Despite claims that the Ivy League would be especially strong and deep in 2008-2009, most women’s basketball teams have struggled to start the season, with just Harvard and Princeton sitting above .500.
It is an unexpected pair at the top, as the Crimson was picked to win the Ancient Eight while the Tigers were picked to finish seventh.
They are the only two teams in the league to rank in the top four in scoring offense and defense, and are also the top two teams in terms of turnover margin. While every other Ivy team besides Cornell is averaging more than 20 turnovers per game, both Harvard and Princeton are averaging just 15.
The Crimson, which shared last year’s title with Dartmouth and Cornell, has used a combination of veterans and new blood to start 3-2. In its sole game this past week, Harvard dominated Siena 72-49 as sophomore Emma Markley led the team with 15 points and nine rebounds.
At the beginning of the season, head coach Kathy Delaney-Smith indicated that she had a strong group of freshmen and sophomores that had not been given a chance to shine yet. Five games into the new season, three of her top five scorers—Markley, Brogan Berry, and Claire Wheeler—are sophomores or freshmen.
Markley, who averaged fewer than 10 minutes a game in her first year last season, is second in the Ivy League in scoring with 15.8 points per game and third with 8.2 rebounds. Berry, a freshman, is third on the team in scoring and third in the league in assists.
Meanwhile, leading Berry in scoring and assists is senior Emily Tay, a first-team All-Ivy selection last season. Tay is second on the team in scoring and leads the Ancient Eight in assists with 5.6 per game.
While the Crimson ranks second in the league in scoring and first in field goal percentage, the Tigers have risen to the top by playing strong defense. Princeton is surrendering just 58.2 points per game, five points fewer than the next stingiest team—Columbia. Other than in its game against No. 15 Rutgers, Princeton has yet to allow a team to score more than 63 points.
In the past week, Princeton beat Fairleigh Dickinson before falling to Lehigh by 20. The Tigers are led in scoring by sophomore Addie Micir, while freshman Devona Allgood leads the team in rebounding.
After Harvard and Princeton sit Yale and Cornell, both 3-3 after taking third in preseason tournaments last week.
Next is Columbia, which split its two games last week despite two strong performances from Ivy Player of the Week Judie Lomax. Lomax scored 20 points and grabbed 19 rebounds in the Lions’ 79-69 win over Wagner Tuesday and added 16 points and 13 boards in a 69-59 loss to Drake. Thanks to the starting frontcourt of Lomax, Chelsea Frazier, and Lauren Dwyer, Columbia finds itself first in the Ivy League in rebounding.
Three teams—Dartmouth, Brown, and Penn—combine for a 2-14 record to round out the bottom of the Ivy League. Brown was the third Ivy team competing in a tournament last week, and it recorded its first win of the season against Maine in the Dead River Company Classic before falling to West Virginia in the title game.
The league’s struggles can be credited to offensive struggles with Yale and Harvard as the only teams averaging more than 62 points. No team is shooting above 40 percent and four teams are shooting below 30 percent from three-point range.
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