating Princeton - is something the Quakers haven't done since 2003.
