Ivy title races fall-ing into place for Penn

With only three weeks left in the fall sports season, a trio of Penn teams have a shot at winning the school’s first Ivy title of the 2009-10 campaign.

One team must win a critical matchup in two weeks. Another is all but assured the title. The last squad must pull off two upsets and then pray for some help in order to capture the Ivy crown. So here’s an Ivy title scenario cheat sheet for Penn fans.

Football Halfway through the Ivy season, Penn controls its own destiny in the football title race for the first time since 2004.

Thanks to their first win over Brown since that year, the Quakers (5-2, 4-0 Ivy) can win the League outright with victories in their remaining games against Princeton (2-5, 1-3) Harvard (5-2, 4-0) and Cornell (2-5, 1-3).

But that’s easier said than done, as the Crimson are neck and neck with Penn in the Ivy race. Both teams are undefeated in the League, and with Brown and Yale tied for third at 2-2 it’s almost guaranteed that the Ivy champion will come from Massachusetts or Pennsylvania.

So the de facto Ivy League title game will be played two weeks from now in Boston when the Quakers try to get just their second win over the Crimson since 2003. And while both teams obviously want to be sole champions, the winner of the Harvard-Penn matchup (assuming both win this upcoming weekend) would clinch at least a share of the Ivy title, even if it were to lose in its respective finale (Cornell at Penn, Harvard at Yale).

Volleyball

In all likelihood Penn is going to win the Ivy title.

After the Quakers defeated Yale Saturday for the second time this season, they have a comfortable two-game lead above the Bulldogs in the Ivy standings.

At 9-0 in conference play, the Quakers just have two more weekends plus the season finale versus Princeton in the Palestra Wednesday Nov. 18 left. These remaining games come against the five teams ranked third through seventh in the Ancient Eight standings, starting with seventh-place Columbia (11-11, 2-7) Friday.

However, if the Quakers were to somehow slip up twice, and the Bulldogs were to win out, then the two would be co-Ivy Champions at 12-2. Because Penn won its regular season matchups against Yale, the Quakers would have home-court advantage in the one-game playoff that would determine the automatic NCAA tournament bid.

There have only been two tiebreakers in Ivy history because the League champion was decided by a conference tournament from 1978 to 2000. In 2004 four teams (Cornell, Harvard, Princeton and Yale) all went 10-4, setting up a mini Ivy tournament. And in 2001 Brown and Penn split the regular season series and both finished 11-3, setting up a tiebreaker that Penn won 3-1.

M. Soccer

Although Penn is just 6-6-3 and 2-2-1 in the Ivy League, it is still capable of defending its title. However, it needs help.

Right now the remaining games are against co-fourth place Princeton (7-5-3, 2-2-1) Saturday and at first-place No. 12 Harvard (11-3-1, 3-1-1) Nov. 14. Two wins would give them 13 points and the advantage over the Crimson in a hypothetical tie situation.

But Penn doesn’t control its own destiny because Brown and Dartmouth currently sit in second place at 3-2-0 with nine points. Penn must hope that neither squad wins both this week and next week in the season finale between the two teams. If either goes 2-0 then those six points will squash any chance of a Quakers repeat title.

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