Around the Ivies: Can anyone beat Princeton?

TIER 3 – Still Bottom Dwellers

Last season, Tjerk van Herwaarden guided his Crimson program through some serious growing pains in his first year as head coach. Harvard went 1-6 in Ivy play and 3-13 overall in 2012. Then again, Harvard hasn’t been a contender in Ivy play since John Kerry was the Democratic nominee for president. Crimson standout Noel Painter will need more offensive help this season if Harvard is to distance itself from its last-place finish among Ivies in goals scored in 2012. It’s doubtful the Crimson have sufficient help in that regard.

Brown returns its top 10 scorers from last year, including 10 out of 11 players total who scored at all a season ago. Doesn’t matter. This program doesn’t know how to win. The Bears have won a total of six league games in the last six seasons. When they get their one token Ivy win this season, let’s just hope it isn’t at home against the Quakers on Nov. 2.

No team got gutted by graduation more than Columbia. The Lions lost each of its two first-team and two second-team All-Ivy standouts from a year ago, and that upheaval alone should be enough to knock the Lions down a peg.

TIER 2 – Middle of the Pack

Cornell was flying high at 3-1 in Ivy play last season with a 4-0 shutout of Penn in its pocket when it hit the road to take on perennial Ivy doormat Brown. Then its season went haywire. The Big Red gave Brown its only conference win of the season and dropped their final two conference matchups as well to end the season with a thud. The early promise of 2012 could be fulfilled in 2013, though, with first-team All-Ivy selections Hannah Balleza and Carolyn Horner returning this squad its offensive and defensive anchors respectively.

Yale struggled to muster either a consistent offensive attack or a stout defensive front last season, finishing next-to-last among Ivies in both goals scored and goals allowed. While the Bulldogs lose the defensive presence and offensive contributions of first-team All-Ivy selection Mary Beth Barham, they do return goalkeeper Emily Cain and six of their top seven scorers last year, putting them on the lower fringe of this tier.

Dartmouth’s ensemble effort carried the Big Green to a 6-1 Ivy finish in 2012, made possible by the offensive firepower of Lisa Masini, Ali Savage and Liz Blanken. Masini and Savage return for 2013 in what should be another potent offense.

Penn returns all but one goal-scorer from last season and should be one of Princeton’s biggest conference competitors, even if the national champion Tigers are still in a class of their own. Returning second-team All-Ivy stalwarts Julie Tahan and MaryRose Croddick should bode well for a program which has finally found a home of its own. Now will it finally find a formidable defense?

TIER 1 – National Champions

At the top, there is only Princeton. The Tigers are the defending national champions and enter 2013 as the No. 3 team in the country. While they lose both the Ivy Offensive and Defensive Players of the year from a season ago, they still manage to return seven All-Ivy selections from 2012. It’s that high-caliber continuity that will keep Princeton a cut above this year too.

SEE ALSO

Penn field hockey finally gets its level playing field

Solving the defensive puzzle for Penn field hockey

Tahan returns for one final go-round with Penn field hockey

After two-year layoff, what’s next for Alex Iqbal?

Returning to relevance: the highlights of 2012

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.