It's Same Old, Same Old in Ivy Men's Lax

For those looking for something a bit out of the ordinary, stay away from the ivy League men's lacrosse standings.

It is well known in the Northeast that Brown and Princeton are the teams to beat. The Bears are the defending ivy champs, while the Tigers still wear the NCAA crown. Coming into the 1995 season, the other league teams tried to devise plans to jump to the top of the hill.

Well, they're still trying. The two Goliaths are a combined 7-1 in conference play, with the one loss coming from Princeton's 8-6 victory over Brown. And in this past week, they have solidified their place in the upper echelon of the Ancient Eight, with each of them fending off up-and-coming Harvard.

Brown (5-4 overall, 3-1 Ivy) currently No. 9 in the nation, started things off with a 13-5 drubbing of No. 18 Harvard (4-4, 2-2) on Wednesday. Then the No. 5 Tigers (7-2, 4-0) finished things off with a 11-6 win over the Crimson.

For their efforts over the Cantabrigians, Brown attackman Josh Selig and Princeton defender Todd Higgins were named the Ivy League Co-players of the Week. Selig scored four goals against Harvard and added three in the Bears' 22-13 romp over Penn (4-7, 0-6). Higgins, on the other hand, held Harvard junior attackman Mike Eckert--the league's second-leading scorer--to no points for the first time all season.

Those games will could turn out to be the toughest ones the season for Brown and Princeton. The only other Ivy team in the Top 20 is Dartmouth (6-1, 1-1) at No. 19, who dropped from No. 17 after losing to Cornell (5-4, 2-2) by a 17-12 margin. Big Red attacker Matt Wise (three goals, one assist against Dartmouth) was awarded Ivy League Rookie of the Week for his play.

Yesterday, Cornell topped No. 13 Hobart by a 14-7 margin, which is their second in a row over a ranked opponent. The big Red's league losses have been to Harvard (14-11) and Yale (12-10).

The other member of the pack of Ivy teams who have won half their league games is Yale (5-5, 2-2). Last week, the Elis played a couple of nonconference games, beating B.C. (12-11 in O.T.) and losing to Army (12-5).

At the bottom of the conference standings is, of course, Penn, who hasn't won since the month of March (a 19-6 win over Lafayette). Don't expect the Quakers to get an at-large did to the NCAA Tourney.

In upcoming action, Harvard takes on No. 14 UMass today at Ohiri Field at 3 p.m. So far, the Crimson are 0-4 against Top 20 teams. On Saturday, Harvard plays host to Yale.

Dartmouth and Yale both get chances to end their one-game losing streaks today, and Brown rounds up the Ivy action against UNH.

Later on, Cornell will do battle with Princeton and Brown on this coming Saturday and Wednesday respectively.