Ivy League Semifinals: Perfect Harvard Face Yale, Princeton Meet Cornell in Cambridge

Harvard haven’t lost an Ivy League game all season. Yale get one more crack at them on Friday, and this time it’s win or go home.

The top seeds face the Bulldogs at 11:30 a.m. ET (9:30 p.m. PKT) in the first Ivy League semifinal at Berylson Field in Cambridge, live on ESPN+. Princeton meet Cornell in the second semi at 2:30 p.m. ET (12:30 a.m. PKT Saturday). The final is Sunday at noon ET (10 p.m. PKT).

Harvard are 15-1 overall and 7-0 in the Ivy League, ranked fourth in the country, and riding 13 straight wins. They completed the perfect conference season against these same opponents last Saturday, beating Yale 2-1 in overtime. Emily Bronckers scored the golden goal after Lara Beekhuis had levelled it from a penalty corner in the 36th minute. That win made it a clean sweep. Yale will have spent the week thinking about how close they came.

The Bulldogs are no pushovers. They’re 12-3 and 4-3 in the league, ranked 19th nationally, and they took the champions to overtime six days ago. If anyone in this field knows how to rattle Harvard, it’s them.

Princeton against Cornell is the tighter call on paper. The Tigers are 12-4 and 6-1 in the league, ranked ninth in the country, and they won this tournament last year. Cornell are 7-9 and 4-3, the outsiders of the four, but they’ve already beaten enough good teams to get here and a one-off semi-final is exactly where that kind of side gets dangerous.

Harvard won the first two Ivy tournaments. Princeton took last year’s. For our money, Harvard should reach the final. They’ve been the best team in this league by a clear distance, and the team that pushed them hardest last week is the one standing in their way again. But Yale know the gap is a single goal. That’s a thin margin to defend over 60 minutes.