Previewing Harvard’s 2020 men’s college lacrosse schedule

The Harvard Crimson are the 69th team in our 2020 men’s college lacrosse schedule preview series and the seventh and final team from the Ivy League. Harvard finished 5-8 overall in 2019 and 1-4 in Ivy League play. The Crimson failed to qualify for the Ivy League Tournament and hired Gerry Byrne as their new head coach in the summer.

Here’s their entire 2020 schedule:

Who’s In?

• Fairfield Stags (3/7)
• Colgate Raiders (3/28)

Who’s Out?

• North Carolina Tar Heels (16-11 L)
• Hartford Hawks (16-9 W)
• Providence Friars (9-8 W)

Circle These Dates

• 2/22 at UMass: Byrne’s first game as the Crimson head coach is none other against his alma mater, UMass. He was a two-year starter and as a senior, he was an All-New England defenseman and helped the Minutemen to the NCAA quarterfinals. As for the players currently on the field, UMass scored five of the final six goals in last year’s meeting to take their only lead of the game en route to a 12-9 win. Chris Connolly had five goals for the Minutemen, including the eventual game-winner.
• 2/28 at Albany: After being tied at halftime in last year’s matchup, the Crimson used a four-goal run on the Great Danes to take control of the game and eventually beat Albany by a pair of goals. Jeremy Magno, Kyle Anderson, and Myles Hamm each put up hat-tricks in the victory. Expect another close game between a two teams, as four of the last five games have been decided by three goals or less.
• 3/14 vs. Brown: The Crimson haven’t made an Ivy League Tournament since 2016 when they lost to Yale by five goals in the Ivy League Championship. After back-to-back 2-4 conference records in 2017 and 2018, Harvard won one conference game in 2019 against Dartmouth. Their closest loss was to Brown, Harvard’s last non-Dartmouth win in Ivy League play. The Crimson managed to tie the game a few times in the second half but were unable to get a goal to give them a lead. George Grell scored what would be the game-winning goal with 1:40 left in the fourth quarter as Brown would win 16-14 in a game that helped their chances in making the Ivy League Tournament.
• 3/17 vs. Boston University: After an insane comeback in their meeting in 2018 en route to an overtime victory, the two teams met last year at BU in what was another crazy game. Harvard was down 9-4 late in the third quarter but went on a 6-0 run to take a one-goal lead. After a James Burr goal to tie it at 10, Charlie Olmert scored with 29 seconds left to give the Crimson the lead. But it was still not enough as Chris Gray just beat the buzzer with a second left to force overtime, three periods of OT to be exact, before Nigel Andrews won it for Harvard. This has been one of the best midweek games of the college lacrosse season.
• 4/18 vs. Princeton: If Harvard wants to get back to the Ivy League Tournament, they’ll most likely need to get in front of Dartmouth, Brown, and Princeton to do so. There’s a lot riding on Princeton in 2020 with Michael Sowers now a senior. The two teams combined for 23 goals in the first half but it was the Tigers that ended up on the better end of the result with a 19-15 win. Sowers finished with 10 points (3 Gs, 7 As) for Princeton while Anderson finished with six goals and two assists for Harvard.