Last fall, the Ivy League came down to the final day, with four teams in the running for a shot at the regular season title.

And coaches are expecting exactly the same as another year is set to begin in one of the most underrated conferences in the men’s college game.

“The Ivy League is going to be real competitive,” Brown head coach Pat Laughlin told ToPDrawerSoccer.com. “Our history of not having a conference tournament really makes every weekend a massive game.”

At this stage of the season, all teams are alive and raring to make that late season run at a spot in the NCAA tournament.

Brief Conference Bio: Ivy League

2011 League Champions: Dartmouth & Brown
Player of the Year: Lucky Mkosana, Dartmouth
Rookie of the Year: Duke Lacroix, Penn

Teams (Overall/Conference Record)

Brown (12-5-3/4-1-2)

Eight starters left last year’s title-tying team, and it leaves the Bears with plenty of work to do once preseason starts.

However, head coach Pat Laughlin is confident that a spring break trip will create a further starting point for the players who are back in the fold, providing a steady base for the year.

“I think we were fortunate to lay a lot of groundwork in the spring,” he told TopDrawerSoccer.com. “We went to Spain over our spring break and we were able to get five games in…The 18 guys that are returning, we were able to kind of get a little bit ahead of the game by going overseas and having an extended spring season. I think that was really helpful for us.”

That, and the return of two important players who missed almost all of last season, Bobby Belair and Tommy McNamara (the latter offering them creativity in attack), are going to be big in helping the Bears deal with so many departures.

“[They are] both attacking players, their return is going to be critical for us, especially graduating three of the top four scorers,” Laughlin said.

Dartmouth (8-6-4/4-1-2)

The question facing the Big Green, co-champions of a year ago, is quite simple – how do you replace Lucky Mkosana?

The Ivy League Player of the Year and all-time leading scorer at Dartmouth graduated after a senior year where he scored ten goals, and filling his offensive void is most pressing right now heading into the team’s preseason.

The team is hopeful that the attacking trio of Patrick Murray, Andoni Georgiou and Alex Adelabu can combine to help make up for the lack of goals as the team chases another league title. Kevin Dzierzawski stands poised for another strong season as well.

Columbia (8-7-2/4-2-1)

A year after missing out on a shot at the Ivy League by a single point, the Lions bring back some strong attacking talent, including senior forward Will Stamatis and junior midfielder David Najem to make another shot at the top.

However, the team needs more goals in order to do that, bagging just 18 in total across 17 games, a job that will likely fall on the shoulders of Stamatis in order to keep Columbia in contention.

Cornell (8-2-6/3-1-3)

With a number of top players back for 2012, Cornell should remain in the mix for a shot at first place. Patrick Slogic, a junior defender, Rick Pfasterer, a senior goalkeeper, junior midfielder Benjamin Williams and last year’s leading scorer Daniel Haber all picked up All-Ivy selections after last season and return.

Is that going to be enough to jump into contention? Anything short of at least the top three would be disappointing – one of the keys certainly to turn what games ended as ties last year into wins in 2012.

Yale (8-7-2/4-3-0)

Few teams return as many All-Ivy selections as the Bulldogs do, with defender Nick Alers, forward Peter Jacobson and goalkeeper Bobby Thalman back with another year of experience under their belt.

Four seniors who played a significant chunk of last season did depart, however, meaning that some of the more inexperienced players will need to step up if Yale are to put it all together this season.

Penn (8-7-2/3-4-0)

Three of Penn’s best players have graduated in Thomas Brandt, Christian Barreiro and Jake Levin.

Plenty of talent remains on the roster to help the Quakers make up for those losses, with senior Travis Cantrell expected to play an important leadership role. That’s without mentioning the returning Ivy League Rookie of the Year Duke Lacroix, a strong goalkeeper in Max Kurtzman, and versatile players like Jonny Dolezal and Nicky Yin looking to make an impact.

Princeton (5-10-2/1-5-1)

The Tigers couldn’t replicate the success of 2010 a season ago, and know that things need to be much better looking forward to another shot at an Ivy League crown.

“We didn’t do as good a job as we had in the past couple years making it hard for the other team to score and we thought we conceded too many goals against the run of play, or too many softer goals last year,” head coach Jim Barlow told TopDrawerSoccer.com. “That’s a big focus of ours going into the season this year.”

Antoine Hopponot’s graduation forces the need for a consistent, multi-pronged attack as well, as his departure means the team won’t have his spark and creative abilities on the field.

Senior co-captains Matt Sanner and Mark Linnville will be the leaders both on and off the field as Princeton aims to move forward once again.

“We’re excited because we do have a lot of guys back from last year’s team,” Barlow said. “We have some guys who were banged up for a majority of last year who are back to health, we’re excited to see how we can do.”

Harvard (2-12-3/0-6-1)

A lack of scoring options up front was the main cause of the Crimson’s struggles of a year ago, as no players on the roster managed to score two goals as the team itself bagged just 14 tallies in 17 games.

Forwards Oblajulu Agha and Connor McCarthy were among those in the two-goals scored department, and more is obviously needed in the final third. Defender Ross Friedmen brings experience and determination to the back line.