W. Lax | Bear hunting season

With their twelfth win of the season and at least a share of the Ivy title under their belts, the Quakers' mission is nearly complete.

The No. 3 Penn women's lacrosse team (12-0, 6-0 Ivy) has only one game left to secure the outright league championship and, as an added benefit, prevent rivals Princeton and Dartmouth from grabbing a share of the title.

The Quakers will get that chance tomorrow, as they face Brown (6-6, 2-2 Ivy) in Providence, R.I., to close their Ancient Eight season.

Looking at the Bears' record, the Quakers seem guaranteed the win, especially because the Big Green - which Penn edged, 7-6, last Saturday - crushed the Bears, 16-1, March 28. In addition, with a 10-5 win over the Tigers Wednesday, the Quakers have already clinched the Ivy League's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament in May.

Recent history is also on Penn's side. The situation leading up to the Brown match has been identical in each of the last two years: Penn entered at 6-0 in the Ivy League with a chance to clinch. In both games Penn dominated, winning 12-4 in 2007 and 12-5 in 2008. In fact, Penn last lost to Brown in 2003 and is 21-9 all-time against the Bears.

But even though the game looks like it's in the bag, the Red and Blue do not want to underestimate their competition. And after the Princeton game, the team hopes to tighten up offensively.

"Princeton pressured us out a lot," coach Karin Brower said. "We struggled getting open a little bit. We got back checked a little bit. With the pressure we turned the ball over a bit more than I'd like, but luckily our defense came up with it."

Brower especially wants her team to be more aggressive within the offensive third, where she saw her team miss scoring opportunities against Princeton.

"We're not always going to get those breaks down there - where they throw the ball away or they don't make a great pass and we get the ball," she said.

As the end of Ivy League play approaches, the Quakers are anticipating facing No. 1 Northwestern a week from tomorrow in Evanston, Ill. The Wildcats (14-0) beat the Red and Blue in the NCAA championship game last year.

But the Quakers do not want to get too far ahead of themselves.

With the long anticipated NCAA tournament on the horizon, Brower wants to make sure her team doesn't let the Brown contest become a trap game.

Looking ahead to Northwestern " is always a concern," she said. "We've got to go and do what we need to do on Saturday and it's on grass, which is never easy. We've got to stay focused on what we're doing."

Ultimately, as Brower has stressed to her team, the chance to go undefeated in conference play should be enough of an impetus to play with urgency.

"I said to them, 'We don't want to share this with anyone.'"

Sports Editor Zachary Klitzman contributed reporting to this article.

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