The Ivy League went into the final weekend of the season with its top five teams all tied atop the league standings at 3-2. So, of course, the teams stretched things to the max with the final game going to overtime before Yale topped archrival Harvard 17-16.
Once the dust settled, the top four seeds for the Ivy League tournament are Brown (1), Cornell (2), Yale (3) and Penn (4) with the top three sharing the Ivy League regular season title.
Meanwhile, Princeton, the top-ranked team in the league in the Nike/USA Lacrosse rankings, is left out of the Ivy tournament, but very much expected to earn an NCAA tournament berth.
Elsewhere, Johns Hopkins and Ohio State advanced in the Big Ten Tournament, the first men’s tournament to get underway. Here’s a look at Saturday’s results.
Yale Wins Overtime Thriller Against Harvard
What’s better than beating your archrival in overtime? Clinching a share of league championship with the victory. That’s what Yale did in a 17-16 overtime win against Harvard.
Harvard, which made tremendous strides under Gerry Byrne this year coming out of two years of COVID shutdowns, looked like they might overcome another obstacle. Starting goalie Kyle Mullin was injured in the third quarter chasing a loose ball behind the cage. Moments after he left the game, Yale’s Leo Johnson scored an extra man goal to go up 11-9.
But the Crimson weren’t ready to wave the white flag. Instead, Harvard’s offense got hot and the Crimson went on a 5-1 run to take a 14-12 lead early in the fourth quarter.
Yale battled back and tied the game 15-15 before Harvard freshman Joe Dowling gave the Crimson its final lead — 16-15 with 4:35 to play on a tough drive to the goal. At the other end of the field, another freshman, Yale’s Johnson scored coming from behind the goal to the alley to knot the score with 1:56 left.
Yale, which dominated faceoffs down the stretch, won the faceoff to start overtime, but turned it over without getting a shot off. Yale goalie Jared Paquette made a save on Harvard’s first possession and then Harvard was whistled for a holding call.
Yale made the penalty hurt as Thomas Bragg buried a laser from the top of the box to deliver the victory to Yale.
Chris Lyons led Yale with five goals, Matt Brandau had four goals and an assist and Bragg had a hat trick. Nicholas Ramsey won 21 off 33 faceoffs.
Dowling and Austin Madronic each scored three times for Harvard. Mullin made 10 saves while allowing 10 goals before leaving with his injury. His replacement, Christian Barnard, made a pair of saves.
Cornell Wins Share of 30th Ivy League Title
Cornell clinched a share of its 30th Ivy League championship and a berth in next week’s Ivy League tournament with an 18-15 victory at No. 5 Princeton on Saturday. Cornell improved to 11-3 overall and 4-2 in the Ivy.
The Big Red scored eight times in the opening quarter and trailed for only 42 seconds in the game, but had to stave off a serious Princeton comeback in the second half.
After Cornell’s Billy Coyle scored a man-up goal just 36 seconds into the second half to give the Big Red its biggest lead of the game, 13-5, the Tigers went on an 8-1 run over the next 13 minutes, pulling to within 14-13 after back-to-back goals by Coulter Mackesy. The second of those goals came with 1:14 left in the third quarter, but Cornell answered on Spencer Wirtheim’s goal with 21 seconds left in the quarter.
Princeton’s Alex Slusher opened the scoring in the fourth quarter to get the Tigers back within one, but Cornell got consecutive goals by John Piatelli and Michael Long just 56 seconds apart midway through the quarter and brought home the victory.
Piatelli had a team-high five goals for Cornell and Long had seven points on three goals and four assists. C.J. Kirst (four goals) and Coyle (three goals) also provided firepower.
Mackesy and Sam English each had five goals and an assist for Princeton (9-4, 3-3).
Ohio State, Johns Hopkins Advance in B1G
No. 8 Ohio State defeated Michigan 16-10 in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament, its second consecutive win over the Wolverines. Ohio State will meet Rutgers in the B1G semifinals on Thursday at Maryland.
Michigan scored four straight goals to close the first half, cutting OSU’s halftime advantage to 7-6, but the Buckeyes opened the second half with four in a row. Jackson Reid scored five goals for Ohio State.
A week after getting blown out by rival Maryland, Johns Hopkins was on the other end of a lopsided score, beating Penn State 16-8 in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament. The Blue Jays will get another shot at Maryland on Thursday when they head to College Park for the semifinals.
Hopkins jumped out to a 7-1 lead and the Nittany Lions never got closer than four goals after that point. Joey Esptein led a balanced attack for the Blue Jays with three goals and Josh Kirson made 14 saves.
Delaware Captures Share of CAA Title
A 14-12 win over Fairfield, coupled with a Towson’s upset loss to Hofstra, gave Delaware a share of the Colonial Athletic Association regular season title and the No. 1 seed for the league tournament. The Blue Hens (9-5, 3-2 CAA) have now won three straight games and shared the league’s regular season title with Massachusetts and Towson.
Delaware held Fairfield scorless for the final 18 minutes of the game and broke a 12-12 tie in the fourth on Mark Bieda’s goal with 10:34 remaining. Mike Robinson’s goal with 2:29 left sealed it. Tye Kurtz had four goals and two assists for the Blue Hens.