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The Ivy League went into the final weekend of the season with its top five teams all tied atop the league standings at 3-2. So, of course, the teams stretched things to the max with the final game going to overtime before Yale topped archrival Harvard 17-16.

Once the dust settled, the top four seeds for the Ivy League tournament are Brown (1), Cornell (2), Yale (3) and Penn (4) with the top three sharing the Ivy League regular season title.

Meanwhile, Princeton, the top-ranked team in the league in the Nike/USA Lacrosse rankings, is left out of the Ivy tournament, but very much expected to earn an NCAA tournament berth.

Elsewhere, Johns Hopkins and Ohio State advanced in the Big Ten Tournament, the first men’s tournament to get underway. Here’s a look at Saturday’s results.

Yale Wins Overtime Thriller Against Harvard

What’s better than beating your archrival in overtime? Clinching a share of league championship with the victory. That’s what Yale did in a 17-16 overtime win against Harvard.

Harvard, which made tremendous strides under Gerry Byrne this year coming out of two years of COVID shutdowns, looked like they might overcome another obstacle. Starting goalie Kyle Mullin was injured in the third quarter chasing a loose ball behind the cage. Moments after he left the game, Yale’s Leo Johnson scored an extra man goal to go up 11-9.

But the Crimson weren’t ready to wave the white flag. Instead, Harvard’s offense got hot and the Crimson went on a 5-1 run to take a 14-12 lead early in the fourth quarter.

Yale battled back and tied the game 15-15 before Harvard freshman Joe Dowling gave the Crimson its final lead — 16-15 with 4:35 to play on a tough drive to the goal. At the other end of the field, another freshman, Yale’s Johnson scored coming from behind the goal to the alley to knot the score with 1:56 left.

Yale, which dominated faceoffs down the stretch, won the faceoff to start overtime, but turned it over without getting a shot off. Yale goalie Jared Paquette made a save on Harvard’s first possession and then Harvard was whistled for a holding call.

Yale made the penalty hurt as Thomas Bragg buried a laser from the top of the box to deliver the victory to Yale.

Chris Lyons led Yale with five goals, Matt Brandau had four goals and an assist and Bragg had a hat trick. Nicholas Ramsey won 21 off 33 faceoffs.

Dowling and Austin Madronic each scored three times for Harvard. Mullin made 10 saves while allowing 10 goals before leaving with his injury. His replacement, Christian Barnard, made a pair of saves.

Cornell Wins Share of 30th Ivy League Title

Cornell clinched a share of its 30th Ivy League championship and a berth in next week’s Ivy League tournament with an 18-15 victory at No. 5 Princeton on Saturday. Cornell improved to 11-3 overall and 4-2 in the Ivy.

The Big Red scored eight times in the opening quarter and trailed for only 42 seconds in the game, but had to stave off a serious Princeton comeback in the second half.

After Cornell’s Billy Coyle scored a man-up goal just 36 seconds into the second half to give the Big Red its biggest lead of the game, 13-5, the Tigers went on an 8-1 run over the next 13 minutes, pulling to within 14-13 after back-to-back goals by Coulter Mackesy. The second of those goals came with 1:14 left in the third quarter, but Cornell answered on Spencer Wirtheim’s goal with 21 seconds left in the quarter.

Princeton’s Alex Slusher opened the scoring in the fourth quarter to get the Tigers back within one, but Cornell got consecutive goals by John Piatelli and Michael Long just 56 seconds apart midway through the quarter and brought home the victory.

Piatelli had a team-high five goals for Cornell and Long had seven points on three goals and four assists. C.J. Kirst (four goals) and Coyle (three goals) also provided firepower.

Mackesy and Sam English each had five goals and an assist for Princeton (9-4, 3-3).

Ohio State, Johns Hopkins Advance in B1G

No. 8 Ohio State defeated Michigan 16-10 in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament, its second consecutive win over the Wolverines. Ohio State will meet Rutgers in the B1G semifinals on Thursday at Maryland.

Michigan scored four straight goals to close the first half, cutting OSU’s halftime advantage to 7-6, but the Buckeyes opened the second half with four in a row. Jackson Reid scored five goals for Ohio State.

A week after getting blown out by rival Maryland, Johns Hopkins was on the other end of a lopsided score, beating Penn State 16-8 in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament. The Blue Jays will get another shot at Maryland on Thursday when they head to College Park for the semifinals.

Hopkins jumped out to a 7-1 lead and the Nittany Lions never got closer than four goals after that point. Joey Esptein led a balanced attack for the Blue Jays with three goals and Josh Kirson made 14 saves.

Delaware Captures Share of CAA Title

A 14-12 win over Fairfield, coupled with a Towson’s upset loss to Hofstra, gave Delaware a share of the Colonial Athletic Association regular season title and the No. 1 seed for the league tournament. The Blue Hens (9-5, 3-2 CAA) have now won three straight games and shared the league’s regular season title with Massachusetts and Towson.

Delaware held Fairfield scorless for the final 18 minutes of the game and broke a 12-12 tie in the fourth on Mark Bieda’s goal with 10:34 remaining. Mike Robinson’s goal with 2:29 left sealed it. Tye Kurtz had four goals and two assists for the Blue Hens.

Vermont Earns America East No. 1 Seed

Vermont overcame an early 6-2 deficit and beat Stony Brook 19-10 to complete a perfect regular season in America East play at 6-0. The Catamounts have now won seven straight games to improve to 9-6 and will host the America East tournament for the first time in school history.

Thomas McConvey (7g, 1a), David Closterman (6a) and Liam Limoges (5g) powered Vermont to the victory. The Catamounts scored 10 times in the third quarter, four of them by Limoges.

Kevin Mack had two goals and two assists for Stony Brook (9-5, 4-2) which concluded its season as the Seawolves are ineligible for the America East tourney due to its impending move to the Colonial Athletic Association.

Notable

  • No. 10 Brown earned an Ivy League tournament berth, and the No. 1 seed in the league tournament, with a 15-6 win over Dartmouth. Ryan Aughavin had four goals and an assist and Trevor Glavin had three goals and an assist. The Bears have won five straight entering the tournament, which they will host in Providence beginning on Friday.

  • No. 18 Richmond, which has lost to VMI only once — its inaugural varsity season in 2014 — trailed the Keydets at the half before pulling out a 14-12 victory to clinch the No. 2 seed for the Southern Conference tournament. Ryan Lanchbury had four goals and three assists and Dalton Young had three goals and four assists for the Spiders (9-4, 4-1 SoCon). VMI still earned a bid to the SoCon tournament thanks to Mercer’s 14-11 upset of High Point. High Point, the No. 3 seed, will host the tournament and play Richmond in the semifinals. VMI will play top-seeded Jacksonville in the other semifinal.

  • No. 20 Saint Joseph’s completed NEC play unbeaten at 6-0 with a 17-9 win over Merrimack behind four goals and two assists from Carter Page and two goals and four assists from Levi Anderson. The Hawks finished the regular season 12-3 with the three losses coming by a combined three goals in one-goal losses to Delaware, Drexel and Penn.

  • St. Bonaventure was down 10-8 to start the fourth quarter, but rallied for a 13-12 victory over Canisius to clinch the No. 1 seed for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament. Sean Westley had five goals for the Bonnies. Ben Mazur came off the bench with St. Bonaventure down two goals midway through the third and made six saves while allowing just three goals to earn the win.

  • Marist tied St. Bonaventure with a 5-1 league record in the MAAC, following a 9-8 overtime win against Monmouth, but lost the head-to-head tiebreaker to the Bonnies. Jojo Pirecca scored consecutive goals in the final three minutes to send the game the game to overtime and Jason Intermesoli scored the winner.

  • Utah completed a perfect regular season in the Atlantic Sun with a 16-9 win over Detroit Mercy. Tyler Bradbury had five goals and two assists. The A-Sun tournament will be held in Huntsville, Ala., beginning Thursday and Utah will meet Bellarmine in one semifinal while Robert Morris and Air Force play in the other.

  • Rory Jones scored the game-winning goal with six seconds left to lead Hofstra over CAA-leading Towson 15-14, but the Pride still missed out on a bid to the CAA tournament, losing the tiebreaker to Drexel. Dylan McIntosh scored five goals for Hofstra.

How the Nike/USA Lacrosse Top 20 Fared

No. 14 Cornell defeated No. 5 Princeton, 18-15
No. 7 Yale defeated No. 15 Harvard, 17-16 (OT)
No. 8 Ohio State defeated Michigan, 16-10
No. 10 Brown defeated Dartmouth, 15-6
No. 11 Penn defeated Albany, 19-11
No. 18 Richmond defeated VMI, 14-12
No. 20 Saint Joseph’s defeated Merrimack, 17-9

All Scores

Air Force 9, Bellarmine 7
Bryant 15, Wagner 4
Cornell 18, Princeton 15
Delaware 14, Fairfield 12
Hobart 14, Mount St. Mary’s 7
Hofstra 15, Towson 14
Johns Hopkins 16, Penn State 8
LIU 15, Sacred Heart 10
Marist 9, Monmouth 8 (OT)
Mercer 14, High Point 11
Ohio State 16, Michigan 10
Penn 19, Albany 11
Providence 20, St. John’s 14
Richmond 14, VMI 12
Robert Morris 19, Cleveland State 12
Saint Joseph’s 17, Merrimack 9
Siena 15, Quinnipiac 10
St. Bonaventure 13, Canisius 12
Utah 16, Detroit Mercy 9
Vermont 19, Stony Brook 10
Yale 17, Harvard 16 (OT)

UMass-Lowell at Binghamton, 7