SEASON RECAP: Season Validated by NCAA Tournament Selection

In an Ivy League packed with the talent of perennial title contender Princeton, consistently threatening Dartmouth, and two-time conference champion Cornell, the Harvard men’s lacrosse team began the 2006 season just hoping to compete in what has become one of college lacrosse’s toughest leagues. Five road wins, two triple-overtime marathons, and a surprising Selection Sunday announcement later, the Crimson ended its season in a place that it hadn’t seen in a decade—the NCAA tournament.

A 6-7 season saw Harvard split its six conference games. The Crimson’s regular-season road record of 5-2 was a vast improvement over its 1-6 record away from Jordan Field a year ago, but most of Harvard’s trouble this season was on its own turf, where the team went just 1-4.

Still, despite the difficulties in friendly territory, the Crimson did what it set out to do at the beginning of the season.

“I think it’s about meeting goals,” Harvard coach Scott Anderson said. “One of our goals was to get better—to get better in our league, and we did do a little bit better.”

But more important than Harvard’s fifth-place finish in the Ivy League were the intangibles that weren’t captured in the Crimson’s record.

“I’m not sure if our record reflects those things,” Anderson said, “but the selection for the NCAA tournament does.”

That selection, coming a day after the team’s 14-13 triple-overtime home loss to Dartmouth in the regular-season finale, surprised many, but it meant a great deal to a team that had been steadily improving.

“Participating in the NCAA tournament was great, especially for the seniors,” Anderson said. “It was great validation of their work and the strong leadership they’ve given to the team.”

Although the seniors provided the leadership, it was a sophomore and a rookie who guarded the goal, two juniors who did the bulk of the scoring, and another third-year player who got the team most of its possessions.

Second-year goaltender Evan O’Donnell started 11 of 13 games for Harvard on his way to a .529 save percentage. Freshman Joe Pike relieved O’Donnell at halftime in most of those contests, also starting twice during the year and playing the final three quarters against Syracuse in the NCAA tournament. Pike’s play against the Orange—he gave up five goals over the last three frames compared to the six allowed in the first—earned him and the rest of the returning players some valuable experience playing in a hostile environment.

“For the younger guys, it was a taste of something they want to be able to do again,” Anderson said. “Now they have some motivation to get back to the NCAA tournament and do an even better job next time.”

Anchoring the offense was junior attackman Evan Calvert, whose 38 points topped the Crimson. His 26 goals were three more than the total of junior Greg Cohen, who tallied 30 points to finish second in scoring for Harvard.

The Crimson outshot opponents by a 515-432 margin, thanks in large part to junior faceoff-specialist John Henry Flood’s .545 win percentage at midfield.

“It’s just my job to go out there and just try to pick up the ball,” Flood said after his game against the Big Green, downplaying a performance in which he controlled 25 of 30 faceoffs.

But what can’t be downplayed are the season’s dramatic moments, the most unforgettable being what is arguably the most memorable in Harvard lacrosse history.

It ended when Cohen scored 2:45 into the third-overtime in the sixth game of the season against Denver, the only time the Crimson put together consecutive wins all year.

Other drama came when Harvard got its tournament invite, which was completely unexpected for a team with a .500 record and just a single home win.

“It [came] out of the blue,” said senior attackman Steve Cohen before the 11-4 loss to Syracuse. “Nobody even watched the selection show.”

And despite the fact that the postseason trip was short-lived, the fact remains that it did do something for the program that hasn’t happened in ten years.

“We got a taste of success,” Anderson said, “and that may be the biggest statement about the season—moving forward.”

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.