The race for the Ivy League men's lacrosse title is set to heat up as two of the league's top teams will to do battle at 1 p.m. today on Ohiri field.

The Harvard Crimson (4-1, 1-0 Ivy) have their work cut out for them as Princeton, the No. 2 team in the nation, brings its high-powered offense to town.

Although the season is early, the Tigers (6-1, 3-0) have asserted themselves as the clear favorite for the league title. They have dominated their Ivy foes, outscoring Brown, Yale and Penn by a combined margin of 36 goals.

"Offensively, they are the best team in the country," Harvard coach Scott Anderson said. "They are just a really strong team all around."

"Their attack is awesome," senior co-captain Mike Eckert said, echoing Anderson's sentiments. "It is important for us to control the ball and keep it out of hands."

The key against the Tiger's high-powered offense is to play strong team defense and not let them get many possessions. In order to achieve this, Harvard must secure ground balls, win faceoffs and not throw the ball away.

"You know that they are going to score," Anderson added. "This is not going to be a 6-5 game, so when we get the ball, we need to capitalize."

This wide-open style of play should be in sharp contrast to the deliberate, patient style of the Harvard-Notre Dame game last weekend.

"They are patient in a much more aggressive way," Anderson added. "They go at you, go at you, go at you."

But Harvard looks as if they might be ready. The 12th-ranked team has been playing excellent team defense since the Duke game and junior Rob Lyng has been spectacular in goal. With 36 saves in Harvard's last two contests, Lyng earned himself a spot on last week's Ivy Honor Roll.

Offensively, Harvard must keep pace with Princeton's attack and must also get solid offensive contributions from senior midfielders Pat Marvin and Chris Wojcik. However, the Crimson do not want to be overly aggressive on offense.

"[The Tigers] are an open, free-wheeling team," Eckert added. "We don't want to get into a shoot out with them because they are so deep, they have so many strong players."

Depth could be the deciding factor. Princeton constantly makes substitutions, while Harvard does rarely.

This is further exacerbated by recent Crimson injuries. Senior Pat McCollough, the team's main man for face-offs is probably out for the season with a separated shoulder while sophomore Charlie Brown is out indefinitely with a bad back.

However, the Crimson will probably have co-captain Tim Browne back for today's action. NCAA POLL 1. Maryland (8)  7-1  217 2. PRINCETON (3)  6-1  211 3. Virginia  6-2  193 4. Johns Hopkins  4-2  187 5. UNC  7-3  176 6. Syracuse  6-2  170 7. Notre Dame  6-1  138 8. Brown  4-4  131 9. Loyola  3-4  120 10. Penn State  8-1  112 11. Hofstra  5-2  105 12. HARVARD  4-1  96 13. Duke  5-4  86 14. Bucknell  7-0  82 15. Townson St.  3-3  68 16. UMass.  4-3  60 17. Georgetown  5-3  54 18. Army  4-3  49 19. Dartmouth  3-1  23 20. Yale  3-4  14

Through games of April 8. First-place votes are in parentheses, followed by team record and total points.