CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Harvard men's lacrosse team is rolling to begin the 2024 season, winning each of its first six games to rise to No. 12 and 14 in the Inside Lacrosse and USILA Coaches Polls, respectively. The Crimson (6-0, 0-0 Ivy) is coming off a 13-11 victory over the No. 13 Michigan Wolverines on Sunday, which pushed them to the 6-0 mark for the first time in 34 years. The team has another big challenge ahead of it this weekend, as it will make the trip to New Haven to take on the nationally ranked, red-hot No. 10/10 Yale Bulldogs.
 
The two sides will each look to pick up a top-20 win this weekend when they renew the historic Harvard-Yale lacrosse rivalry at 1:00 PM at Reese Stadium and on ESPN+.
 

THE MATCHUP

The No. 12 Crimson will look to end its skid against its rival Yale this weekend when it hits the road for its third consecutive away contest. The Bulldogs own a four-game winning streak in the series with Harvard despite the even 10-10 split in the last 20 meetings. This will also be the earliest the two sides have ever met in a season and the first time in the 105-game history that the teams have met in the month of March.
 
The Bulldogs come into the contest with a 3-1 record and are fresh off a 15-13 victory over the No. 1 University of Denver Pioneers this past weekend. The Crimson's Ivy rival also defeated the Villanova and Colgate to begin its season before falling to Penn State, 14-15 in overtime.
 
Yale ranks atop the nation in a host of offensive metrics including assists per game (9th, 9.00), points per game (8^th, 24.75), and scoring offense (7^th, 15.75). The Bulldogs also own the sixth best team faceoff winning percentage and the fifth-best ground balls per game clip in the nation. The team struggles on the clear, posting a .793 percentage in 2024, the fourth-worst mark in the nation. Yale also ranks amongst the worst in the nation in man-up offense (70^th), and turnovers per game (57^th).
 

QUICK HITS

• Harvard is 6-0 for the first time since 1990.
• The team is one of only four unbeaten teams remaining in the nation along with No. 1 Army West Point, NJIT and Quinnipiac.
• The Crimson is coming off its biggest win of the season with a 13-11 result over No. 13 Michigan.
• This will be the last stop on a three-game road stretch for the Crimson that has taken them to Vermont (W, 15-13) and Michigan (W, 13-11).

 

HARVARD IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS

• The Crimson was ranked in all three major rankings this week.
• Inside Lacrosse has the Crimson at No. 12 this week, the team's highest ranking in the media poll since the end of the 2022 season.
• USA Lacrosse Magazine and the USILA Coaches voted Harvard at No. 14.
• Harvard also came in at No. 12 in the Quint Kessenich/Lax All-Stars rankings.
• Harvard was picked above Yale in the NEILA poll this week, claiming the No. 1 spot on the list.

 

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

1^st – Highest winning percentage in the nation.
2^nd – Best scoring offense in the country with 16.83 goals per game
3^rd – Best shooting percentage (.375) in the nation.
4^th – Best winning margin in the nation, averaging 6.33 goals per game.
5^th – Fewest Turnovers per game (14.00) in the nation.
5^th – Best clearing percentage in the country (.922).
5^th – Most points per game in the nation (25.83).
7^th – Best Ride in the country, holding opponents to a .802 Clear percentage.
9^th – Most assists per game in the nation (9.0).
 

BY THE NUMBERS

0 – Goals allowed in the first quarter to Michigan last weekend.
3 – Quarters allowing no goals to opponents this season.
5 – Individual Man-up goals for Liam Griffiths, the most in the nation.
6 – Points per game for Sam King, the fourth most in the nation.
6 – Game win streak, tying the longest run of the Byrne era at Harvard.
10 – Caused turnovers per game for the Crimson defense, the 10^th most in the nation.
12 – Fourth quarter goals allowed, the second fewest in the Ivy League.
101 – Goals scored this season, the fourth most in the nation and the most in the first seven games for Harvard since the 1971 season.
 

A HISTORIC START

Harvard men's lacrosse is 6-0 for the first time since 1990 and will look to keep its perfect record intact this weekend to improve to 7-0 for the first-time sine 1961. The offense is scoring at a record pace, totaling 101 goals this season. The team posted the most goals through five games in program history to start the season.
 
The Crimson defense has also only allowed 63 goals this season, the lowest total allowed through six games since the 2018 season.
 

LAST TIME OUT

The Crimson recorded its sixth win of the season over No. 13 Michigan and earned its second ranked win of the campaign. Harvard locked down a high-powered Michigan attack, allowing no goals in the first quarter and only two in the fourth to hold off the Wolverines. Sam King led the squad with four points and first-year Jackson Greene had a breakout game with two goals and an assist to set a new career high. Christian Barnard made nine saves and allowed only 11 goals to backstop the effort.
 

THE CRIMSON SHIELD

Harvard's defense has stood tall against every test this season, holding opponents to under 13 goals in every contest in 2024 and its 66 goals allowed is the 25^th lowest total in the nation. The Crimson defense has also only allowed 12 fourth quarter goals this season which is the second fewest in the Ivy League in the final 15 minutes. The group's ability to lock in down the stretch has allowed Harvard to come from behind in two games and open the season with a 6-0 mark.
 

DEFENSE OPERATING ON A NEW LEVEL

Harvard's defensive unit has come up clutch in every game this season. In every game, the Crimson defense has shut out their opponents for a significant amount of time, most recently shutting down Michigan for the entire first quarter.
 
Harvard held Vermont to three goals in the second half while shutting out the Catamounts for an 18-minute stretch that included the entire third quarter. Harvard shut out the Providence Friars for nearly 24-consecutive minutes in the season opener with a swarming defensive attack that caused six turnovers and made eight saves in the stretch. As a team, Harvard forced 20 Providence turnovers, four failed clears and scooped up 17 more groundballs than its opponent.
 
Down the stretch in the battle against Bryant, the Crimson defense once again stood tall, shutting out the Bulldogs for the final 12 minutes of play while forcing four turnovers in the sequence to ice the win for the Crimson.
 

LIKE A WELL-OILED MACHINE

Harvard men's lacrosse is the fourth-most efficient team in the nation according to Lacrosse Reference, posting a cumulative efficiency of 41.2-percent through six games. This metric is a combination of Harvard's offensive efficiency (goals per possession) and the defensive efficiency (goals allowed per possession). The Crimson's offensive efficiency alone also ranks fourth in the country, as Harvard has scored on 38.5-percent of its possessions in 2024.
 

FLYING OFF FACEOFFS

According to Lacrosse Reference, Harvard is the second-best scoring team off faceoffs in the nation, scoring on 46-percent of possessions that begin on a faceoff win. Andrew DeGennaro leads the Harvard faceoff effort with 73 wins in 2024. His .503 winning percentage in the circle ranks third in the Ivy League.
 

THE KING CAN DO IT ALL

Sam King has continued his rise to the top of collegiate lacrosse this season, scoring at an insane rate that has put him in the top-30 nationally in almost every offensive statistic. King already has recorded 37 points in 2024 and his 6.0 points per game ranks fourth in the nation. His 3.17 assists per game is ranked 10th in the nation and his 2.83 goals per game is good for 29 in the nation.
 
In addition to his eye-opening performance on attack this season, Sam King has scooped up 24 ground balls this season, averaging 4.0 per contest. The total and the average are the most by an attackman in the nation this season. King's five caused turnovers are tied for the third-most in the nation by an attack in 2024.
 

IN GOOD COMPANY

Harvard is one of only four remaining unbeaten teams in the nation after defeating Vermont over the weekend, joining Army West Point, NJIT and Quinnipiac on the list.
 
The Crimson women's program is also undefeated, sitting at 5-0 in 2024. Harvard is the only school in the nation with an undefeated men's and women's program.
 

THE COMEBACK KIDS

Harvard erased a seven-goal deficit against Bucknell (Feb. 24) in its 13-12 come-from-behind win over the Bison. The Crimson trailed 8-1 in the second quarter before using a seven-goal fourth quarter rally to defeat Bucknell in its neutral site showdown.
 
The seven-goal comeback was the largest come-from-behind win for the program in 26 years, tying the 1998 squad that erased a seven-goal deficit against Penn in an eventual 16-13 win (Mar. 21, 1998). The Crimson tied the largest comeback in program history dating back to in at least 34 years dating back to 1990. Harvard Lacrosse records prior to the 1990 season are incomplete. The comeback is also the largest in an NCAA game this season and the largest since Siena's eight-goal comeback in 2022.
 

GRAHAM BLAKE IS HIM

Graham Blake has been stellar on the attack for Harvard through six games. Blake has already scored more goals in six games this season (17) than he had previously scored in his entire career (7).
 

BARNARD GOES VIRAL

Christian Barnard made an early bid for goal of the season against Providence, going coast to coast to score a goalie goal, the third of his career. Barnard scored two goals a year ago, both of which came from full-field length shots against Bucknell and Boston University.
 
As of Monday afternoon (Feb. 27) the clip of Barnard's goal has been viewed over 515,000 times across all platforms.
 

HUSTLE NEVER STOPS

Harvard picked up 53 ground balls against Providence, the largest margin of victory in the category (+33) in a game during the Byrne era. Coach Byrne has emphasized the importance of this statistic to his team and made it a focus since his time in Cambridge.
 
The Crimson currently ranks tenth in the nation with its 35.7 ground balls per game. Junior FOGO, Andrew DeGennaro, has scooped up 38 to lead the team and Sam King's 24 is second best on the roster. Andrew O'Berry, Greg Campisi, Christian Barnard and Martin Nelson also have contributed 10 or more ground balls this season.
 

UP NEXT

Harvard will be back at home next week to host the nationally ranked Princeton Tigers in Cambridge. The Crimson will meet its ancient eight foe next Saturday (Mar. 23) at 12:00 PM at Jordan Field and on ESPN+.