2026 Men's Lacrosse

[dbilmes]

What does Harvard losing to Yale mean for our path to hosting the Ivy tourney?

We are tied with Princeton and Harvard for first with identical 3-1 records. Harvard and Princeton play each other next weekend, so one of them will have two losses. Regardless of Harvard's loss today, we still have to win our final two games against them and Dartmouth to clinch the No. 1 seed and the regular season championship. There's probably some scenario where we could lose to Harvard and beat Dartmouth and still clinch the No. 1 seed, but once we have two losses that puts Yale into the picture as well, and they would own the tiebreaker ahead of us since they beat us.
Princeton, incidentally, trounced Penn, 20-8 today.

[dbilmes]

I was at the Harvard-Yale game today. Yale looked great and Harvard looked terrible.
Yale had a 32-21 edge on ground balls and an 18-10 edge on faceoffs. There were multiple times when Harvard tried to get the ball in front of the crease only to have its attackmen crushed by multiple Yale defenders.
There was one telling sequence early in the second quarter, after Harvard won a faceoff and scored a transition goal to cut Yale's lead to 5-3. There had been a penalty called on Yale on that play, so on the ensuing faceoff Harvard had an extra man out for the faceoff. If Harvard had scored then, it would have cut Yale's lead to 5-4. Instead, Harvard lost the faceoff and Yale ran out the penalty.
There was also a terrible Harvard turnover later in the game when a sloppy pass between two of its defensemen have a Yale player a clean shot on the goalie, which he converted.
Yale's leading scorer, Grogan, didn't score (I'm not even sure he played), but Cole Cashion, who had five goals all season coming into the game, scored five goals against Harvard.

[billhoward]

What David Bilmes said. Also:


2026 Men's Lacrosse Standings as of 4/11, 2 weeks left
School            Conf    CPct.    Overall    Pct.    Streak
Harvard            3-1    .750    9-2    .818    L1
Princeton          3-1    .750    9-2    .818    W4
Cornell            3-1    .750    7-3    .700    W2
Yale               3-2    .600    6-4    .600    W3
Penn               2-3    .400    5-6    .455    L2
Brown              1-3    .250    6-5    .545    W1
Dartmouth          0-4    .000    4-7    .364    L5

Key Ivy League games left
April 18
Princeton at Harvard
Cornell at Dartmouth
Penn at Brown
(Yale at Albany)

April 25
Harvard at Cornell
Yale at Brown
Dartmouth at Princeton
(Penn at Umass Friday 4/24)

Now that Yale laid the first Ivy loss on Harvard, if Cornell wins out (beats @Dartmouth (likely) and beats at-home-to-Harvard (could go either way)), Cornell hosts as the only remaining 3-1 team and has the tiebreaker over Princeton. In other permutations, Harvard or Princeton could host. For Harvard to host, that means they need to beat Princeton then Cornell.
Assuming 1-3 Brown and 0-4 Dartmouth do not beat a higher team.

tl;dr All the tiebreaker permutations below https://ivyleague.com/sports/2018/4/17/MLAX_0417180748.aspx
Men's Lacrosse Tournament Tiebreakers
[updated per coach group decision prior to 2023 season]

1. In the case of two-way ties between teams in the final standings, the higher seed will be determined on the basis of head-to-head competition.

2.  In the case of a multiple ties (more than two teams with the same record), the following procedure will be used:
The highest seed will go to the team with the best cumulative record against all other teams tied at that spot. (If multiple teams are tied with the same record, the tie between those teams will be broken on the basis of cumulative record against each other)
Once a highest seed(s) (amongst the tied teams) is determined, the initial tie is broken. The tie between the remaining teams will be determined on the basis of cumulative record against all other remaining teams tied at that spot.
This procedure will be repeated until all possible ties are broken. (If there are remaining unbroken ties within the group, the remaining tied teams move on to step 3.)
3.  In the case of a multiple team tie that cannot be broken on the basis of review of cumulative record:
The highest seed will go to the team that has beaten the highest seeded team outside of the tie and continuing through the full league standings (If multiple teams have beaten the highest seeded team outside of the tie, the tie between those teams will be broken on the basis of cumulative record against each other).
Once a highest seed(s) (amongst the tied teams) is determined, the initial tie is broken. The tie between the remaining teams shall be determined on the basis of cumulative record against all other remaining teams tied at that spot.
This procedure will be completed until all possible ties are broken. (If there remaining unbroken ties within the group, the remaining tied teams move on to step 4.)

4.  If a tie still persists, add the goals for and against in the games between the tied teams. The team (s) with the greatest goal differential gets highest seed (6-goal maximum differential per game). (If a tie persists in which multiple teams have the same greatest goal differentials, the tie between those teams will be broken on the basis of cumulative record against each other). Once a highest seed (amongst the tied teams) is determined, the remaining seeds will be determined on the basis of cumulative record against each other.

  5.  If a tie still persists, add the goals for and against the highest seeded team(s) outside of the tied team and continuing through the full league standings. The team with the greatest goal differential against the highest seeded team outside of the tie gets higher seed (6-goal maximum differential per game). Once a highest seed (amongst the tied teams) is determined, the remaining seeds will be determined on the next greatest goal differential.

6.  If a tie still exists, the NCAA RPI ratings after all games have been completed will be utilized to determine the higher seed.

7.  If a tie still persists, it will be broken by a random draw conducted by the Executive Director. If this occurs in determining the tournament's #1 seed, the team first drawn in the random draw selects:
    a. To host the tournament and occupy the #3 seed, or:
    b. To claim the #1 seed. If drawn team elects the #1 seed, hosting privileges go to the #2 seed.
    c. If the tournament will be at a neutral site the first team drawn will be the #1 seed.

[CU77]

Massey gives Dartmouth an under 10% chance of winning each of their two final games (against Cornell and Princeton) and Brown an under 30% chance of winning each of their two final games (against Penn and Yale). So assuming these four games go to the favorites, here are the remaining games and the resulting ILT seedings:

Pr>H C>H  C Pr Y H
Pr>H H>C  Pr Y H C
H>Pr C>H  C Y H Pr
H>Pr H>C  H Y C Pr

Pretty sure I got these right but please do double check ...

[Swampy]

Massey gives Dartmouth an under 10% chance of winning each of their two final games (against Cornell and Princeton) and Brown an under 30% chance of winning each of their two final games (against Penn and Yale). So assuming these four games go to the favorites, here are the remaining games and the resulting ILT seedings:

Pr>H C>H  C Pr Y H
Pr>H H>C  Pr Y H C
H>Pr C>H  C Y H Pr
H>Pr H>C  H Y C Pr

Pretty sure I got these right but please do double check ...

In short, assuming we beat Dartmouth, if we beat Harvard, we host!

[MattShaf]

just watching the boxscore
seems like Cornell picking up a lot of penalties

Big Red playing with a bit too much aggression, or the refs slanting things

Same here. Watching the box score. It looks like the scoring was really spread out among players.

Note: Michigan beat Penn State! (?)
Ohio State beat Hopkins. (Milliman's last year?)
Yale is up on Harvard 5-2 in the second.

We were aggressive on defense all game. SSDM were grinding and poles were sliding with conviction. Referees were fast with the flags. Without the EMO goals we hold Duke to only 5 goals. Cascadden and Staub tallies were pure juice and the Offense had enough today for a big win. Great atmosphere for the Big Red with a large fan base in attendance