NCAA Rewind: Harvard One of Several Ivy League Success Stories

Before USA Lacrosse Magazine looks ahead to what’s to come in 2025 — look out for our NCAA Way-Too-Early Top 25 rankings later this summer — our team of staff and contributors decided it was worth taking a last look at the 2024 college lacrosse season.

To do that, we’re taking a journey through 30 of the top teams in men’s and women’s lacrosse to see what went right, what went wrong and how we should feel about the season.

HARVARD

USA Lacrosse preseason/final ranking: unranked/also considered
2024 record: 10-5 (4-3 Ivy League)

What went right: Much like their Ivy League counterparts over at Brown, the Harvard offense exploded in 2024 to rank seventh nationally (16.0 goals per game). The three-pronged attack of Riley Campbell (60G, 22A), Callie Hem (59G, 8A) and Caroline Mullahy (15G, 55A) made defending Harvard an absolute nightmare.

What went wrong: Again like Brown, the defense lagged a bit behind the offense — though not to the same extent as the Bears. Chloe Provenzano was a consistent presence in cage, and while her 42.2-percent save rate ranked outside the top 60 nationally, it’s a number a team can live with when its offense is humming like Harvard’s.

The loss that will likely define Harvard’s season, though, was a 15-13 decision at Duke on March 12. The Blue Devils were scuffling but ultimately found their way into the NCAA tournament — strengthened by that win over Harvard. Had Harvard won, perhaps the Crimson might have made the NCAA tournament instead, or at the very least been a tougher team to leave out of the field.

The problem against Duke was the draw, where the Blue Devils held a 21-10 advantage. Harvard’s draw unit was led by Maddie Barkate (119 draw controls) and ranked in the top half of the country in draw wins per game (44th, 14.27 draws per game), but an improvement in that area could be needed.

Season highlight: Harvard beat the team it will be compared closest to when we look back at 2024. In the first game of March for both teams, Harvard beat Brown 18-17. An early March game as a season’s highlight? It might come across as a stretch, but consider the momentum of both teams heading in. Harvard was 3-0, outscoring its opponents 60-17. Brown was also 3-0 with wins over UMass, which was ranked at the time, and Albany, a 2023 conference champion and NCAA tournament Cinderella.

Verdict: The Ivy League was full of success stories in 2024, and Harvard is firmly in that conversation. Devon Wills’ team won 10 games for the first time since 2011 (when Harvard was coached by Lisa Miller) and made the Ancient Eight more than just a two- or three-team race.