NEW YORK – One convincing game from Yale and a nail-biter from the Penn later, the Ivy League men’s final is set. 

The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds will clash at noon on Sunday at Columbia, as Yale downed Cornell, 15-10. Meanwhile, Penn held on to beat Brown, 13-12, in the first of two semifinals Friday night in the Big Apple. 

These two clubs met back on March 30 for one of the games of the season, as Penn beat Yale, 13-12, after three overtimes. It’ll be the Ivy League regular-season champions vs. the defending national champions.

“That was a great game, and the fans get to come out and hopefully watch another great game,” Yale coach Andy Shay said. “They’re the league champs, the best in the league right now, so it’s going to be an enormous challenge. Tremendous personnel and very well coached. It’s going to be a huge challenge for us."

In the opener, Brown scored two of the first three goals, but Penn senior attackman Simon Mathias was electric in helping his team to an 8-4 halftime lead. By game’s end, the Tewaaraton Award semifinalist managed four goals and three assists, ensuring he has at least a point in all 56 games he’s played for the Quakers. He also has goals in 33 straight games. 

The performance, unsurprisingly, drew plenty of praise from coach Mike Murphy.

“He was fantastic and I think one of his better qualities — and he has a lot of great qualities — is he asserts himself when necessary,” Murphy said. “He doesn’t over-dodge generally and doesn’t hold onto the ball for too long. I think that’s a product of how smart he is as a player and also his trust in his teammates.”

A co-captain this spring, Mathias is no stranger to Brown and its style. In fact, he pointed to their fast-paced offense, patented by coach Mike Daly while he was at Tufts, as a motivator for slowing things way down. 

“I figured I don’t have too many more chances at this thing as a senior, so if I was going to go out it’d be on my accord,” Mathias said. “I wanted to do it my way, but these guys in my locker room are amazing and all had fantastic games.”

While Mathias shined bright, Penn was certainly not mistake free, and Murphy acknowledged as much. Their faceoff specialist, Kyle Gallagher, went 11-of-22, shy of what they’ve come to expect. Brown also outshot Penn, 56-36, and senior goalie Reed Junkin was forced into 16 saves. 

That all mattered little in the end, though, as Penn stretched its undefeated run to 10 games. The Quakers have come a long way, Murphy said, especially from when Yale bounced them, 21-6, at Columbia in last year’s semifinals.

“If you look to where we started back in February, to be playing on the last Sunday of the regular season, if you will, Selection Sunday, is gratifying,” Murphy said. “Then you look back to what we did on this field a year ago, we played a lot better than that game. But I also feel like we could have played better in the second half, so we are excited to be here and also realize we didn’t play our best lacrosse for 60 minutes today.”

When the nightcap rolled around, another Tewaaraton Award semifinalist was dominant. Yale faceoff specialist TD Ierlan won 21 of 27 draws, and his team took control from there on out, much like what would happen during his two years at Albany. 

Jackson Morrill, Yale’s other Tewaaraton Award semifinalist, paced the offense with three goals and three assists. Freshman sensation Matt Brandau had five goals and an assist, and, while Jack Tigh contributed three goals and an assist

That theme was boosted by Cornell entering Friday with a .393 success rate at the X, which ranked 63rd out 73 Division I programs.

“That’s what we’ve come to expect and it’s a luxury nobody else really has,” Shay said of Ierlan’s performance. “He’s a great kid and they’re so tough on the wings, that it didn’t feel like a clean number. At the end of the day, he just gives us so many more possessions and he’s the best at it.”

But this was also a resolute performance on defense. Yale held Cornell to its second-fewest goals of the season, though Jeff Teat erupted for five goals.

The Big Red went just 1-of-7 on the extra-man opportunity. The Bulldogs were blocking shots, deflecting passses and, if all else failed, leaning upon sophomore goalie Jack Starr as the last line of defense. He made 12 saves.

The only true worry came in the fourth quarter, when Cornell went on a four-goal run.

“The defense played incredible,” Shay said. “When they started playing desperate and we were playing un-fundamental — that’s not a word — that’s something we’d like to erase … We’ll take that out of our memory a bit and be proud of the performance.”

But at this stage of the year, it also means two teams’ seasons near their conclusion. Such was the case for Brown, which ends 2019 with a 7-9 record, its second straight losing season under Daly.

The Bears were right in it except for a lopsided second quarter, and Daly was visibly disappointed.

“Hats off to Penn,” Daly said. “I thought they were very efficient today, but very proud of our team. We came here to play 60 minutes and we did. We came up short and that kills me, for our team and for our seniors. But that’s the lacrosse we’re capable of that’s the level we expect to be playing at.” 

Cornell, meanwhile, is now 10-5 and praying for an at-large bid come Sunday evening. With Loyola out of the Patriot League tournament, those precious extra spots will be few and far between.