Princeton’s Friday Night in New York: A Share of the Ivy Title to Chase, and Columbia’s Season on the Line
Friday night in New York is a game with two completely different prizes on the table. Princeton have a share of an Ivy League title to chase. Columbia have their season to save. Same game, same 6.00pm ET start (3.00am PKT on Saturday), very different stakes.
Princeton are 11-4 overall and 5-1 in the Ivy League, ranked No. 8, and they are already locked into the No. 2 seed for next weekend’s Ivy League tournament. A win over Columbia, coupled with a Yale win over Harvard on Saturday, would give the Tigers a share of the Ivy title. Harvard have already clinched the outright regular-season championship and the right to host the tournament, winning their second straight regular-season crown with a 4-0 win at Columbia, and they take a twelve-match winning streak, the longest in the country, into Saturday’s game against Yale. Princeton can’t catch Harvard outright. A share is still a share, and it still matters.
Princeton arrive in form. They hammered Brown 7-1 last Friday to clinch the No. 2 seed, their fifth straight win. Harvard beat Princeton in a shootout back on 26 September, which is why the Tigers need Yale to do on Saturday what they could not do themselves. In the tournament semi-finals next weekend, Princeton will play either Cornell or Yale.
Columbia’s side of the equation is simpler and harsher. The Lions are 9-5 and 3-3 in the league. A win over Princeton, plus a Penn win over Cornell on Saturday, gets Columbia into the Ivy League tournament. Lose, and the maths almost certainly closes on them. They beat Rider 6-1 on Sunday on Senior Day, with two goals from Mckenzie Bloom, so the attack is in working order. But the history here is brutal. Columbia are chasing only their second win ever against Princeton, and their first since 2014. Princeton have won everything else in this series.
Should Columbia make the tournament, the only team they could play in the semi-finals would be Harvard. That is the reward for getting in through the back door. First, though, they have to beat a Princeton side that has won five straight and has a title share to play for. For our money, Princeton win this one. Columbia’s season has been a good one, but Friday night against this Princeton team is a very hard place to keep it alive.
The game is at the Baker Athletics Complex in New York, live on ESPN+. Harvard against Yale follows on Saturday, Halloween, in Cambridge, and the Ivy League tournament is next weekend at Harvard.
Related:
