2019 Men’s College Lacrosse Year In Review: #52 Harvard Crimson

With the 2019 college lacrosse season complete, it’s time to look back at how all 73 teams did during the season, along with an early look at each squad for 2020.

Note: These are not end of season rankings.

Here’s our last five Year In Review posts we’ve done:

• #57 Monmouth
• #56 Utah
• #55 Fairfield
• #54 UMass Lowell
• #53 Hofstra

To see all of our posts, check out the 2019 Year In Review section on the site.

Let’s continue our 2019 Year In Review!

#52 Harvard Crimson

Conference: Ivy league
2019 Record: 5-8 (1-5 in Ivy League)
Head coach: Chris Wojcik (9th Season)

Statistical Leaders

Goals: Kyle Anderson (30)
Assists: Kyle Anderson and Kyle Salvatore (14)
Points: Kyle Anderson (44)
Faceoffs: Steven Cuccurullo (88-of-182; 48.4%)
Ground balls: Jonathan Butler and Steven Cuccurullo (45)
Caused turnovers: Beau Botkiss (21)
Goals against average: Kyle Mullin (14.31 GAA)
Save percentage: Kyle Mullin (50.9%)

Personnel Losses

Key seniors departing: D Jonathan Butler (14 CTs, 45 GBs, 0% FOs), D Brett Clark (6 CTs, 4 GBs, 1 A), A Larsen Bidstrup (2 Gs, 2 As, 3 GBs)
Senior scoring departing: 7 of 250 points (2.8%)
Senior starts lost: 19 of 130 (14.6%)

Season Summary

The Ivy League had two of the top eight teams in college lacrosse in 2019. While Penn and Yale were the kings of the conference, along with Cornell fighting for an NCAA Tournament spot, that left three teams for the final seed in the Ivy League Tournament.

Some thought Harvard would be the fourth seed in the Ivy League, but things didn’t go well from the start. The Crimson lost their first three games to North Carolina, UMass, and Holy Cross in double overtime. After wins against Hartford and Providence, Harvard gave up two late fourth quarter goals to Brown in their Ivy League conference opener and fell to the Bears. But for the second straight season, Harvard came back from a second half deficit to defeat Boston University, this time in triple overtime at BU. That started a three-game win streak that also saw victories over Dartmouth and Albany.

The Crimson entered April with a 5-4 record but had to face Cornell, Penn, Princeton, and Yale to end the regular season. The game against the Tigers was Harvard’s only away game. But despite the home field advantage, the Crimson lost every game with the closest being a four-goal margin to Princeton. And with a 1-5 Ivy League record, it was another year of missing out on the Ivy League Tournament.

Harvard saw new faces take stage. With Kyle Anderson leading the offense, freshman Austin Madronic finished second on the team with 35 points, one in front of sophomore Myles Hamm. 7 of the team’s 12 top scorers were either freshmen or sophomores.

Defensively, Jonathan Butler was the lone consistent senior starter on either side of the ball and was flanked by junior Beau Botkiss and sophomore Frankie Tangredi. Harvard’s primary FOGO and goalie were also sophomores in Steven Cuccurullo and Kyle Mullin.

Looking Ahead

The biggest storyline entering the fall is Harvard’s new head coach, Gerry Byrne. A former candidate for the Crimson job earlier in the decade, the former Notre Dame assistant brings a ton of knowledge and social media wizardry to a team in need of ramping up competition in their conference.

Byrne has a lot to work with in 2020 with Butler being the only major departure on the team. Kyle Salvatore, Jeremy Magno, Nigel Andrews, Ryan Graff, Nick Loring, Isaiah Dawson, and plenty more return on offense. Outside of Butler, the bulk of the defense also returns including David Strupp, who started eight games last season. This is a team who should have plenty of chemistry once they go through the fall with their new coaching staff.

The hire of Byrne could start to see it’s effects start this upcoming season. But expect Harvard to start establishing themselves as well for the long-run under someone that was known as one of the best assistant coaches in college lacrosse.