Ivy Title Out of Reach For M. Lax

Saturday night witnessed the birth of an era and the death of a season for the Harvard men's lacrosse team.

In a brief pre-game ceremony at midfield, Harvard officially opened its new artificial turf stadium in a dedication to its benefactor, Gerald Jordan '61.

Facing No. 4 Princeton (7-1, 4-0 Ivy), however, the post-game celebrations were muted for the standing room only crowd that witnessed the first night game in Harvard sports history.

Trailing 6-0 at the half, the No. 13 Crimson (6-3, 2-2 Ivy) could not recover, falling 12-6 to the Tigers.

With the loss, Harvard was officially eliminated from the Ivy title chase that will be decided this Saturday when Princeton hosts Cornell (8-2, 4-0 Ivy).

Although the Crimson's Ivy hopes faded on Saturday, Harvard still has a chance to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

The Crimson face UMass tomorrow before closing out its season with games against Yale, Dartmouth, and Notre Dame.

UMass played well against former No. 18 UMBC before falling 9-8 in overtime, and the Minutemen have the opportunity to upset the Crimson tomorrow if Harvard does not perform up to its potential.

Looming larger on the horizon is the Crimson's showdown with No. 12 Notre Dame (5-3).

A loss to the Fighting Irish two weeks from now could hurt Harvard's chances of receiving a playoff bid.

Here is how the other Ivy teams fared last week in action around the league.

Cornell 13, Syracuse 12

Facing former No. 1 Syracuse, No. 7 Cornell shocked the lacrosse world with a 13-12 upset of the Orangemen.

Trailing by a goal, Big Red freshman attacker Michael Egan scored with 6:19 remaining in fourth quarter to tie the game, 12-12.

Egan wasn't finished there.

With the score still deadlocked, Egan fired the game winner with 3:25 remaining in regulation to hand Syracuse (7-1) its first loss of the season.

Trailing 5-2 in the early going, Cornell rallied to take a 7-6 lead at halftime.

Just 18 seconds into the fourth quarter, however, Syracuse took its biggest lead of the game when sophomore attacker Michael Springer scored to put the Orangemen in front 11-9.

Cornell scored the next two, including a shorthanded goal at the 12-minute mark to tie the game, 11-11, and setup Egan's heroics.

Big Red sophomore goaltender Justin Cynar, the brother of Crimson senior netminder Keith Cynar, stopped 15 shots and shutdown the Syracuse attack in the final quarter to steal the surprise victory.

A week ago, Cornell rallied from an early three-goal deficit against the Crimson to tie the game 5-5 at halftime en route to a 12-7 win.

Cornell 14, Dartmouth 7

Winning the battle of the colors with victories over the Crimson and the Orangemen, Cornell avoided a letdown with a convincing 14-7 win over Dartmouth (4-5, 0-2 Ivy).

With the Big Red facing the Big Green, the potential for a monumental upset existed.

From the opening whistle, however, the only thing big about Saturday's game was the ease of Cornell's victory.

Scoring late in the second quarter to go up 7-1, the Big Red established a commanding lead heading into halftime.

Dartmouth would mount a small comeback early in the third quarter with a pair of goals to cut the lead to 8-4.

Cornell responded quickly with four goals in under two minutes to extinguish any hope of a comeback.

Brown 9, Penn 7

After falling to Harvard, 10-7, last Wednesday, Brown recovered with a 9-7 victory over Penn on Saturday.

Freshman Jon Thompson picked up a hat trick for the Bears, and junior Jimmy Mormile added a pair in the victory.

Tied 1-1 after the first quarter, the Bears went on a 3-0 scoring run to give Brown a 4-1 lead with 5:33 remaining in the half.

The Quakers pocketed a pair late in the second quarter to cut the lead to one going into halftime.

Penn's sticks would fall silent in the third quarter, however, as the Bears scored three to take a commanding 7-3 lead.

The Quakers rallied with four goals in the final quarter, but their efforts fell short against Brown junior goaltender Beret Dickson.

Improving upon his outstanding 8.93 GAA, Dickson recorded 17 saves and frustrated the Penn scorers all day.