NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Yale University men's lacrosse (9-3, 3-2 Ivy) plays its regular-season finale on Saturday afternoon, April 30, at Reese Stadium on what is set up as a monumental day. The No. 6/9-ranked Bulldogs host the No. 15/12 Harvard Crimson (8-3, 3-2 Ivy)  on Senior Day with a share of the Ivy League title and Ivy Tournament hosting honors on the line. Face off is set for 2 p.m., live on ESPNU.
 
There is an improbable five-way tie atop the Ivy League standings as Yale, Harvard, Cornell, Princeton and Brown all stand at 3-2 in conference play. The winner of Yale-Harvard and Princeton-Cornell, along with Brown if they secure a victory against Dartmouth, will win a share of the regular-season title. Tiebreakers for hosting the 2022 Ivy League Tournament next weekend can be found here.
 
Yale will host with a win over Harvard, a Princeton win against Cornell and Dartmouth win against Brown.
 
The Bulldogs have won six of their last seven games including nationally-ranked wins over then-No. 3 Princeton (14-12), then-No. 5 Penn (12-11, OT), and then-No. 13 BU (22-15).
 
The Yale offense has scored 20-plus goals in three of their past five games and held opponents to 13 goals in each of the past two contests.
 
Tewaaraton Award nominee Matt Brandau leads the country with 6.50 points per game, nearly a full point ahead of second place. The do-it-all attackman is third in the country with 3.58 goals per game and fifth with 2.92 assists. And he's done so while raising the level of several young players around him.
 
Rookie Leo Johnson ranks among the top-10 in the Ivy League with 3.67 points per game (10^th), 2.17 goals (10^th) and 1.5 assists (9^th). Meanwhile, fellow first-year Chris Lyons has 22 points and 18 goals in just eight games along with six hat tricks.
 
The rookie attackmen have followed the lead of Brandau who on Tuesday became just the eighth player in school history to reach 100 career goals. The Timonium, Md., set a career-high with seven goals against Quinnipiac and set a personal best with 11 points. Brandau is also three assists away from entering the top-10 all-time at Yale and already ranks eighth with 168 career points.
 
His scoring is aided by strong midfield play led by captain Brian Tevlin. The All-America candidate is fourth on the team with 21 points (10 G, 11A) and has added 27 groundballs and seven caused turnovers. Fellow senior middies Christian Cropp and Luke Eshbach have also had big impacts on the offensive and defensive ends, respectively.
 
The Yale defense continues to be anchored by senior Chris Fake who has a team-high 15 turnovers. His dominating play up front has helped sophomore goalie Jared Paquette rank in both the top-25 nationally in saves per game (12.75, 20th) and save percentage (.535, 25th). Paquette also benefits from senior Jack Starr providing invaluable experience behind him.
 
In the circle, sophomore Nicholas Ramsey is 12^th in the country and leads the Ivy League with 7.50 ground balls per game. He also ranks 27^th nationally in face off percentage and is yet another young Bulldog benefiting from senior experience behind him as Joe Neuman has 15 groundballs and 20 face off wins on the season.
 
About Harvard
The Crimson earned their fourth nationally-ranked win against then-No. 3 Princeton (19-16) which actually snapped a two-game skid against Cornell (17-9) and Penn (11-8). Harvard is 8-3 overall with its only other loss against then-No. 8 Ohio State (17-12) in Florida during the second week of the season.
 
Harvard spreads the scoring out with Sam King, Austin Madronic and Miles Botkiss all with 23-plus goals. King leads the team with 17 assists and 40 points while Madronic is just behind with 13 and 38 of his own.
 
The Crimson has struggled in the circle as Steven Cuccurullo has a team-high .431 percentage on 94 wins and 35 groundballs.
 
Harvard has made up for it with stellar goalkeeping from Kyle Mullin who is 8-3 overall with a 11.33 goals against average and .522 save percentage.
 
Up Next
Depending upon the results of Saturday's contest, the Ivy League tournament is set for Friday and Sunday of next week at the site of the No. 1 regular season. NCAA Tournament play begins with Opening Rounds on Wednesday, May 11 and First Rounds on Saturday, May 14 and Sunday, May 15.