No. 17 Yale Silences No. 5 Harvard’s Stars, Dominates 15-9

Old Eli’s men dominated No. 5 Harvard in New Haven, Conn., on Saturday, 15-9, in the 107th meeting between the two bitter rivals.

No. 17 Yale shut down Midseason All-American Logan Ip, team-goals leader Teddy Malone, and Tewaaraton Award Watchlist member Jack Speidell, who were held to a cumulative two points despite entering the game as the Crimson’s offensive leaders.

The loss dealt Harvard (9-2, 3-1 Ivy) its first conference defeat of the season, and allowed the Bulldogs (6-4, 3-2) to notch a third straight league win. After a tumultuous start to its season, Yale rocketed into the polls by upsetting No. 7 Cornell 13-12 in Ithaca, N.Y., and demolishing Dartmouth 18-7 in its last two games.

A silver lining in the afternoon came in the form of good news from New Jersey. Following Penn’s earlier-in-the-day defeat to Princeton, the Crimson clinched its fifth-ever Ivy League Tournament berth, which debuted in 2010.

The tournament-clinching result was a mere blip in an otherwise immensely disappointing afternoon for Harvard lacrosse.

“I think the theme over the last month is we have to start the game with an energy and ferocity that meets our opponent,” said head coach Gerry Byrne. “We’ve been higher ranked than a lot of the teams that we played. We didn’t bring a hunter mentality to these games. It’s always easier to be the hunter rather than the hunted.”

After quickly falling behind 1-0, Yale trailed for just 59 seconds. The hosts responded by scoring four unanswered goals in the first period, and never letting the Crimson back within one.

“We just never got into a flow offensively,” said Byrne. “Part of that was what they were doing to us defensively. They were doing some things relative to our top players that kind of got us out of our rhythm. And then once we were out of our rhythm, we settled on some shots and feeds that they gobbled up.”

Despite being ranked in the bottom 15 in the country on man-down defence entering the game, the Bulldogs were dominant on the penalty kill, holding Harvard to just two goals on six opportunities.

The Crimson—which entered the game with a country-leading .355 shooting percentage — shot just .250 percent and turned the ball over 12 times. Yale, meanwhile, dominated the groundball battle, 32-21.

Harvard’s .400 faceoff percentage entering the game was the ninth worst in the country as it found itself down to its third-string faceoff man due to injuries. The Crimson won 10 of its 28 faceoffs (.357) against a Yale team that is also ranked in the nation’s bottom-20 in faceoff percentage.

Harvard entered the game coming off a narrow 12-10 victory over Brown, which has struggled against tough competition all season. The win over the Bears came after the Crimson was downed by No. 1 North Carolina, 17-7, for its first loss of the season.

Senior midfielder John Aurandt IV, named a Third-Team Midseason All-American, opened up the scoring by dodging past his defender on the left side, taking advantage of a late slide for an easy strike to put the Crimson ahead early.

The 1-0 lead would be Harvard’s last.

A deep laser from Yale’s sophomore midfielder Luke Pascal rapidly evened the score, and senior midfielder William Sheehan tallied another to give the Bulldogs the advantage.

The Bulldogs struck twice more to make it 4-1 late in the first quarter.

Senior midfielder Andrew Perry let loose a sidearm cannon to give Harvard a much-needed goal, but Pascal scored again on a bouncer, putting the home team up 5-2 at the end of the first.

Ten seconds into the second quarter, captain defender Sean Jordan scooped up the faceoff, carried it to the cage, and let one loose for a pole-goal.

The momentum swing was short-lived, as Yale successfully killed off a penalty before stretching its lead back to three on a goal by junior midfielder Cole Cashion.

Sophomore attack Nathan Cobery struck to cut Harvard’s deficit to two. Cobery’s .529 shooting percentage entering the game was the best in the country.

Sheehan scored the fourth goal in the first five minutes of the quarter to make it 7-4 Yale. The Bulldogs notched two more onto the scoreboard to go up by five.

Perry capitalised on a man-up opportunity to stop the bleeding. The senior from Franklin, Mass., leads the league in man-up goals with five.

A botched clear by Harvard gave Yale a wide-open shot, as a terrible half somehow got worse for the Crimson. The visitors trailed 10-5 when the halftime whistle blew.

Ip, Malone, and Speidell each recorded zero points in a first half defined by uncharacteristic play from Harvard. The Crimson did not have a successful ride attempt, struggled to hold on to the ball, and simply could not execute on the offensive end. Defensively, the team looked sluggish, which only worsened as the deficit grew.

The Bulldogs got two more to open the second half to stretch their lead to seven.

Cobery found the back of the net to give Harvard some hope midway through the third, but Yale responded immediately to make it 13-6.

Coborey notched a hat trick, and Malone scored to bring it within five heading into the fourth quarter.

Two more goals by the Bulldogs put the game all but out of reach on a day when it felt like nothing went right for the Crimson.

Aurandt scored a consolation goal, but Yale was able to walk away with the 15-9 upset, its sixth win over Harvard in the past seven seasons. The Crimson has not won a game in New Haven since 2014.

“They competed at a high level,” said Byrne. “They shot better, they defended better. They pretty much excelled at every facet of the game.”

The loss snapped Harvard’s undefeated streak in conference play. The Crimson notably has never gone undefeated in the notoriously competitive Ivy League, which officially began in 1957.

The loss adds a blow to Harvard’s campaign to make the NCAA Tournament, which is currently punctuated by a victory over then-No. 1 Syracuse. The Crimson has not won a game by more than three goals since March 7, struggling against inferior opponents and getting blown out now for a second time.

Harvard concludes its regular season with arguably its toughest matchups yet, beginning with hosting No. 3 Princeton in Cambridge, Mass., on April 18 at 1 p.m. EDT. The following Saturday, the Crimson will travel to Ithaca to take on No. 7 Cornell, the defending national champions.

Should Harvard prevail in both games, it will secure the Ivy League regular season title for only the fifth time in school history and the first time since 2014.

Princeton (9-2, 3-1) has defeated No. 8 Maryland, No. 6 Syracuse, and No. 1 North Carolina. The Tigers’ only losses of the season have come against the Big Red and No. 11 Penn State.

The victor of the Harvard-Princeton game will take sole possession of the number one seed in Ancient Eight heading into the final week of regular-season games. Ergo, the contest is pivotal in the race for hosting the Ivy League Tournament. The Crimson has not earned hosting rights for the tournament since 2014, while Princeton has not since 2012.

The Tigers have won four straight against Harvard in a series that dates back to 1881, when the Crimson defeated Princeton, 3-0, to cap off its undefeated season.

—Staff writer Maxwell P. Friedman can be reached at [email protected].

—Staff writer Samuel S. Rudavsky can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @samrudavsky.