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Opening day of the 2026 NCAA Division I men's lacrosse season is Jan. 31.
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Harvard isn’t exactly entering a new era after graduating Tewaaraton Award finalist Sam King.
The Crimson bring back four of their top five scorers from last season, including honorable mention All-American attackman Jack Speidell, a junior who led Harvard with 46 goals. Speidell only trailed Tewaaraton winner CJ Kirst with the second-most goals out of the Ivy League.
The Crimson haven’t won the Ivy League since 2014, which was also their last time winning 10 games in a season before last year.
One of the more drastic statistics in college lacrosse over the past decade has been Harvard’s struggles at the faceoff position. Harvard hasn’t won more than 50 percent of its faceoffs since 2013, which goes back through two coaching staffs.
The Crimson ranked 74th of 77 Division I teams with a 38-percent win rate on faceoffs last season. Both of Harvard’s faceoff options from 2025 — sophomore Jackson Henehan and senior Matt Barraco — return.
Barraco struggled during the Crimson’s season-ending loss to Syracuse, winning just 4 of 23 faceoff attempts against the Orange’s single-season faceoff record holder, John Mullen. Henehan was Harvard’s most statistically consistent option, winning 45 percent of his total attempts and leading the Crimson with 54 ground balls. Expect Harvard to continue its use of multiple faceoff specialists, especially with a new talent waiting in the wings.
Crimson head coach Gerry Byrne said he and his staff “think a lot of” freshman Harry Luong, who was a CHSAA first-team All-State selection out of Valor Christian (Colo.) High School.
In response to the criticisms Harvard has received about the faceoff, Byrne also pointed out that the Crimson ranked near the top of the country in opponent cleaning efficiency, which helped them digest some of the losses.
He lives his values through his actions, and those actions personify our program.
Gerry Byrne on Jack Speidell
Star talent can go a long way in college lacrosse, and Byrne has done a great job finding multiple players over the past few seasons. The fifth-year head coach, who now has all his own recruits on the roster, has another star poised to make a run at the Tewaaraton.
Speidell burst onto the scene in his first season as a starter, and if he builds on it, Speidell could find himself at the National Museum of the American Indian come May. Arguably even more meaningful for Crimson fans is that he can help position them to make the NCAA tournament in back-to-back seasons for the first time in program history.
Speidell, who was named one of the Crimson’s three captains this offseason, remains a selfless player.
“He is the first guy out there for practice,” Byrne said. “He’s the last guy picking up cones. He’s super involved in our recruiting. He lives his values through his actions, and those actions personify our program.”
King became the first Tewaaraton finalist in Harvard’s history last season, and Speidell could become the second.
The Ivy League has been cutthroat for years, and it’s not going to get any less competitive this upcoming season. Princeton has national title aspirations, Cornell will aim to return to Championship Weekend again and Dartmouth is an ascending team.
That goes without mentioning Yale or a potential bounceback season for Penn, which is knotted up 35-35 in its all-time series against the Crimson. Harvard was on a 10-game losing streak against the Quakers before beating them 13-6 last season.
Things are looking up for Harvard, and Byrne said that last year’s graduating class had one of the better four-year runs in the program’s history — but “that team’s time has ended.”
“We need to find out how good this team is,” Byrne said. “It’s not that you talk about championships; I usually don’t. It’s all about trying to determine how good this team can be, which is a combination of how good each individual player can be. You don’t get to start where you finish, and we felt like we were as good as any team in the country at the end of last year.”
The Crimson start their season with a three-game home stretch, which ends with a rematch against Syracuse. That start to the season against Providence, Colgate and Syracuse is arguably Harvard’s toughest non-conference stretch, but the Crimson went 2-1 against those teams last season, losing to Colgate.
Harvard’s Ivy League schedule is backloaded, as the Crimson end their regular season against Yale, Princeton and Cornell. That presents them with a unique opportunity to shake up the conference standings before the conference tournament.
Hayden Hundley has been involved with lacrosse since he was 6 years old and was brought on as Editorial Intern at USA Lacrosse in May 2025. He has covered Virginia men’s lacrosse with Streaking the Lawn, scouted DMV talent with Prep Lacrosse and was formerly the Sports Editor for James Madison’s student newspaper "The Breeze."
