The race for the Ivy League championship just got shorter for the Harvard women's basketball team. But for defending champion Dartmouth, the finish line is looking less and less hospitable by the minute.

A pair of impressive home victories against Penn (101-64) and Princeton (64-50) last weekend has given league-leading Harvard (17-6, 10-1 Ivy) a comfortable three-game edge going into the final three contests of the season. A single win this coming week will guarantee the Crimson sole possession of the Ivy League crown, and a first-ever berth into the NCAA tournament.

Occupying the flip side of that coin is second-place Dartmouth (15-8, 7-4), whose run for a repeat came to a screeching halt last weekend in upset losses to the Quakers and the Tigers.

Now the best the Big Green can hope for is to tie the Crimson for first place, while Harvard is looking to put the season--and all question of which team is the best in the Ivies--to rest, with an undisputed championship.

Harvard has already left little doubt in most minds that it is tops in the league. The Crimson's charge last weekend was led by sophomore forward Allison Feaster, who scored 27 points--21 against the Tigers--and grabbed 18 rebounds in the two contests.

Feaster scored 10 of Harvard's first 12 points against Princeton, establishing the tone of the game from the opening tipoff. Her performance was complemented by a strong showing from junior point guard Jessica Gelman, whose brilliant passing against the Tigers gave Feaster the chances she needed to score.

Gelman finished with a game-high 11 assists.

For Dartmouth, things last weekend were not so rosy.

As a result of its two losses, the Big Green is extremely vulnerable to third-place Cornell (12-12, 7-5), which swept the weekend with a pair of wins, breezing past Yale (74-54) and taking a low-scoring defensive game against Brown (45-40).

The Big Red was led by senior guard Mary LaMacchia, who scored 35 points, nabbed 11 rebounds and dished out 11 assists over the two games. The dominating performance earned her Ivy League Player of the Week honors for the third time this year.

Elsewhere in the league, Yale (12-12, 7-5) fell into a tie for third with Cornell after splitting a pair of lopsided games. The Elis managed to knock off struggling Columbia (61-48), but lost the more important contest to Cornell.

Yale's freshman sensation, center Katy Grubbs, earned Rookie of the Week honors for the fifth time this season, knocking down 25 points and 11 rebounds in the Elis' two games.

Rounding out a three-way tie for third in the league, Brown (10-14, 7-5) also lost ground to Cornell last weekend, blowing past hopeless Columbia (68-55), but falling to the Big Red in Ithaca.

Brown was spearheaded by sophomore forward Liz Turner, who turned in a solid performance with 25 points, nine rebounds, and five assists in the two games.

In other action, disappointing Princeton (16-9, 6-5), regained a measure of pride by upsetting Dartmouth. But the Tigers were swept aside by the Crimson, who won easily despite shooting just 38.5 percent from the floor.

Perhaps the most stunning development of the weekend came when hapless Penn (1-22, 1-10) picked up its first win of the season against Dartmouth, behind a masterful showing from junior forward Deana Lewis.

But Lewis' 27 points over the Quakers' two games were not enough to rescue her team from being crushed by Harvard, whose 101 points in the contest were a season-high for the Crimson.

The win at Dartmouth catapulted Penn out of last place. That distinction fell to Columbia (1-11, 2-22), which lost both its games last weekend against Yale and Cornell.

The Lions were led in defeat by junior guard Courtney Allhouse, who scored 28 points over the two-game span.