Just like last year, the women's lacrosse team finds itself in a position to take the Ivy League title as the season draws to a close.
No. 6 Penn (10-1, 5-0 Ivy), the reigning Ivy champion, is in first place and has only two conference games left: today at No. 2 Princeton (10-0, 4-0) and Saturday at fifth-place Brown (5-6, 2-2).
But unlike last year, in which the third-place team, Yale, had only one loss at this point in season, all Ivy teams that don't start with a 'P' have at least two losses. Thus, the 2008 title chase is a two-horse race.
Simply put, tonight's matchup at Princeton's Class of 1952 field is the de facto Ivy League championship game.
With a win, the Red and Blue would clinch a share of the title. Since the worst they could go is 6-1, and the best Princeton could go is also 6-1, the Quakers would earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament with the head-to-head advantage.
Unlike other Ivy sports, such as basketball, lacrosse uses head-to-head record - not a playoff - as a tiebreaker to determine the league's automatic bid.
If the Tigers win tonight, Penn's chance of winning the league would be slim to none.
The Quakers would have to beat the Bears, and hope that Princeton loses its final two games -Saturday against Dartmouth (5-6, 1-4) and at Brown April 26 - to back its way into winning the crown.
"Whoever wins [tonight] is going to win the title," Penn coach Karin Brower said. "This is a huge game . the automatic bid means a lot."
If Princeton wins the Ancient Eight, Penn's postseason aspirations wouldn't automatically go to the wayside. The Red and Blue have earned some key non-conference wins, beating currently-ranked UNC (11), Yale (13), Johns Hopkins (17) and Cornell (20).
Furthermore, two other teams Penn has beaten, Drexel and UC Berkeley, are in the "others receiving votes" category of the Inside Lacrosse media poll.
And on April 27 the Red and Blue will get a shot at top-ranked and undefeated Northwestern at Franklin Field. A win over the Wildcats (13-0) - no small feat, of course - would definitely clinch a tournament berth as well.
But all along, the Quakers' goal has been to win the league outright; from day one they've been prepared to play the Tigers for the Ivy title.
"We started seriously practicing and working hard for [today's] game from the first day of school," senior goalkeeper Sarah Waxman said.
Tonight, they'll find out if that hard work will pay off.
