Men's Lacrosse Tournament Field Set as Harvard Downs Yale to Clinch Final Berth

2011 Ivy League Men's Lacrosse Tournament Central

PRINCETON, N.J. -- Harvard left its postseason fate to the last afternoon of regular season play but with a 9-5 win over Yale, it clinched a place in the 2011 Ivy League Men's Lacrosse Tournament. Harvard joins Cornell, Penn and Yale in the tournament field. The four teams will meet next weekend in Ithaca, N.Y., as Cornell earned the right to host the tournament by claiming the regular season title with a perfect 6-0 mark in Ivy play.

As the third seed, Harvard will play second-seeded Penn in the first semifinal game at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, May 6 at Schoellkopf field. The hosts from Cornell and fourth-seeded Yale are set to meet in the second semifinal at 8:00 p.m. Both semifinal games will be shown live on ESPN3.com.

The winners of the semifinal games will meet at noon on Sunday, May 8 in the tournament's championship game, with the League's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship on the line. In addition ESPN3.com, the championship will also air live on ESPNU.

Harvard posted the 9-5 win over Yale due in large part on the performance of goalie Harry Krieger, who made 16 saves in the win. Yale cut Harvard's lead to 6-5 with just over 11 minutes to play in the fourth, but the Crimson trio of Terry White, Peter Schwartz and Jeff Cohen scored the game's final three goals to seal the win.

Dartmouth and Princeton entered the final afternoon with designs on claiming the last spot in the tournament field as well, but Harvard's victory dashed those hopes. Princeton got a valiant performance from goalie Tyler Fiorito that included 20 saves by the junior, but third-ranked Cornell won, 9-7, to end the year at 6-0 in Ivy play. It is the 38th time an Ivy team has finsihed a season unbeaten in League play and the 16th time Cornell has accomplished the feat.

Elsewhere, in one of the day's most entertaining games, Dartmouth and Brown went back and forth in a shootout that saw the teams tied at 12-12 following four quarters of play. Then in overtime, Parker Brown gave the Bears the win as he found the back of the net for the game-winning tally with 1:30 remaining in the first overtime. It was Dartmouth's first overtime League game of the season, meaning each Ivy team played at least one overtime League game in 2011.