This past weekend, at Harvard’s first annual Cambridge Day, the No. 10-ranked men’s lacrosse team welcomed its largest crowd ever at Jordan Field. The high-profile game for this team made the event a success on a day full of athletic competitions. Despite their 12-20 loss, the men’s team stayed within four points against the NCAA No. 3-ranked Cornell until the last quarter, when the Big Red pulled away. This season will be the team’s most successful since 1998.
A significant part of the team’s success is attributed to Head Coach Gerry Byrne. Finn Pokorny ’26 shared that he thought Coach Byrne was a central piece of the team. “The big sell coming here was playing for Coach Byrne and him growing you more, not just as a player, but as a person. I guess it sounds kind of cheesy, but it is true—he does value you outside the team,” said Pokorny. “I know other players [whose coaches call them] by their number, but Coach Byrne really learns about his players and hopes for the best.”
Coach Byrne has recruited many top players in incoming classes: six of the top 100 players in the country in the Class of 2028; four of the top 100 players in the Class of 2029; and five top 100 commitments in the Class of 2030, including Cooper Brozek ’30, the third highest recruit. Since the addition of Coach Byrnes to the team, it is clear that Harvard has been able to rack up some great new members of the team.
Finn Jensen ’26 cited an improvement in the team’s work ethic as a reason the team has seen such great success. “Our team has become a lot more disciplined, focused, and tight-knit,” said Jensen. “I think each year, we’ve grown more focused on the little things and more locked in. We go to lift 15 minutes early, the locker room is clean… I think when your whole team is focused on executing at the smallest levels of detail, then that goes into the game, where everyone’s then also locked in [on] the smallest details.”
Pokorny also applauded the strong leadership from the team’s captains.
“Sam King ’25 is arguably [one of the] top two players in the country, but I think he’s the best player in the country. So rallying around him and his energy and commitment to the team is pretty easy,” said Pokorny.
King is one of the best lacrosse attackers in college lacrosse. He has the third most goals per game in NCAA DI, and was recently one of 25 players nominated for the Tewaaraton Award, which is considered “the Heisman of lacrosse” according to the NCAA website.
Jensen echoed Pokorny’s praise and credited a past captain for their success.
“I think over the past few years, we’ve had really strong leadership from Sam King this year, especially, and Martin Nelson ’25, as well, is one of our captains this year, and then Logan Ip ’26 is a junior captain. We had great leadership last year from Andrew O’Berry ’24,” he said.
“The new goalie we have is a freshman, Graham Stevens ’28, who’s been super good for us, and playing around him is really nice and easy,” said Pokorny.
As a freshman, Stevens has started every game and played the full 60 minutes for 10 of their 12 games.
The team is on track to finish their season with an away win at Brown and a victory in the Ivy League Championships. “We have this big game against Brown this weekend that we need to win, and then we’ll have the Ivy League Tournament. Hopefully, if we string together some wins there, there’ll be no issues,” said Jensen.
Besides his desire to win the two trophies, Jensen shared that he hopes the team will look back with pride on their work, regardless of the results. “You don’t ultimately know how the ball is going to bounce or how things are going to work out, but [I hope] that everyone is dialed in and locked in,” said Jensen. “When the game is over, regardless of the result, no one looks back and says, ‘Well, we should have done this.’”
Supporters and fans can watch the team at their upcoming game in Providence against Brown on Saturday, April 26. From there, they will compete in the Ivy League Tournament at the start of May. If chosen by the selection committee, the team would then spend the rest of May in the NCAA tournament.
Kalvin Frank ’28 (kfrank@college.harvard.edu) will be rooting for the lacrosse team in the Ivy League and NCAA finals.