While Dartmouth's men's lacrosse team has struggled in the Ivy League thus far, it will be offered the chance to play spoiler to the championship hopes of others. Dartmouth has three league games remaining against first-place Princeton, fifth-place Harvard and seventh-place Brown.
Though Dartmouth has been eliminated from title contention, a victory over Princeton could alter the NCAA Tournament picture, as could a victory over Harvard. Let's take a look at how the Big Green's competition fared this week.
Princeton
The first place Tigers have spent the week resting since a vicious 15-1 thrashing of Harvard on Saturday. Behind Rob Torti's four goals and freshmen sensation Ryan Boyle's two goals and four assists, Princeton remained undefeated in Ivy League play.
The Tigers' next opponent will be Cornell when the Tigers head north to Ithaca in a battle that will decide this year's Ivy League Champion. Princeton has won 35 consecutive Ivy League Games and is the top-ranked school in the nation.
Princeton closes its season out at home against the Big Green on April 28.
Cornell
The Big Red, tied for first in the Ivies with a 4-0 mark, pummeled Dartmouth in the second half on Saturday. Cornell then stuck it to their upstate rival, Hobart College, by an 11-3 score on Tuesday.
The No. 14 Big Red were led by a hat trick from sophomore Michael Egan and a four-point night from senior David Key. Key is only three points away from the 100-point plateau while fellow senior Drew Schardt is only six points away from the century mark.
Next up for the Big Red is a date with No. 1 Princeton on Saturday. Cornell is the last team to beat Princeton in Ivy play, doing so in 1995 immediately following Cornell's last victory over Hobart.
Cornell then closes out its season with an Ivy game at Brown on April 28 and a road trip to Ohio State on May 5.
Penn
The Quakers closed out their Ivy season this weekend in a 7-3 victory over Brown. The win pulled Penn to 3-3 in the league, which they hope will remain good enough for a solid third place.
Sophomore Jake Martin was the Quaker hero in the Brown victory, garnering his first two-goal game of the year with both goals coming in the fourth quarter to break a 3-3 tie.
Penn followed up the narrow victory with a 25-6 thrashing of St. Joseph's as seven Quakers scored multiple goals. The outburst fell one short of the school record of 26 set against Drexel in 1994.
Penn still has three non-league games to play with road games at Syracuse and Villanova before hosting Delaware April 28 to close the season.
Yale
After grabbing a last second win against the Big Green on Wednesday, the Bulldogs pulled themselves into fourth place alone. The Eli's only remaining league game comes at Harvard tomorrow.
A victory against the Crimson would make Yale the third-place team in the league via their victory over Penn in March. Yale closes out its season at home against Maryland on April 28.
Harvard
The Crimson, owners of a 6-5 record overall, 1-3 in the league, were pulverized by Princeton 15-1 on Saturday. The Crimson could not rebound against the nation's No. 4 squad, UMASS on Wednesday, succumbing 11-5 to the Minutemen.
Harvard is incapable of finishing higher than fourth due to its loss to Penn, but will still give fierce competition against Yale tomorrow and against the Big Green on May 5.
Brown
The Bears' loss to Penn on Saturday eliminated them from the Ivy Title picture. The Bears still hope to grab fourth place in the league by virtue of beating Dartmouth tomorrow and trumping the Big Red on April 28.
Brown also has non-league games against local foes Providence and Fairfield and a season-ender against No. 4 UMASS on May 5.
