Men’s Golf:

Coming off a successful weekend in which they finished sixth out of 14 schools at the Yale Spring Invitation, the Harvard men’s golf team heads to Bethlehem, Pa. for the Ivy Championships this weekend. The Crimson finished second among Ancient Eight competitors at Yale, finishing only a stroke behind the Bulldogs.  Last year, Harvard finished third behind Yale and champion Columbia. A win for the Crimson would give them their first Ivy League Championship since 1974 and earn them an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.  

Baseball:

The Crimson baseball squad (18-20, 7-9 Ivy) closes out its season with a pair of doubleheaders against Dartmouth (16-19, 12-4) this weekend. Earlier today, Harvard suffered a 7-6 loss at the hands of Northeastern in the Beanpot consolation game at Fenway Park. Saturday’s games will take place in Hanover, N.H. while Sunday’s contests will be at home for Harvard. Despite having been eliminated from playoff contention, the Crimson has the chance to finish above .500 for the first time since 2006.

Softball:

Like their baseball counterparts, the Harvard softball contingent (21-19, 11-5 Ivy) plays two doubleheaders against Dartmouth (21-14, 14-2) this weekend. But for the women, the series still have postseason implications. The Crimson currently sit three games behind the Big Green, meaning a four-game sweep would give it the North Division title. A division title would send Harvard to the best-of-three Ivy League Championship Series against the South Division winners.

Men’s Volleyball:

On Sunday, the Harvard men’s volleyball team (12-11, 6-5 EIVA) will close out its slate of regular season games with a home matchup versus Sacred Heart (12-12, 3-8). The Pioneers are in a tie with NJIT for the EIVA cellar. The Crimson come into this one having defeated George Mason, 3-1, last Friday. This will be its last contest before the EIVA Championships, which will determine whether or not the team progresses to the NCAA tournament.

With a number of Harvard teams in action this weekend, The Back Page takes a look at some of the biggest games for Crimson squads as the spring season approaches its conclusion.

Softball:

Following a tough loss at Boston College on Thursday, the Crimson softball team (17-18, 8-4 Ivy) looks to snap a three game losing streak at home against a struggling Yale squad (8-17, 2-8) over the weekend. The Crimson is in second place of the North Division of the Ivy League, and if the team can come out with four wins, the squad will be in contention for first place with a thus-far dominant Dartmouth team.

Men’s Tennis: 

Coming off a 5-1 stretch and having won the Eastern College Athletic Conference title, the No. 34 men’s tennis team (17-6, 3-1 Ivy) is looking to move up in the Ivy League standings at Yale over the weekend. The Eli's (11-9, 1-3) are looking to snap a three game losing streak and have also dropped three in a row against Ivy League teams. The Crimson swept the Bulldogs earlier in the year, 4-0. After Friday’s game, the team will travel back home for senior night at home against Brown on Sunday.

(Continued)

Jimmy Vesey will be taking his final exams in the Czech Republic next month.

(Continued)

The No. 17/15 Harvard men’s hockey team was placed in the Midwest Region seed in the NCAA Men’s Hockey Tournament and will take on No. 10/10 Nebraska-Omaha in the first round of the tournament on Saturday. The Crimson will take the ice in South Bend in a sudden-death matchup against the Mavericks.

Harvard (21-12-3, 11-8-3 ECAC) enters the tournament hot, having gone 6-1 in the ECAC Tournament that spanned the last three weekends. Junior Jimmy Vesey set a tournament record with nine goals in the team’s seven games en route to being named the tourney’s Most Outstanding Player. The Crimson outscored its opponents 25-15 in its run for the team’s first conference championship since 2006.

Nebraska-Omaha (18-12-6, 12-8-4 NCHC) was swept in the first round of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference tournament by No. 18/- St. Cloud State, who would go on to upset No. 1/1 North Dakota in the semifinals before losing to No. 6/5 Miami in the finals.

Minnesota State Mankato, the number one overall seed in the tournament, is also in the Midwest Region. They will take on the Rochester Institute of Technology in the first-round, with the victory taking on the winner of the Harvard-Omaha matchup on Sunday.

Two teams from the ECAC earned at-large bids. Regular season champion Quinnipiac and Yale made it into the tournament.

—Staff writer Kurt Bullard can be reached at kurtbullard@college.harvard.edu.

(Continued)

With just one game of ECAC hockey left to be played, the Harvard men’s ice hockey team has the NCAA tournament in its sights. Having beaten top-seeded Quinnipiac, 5-2, on Friday to advance to the conference championship game, the Crimson has an 81 percent chance of advancing past this weekend according to College Hockey News. Here, The Back Page takes a look at some of the possible scenarios where Harvard can advance.

All listed rankings reflect the latest Pairwise rankings, a highly predictive method of determining which 16 teams will advance to the NCAA tournament. The 16-team field officially will be announced on Sunday at noon. All times are listed in EST.

If the Crimson can pull out a win on Saturday, it can put its calculators away. With a victory over No. 13 Colgate in the ECAC title game tonight, Harvard will secure an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Crimson currently ranks 11th in the Pairwise but could move up to as high as 8th, which would likely give Harvard a two-seed in the tournament next weekend.

If the Crimson loses, Colgate will instead punch its ticket to the tournament. However, Harvard’s season still has a good chance of continuing. But the Crimson’s fate will lie in the hands of several teams around college hockey.

(Continued)