Previewing Brown’s 2020 men’s college lacrosse schedule

The Brown Bears are the 67th team in our 2020 men’s college lacrosse schedule preview series and the sixth team from the Ivy League. Brown finished 7-9 overall in 2019 and 3-3 in Ivy League play. The Bears lost to Penn in the Ivy League semifinals.

Here’s their entire 2020 schedule:

Who’s In?

• Sacred Heart Pioneers (2/18)

Who’s Out?

• UMBC Retrievers (14-13 W/OT)

Circle These Dates

• 2/22 at Stony Brook: It’s an even year and this year’s meeting is on Long Island, which is a good omen for the Bears. Since playing annually in 2016, Brown has won every game away from Providence but lost every meeting at home to Stony Brook. That includes a 13-11 decision in 2019 despite a 5-0 fourth quarter from Darian Cook. The Seawolves bring in a new head coach in Anthony Gilardi.
• 3/8 vs. Virginia: Former Brown head coach Lars Tiffany will make his first trip up to the campus where he took the 2016 Bears to Championship Weekend before he left for Charlottesville. The two teams met last year at Virginia in a game that saw Brown leading for the majority of the match. But down three with 6:52 left, the Cavaliers managed to tie it up before Michael Kraus recorded the game-winner in overtime. Brown goalie Phil Goss and Virginia goalie Alex Rode each recorded at least 15 saves.
• 3/14 at Harvard: The Bears were in a tight battle with Harvard in last year’s Ivy League opener before George Grell and Michael Brown scored a pair of goals in the final 1:40 to give Brown a 16-14 win. Grell, Cook, and Ryan Aughavin each recorded hat-tricks for the Bears, but Harvard’s Kyle Mullin stopped 19 shots to keep the Crimson in the game. They also have a new head coach in former longtime Notre Dame assistant Gerry Byrne.
• 3/28 vs. Princeton: With Cornell, Penn, and Yale expected to be in the Ivy League Tournament for another season, that leaves one potential spot open for the remaining four teams to vie for. Last year’s Brown-Princeton game turned out to be the difference between fourth and fifth place in the Ivy League. After two goals from Emmet Cordrey tied the game at eight in the third quarter, the Bears scored six of the final eight goals to secure a four-goal win.
• 4/4 at Penn: Penn took the regular season meeting by seven goals behind a six-goal outing from Adam Goldner and six points from Sam Handley. But the two teams met once more in the Ivy League semifinals at Columbia. Despite trailing by five goals in the third quarter, the Bears were able to still hang around and eventually cut the deficit to one goal with less than a minute to go. However, Penn won the final faceoff and held on for a 13-12 win.