Princeton, NJ — Harvard and Penn will play for the Howe Cup and the 2017 national title tomorrow.
A Division (Howe Cup): When Harvard and Princeton played during the regular season, the Crimson defeated the Tigers 8-1, taking all but one of their wins in three games. Tournament hosts Princeton had home town fans cheering them on, but it wasn’t enough to slow Harvard’s momentum. The Crimson advanced to their ninth consecutive Howe Cup final with a 8-1 win. Penn and Trinity were poised for a much closer semifinal. In 2015, the last time the two teams met in a national championship semifinal, they dueled through the fifth game of the final match on court, with Trinity narrowly taking the win. During the regular season, Penn defeated Trinity 5-4 playing in Philadelphia. In today’s match, the two teams were tied 3-all going into the final flight of matches. Trinity pulled out to a 4-3 lead, but Penn won the final two matches on court to win 5-4 and set up a rematch of the 2016 Howe Cup final.
In the consolation semifinals, Stanford defeated Cornell, and Yale defeated Columbia.
Harvard and Penn will play for the national championship at 2:30 pm tomorrow at Princeton.
B Division (Kurtz Cup): The Kurtz Cup semifinals are underway. In the consolation semifinals, Virginia defeated Middlebury 6-3.
C Division (Walker Cup): F&M and Amherst will play for the Walker Cup tomorrow morning. In the consolation semifinals, St. Lawrence defeated Bowdoin 7-2.
D Division (Epps Cup): Mount Holyoke has been peaking at the right time, reversing an early-season loss to Vassar to advance out of the first round. The Lyons met their match today in top-seeded Colby. When the two teams met in the regular season, Colby defeated Mount Holyoke 6-3. Today, that margin widened, as Colby advanced with a 8-1 win. Wellesley advanced to the Epps semifinals with a hard-fought win over Conn College, while number 2 seed Hamilton notched an 8-1 win over Northeastern in the first round. In their first meeting of the season, the Continentals defeated the Blue Pride 7-2.
In the consolation semifinals, Vassar defeated Bucknell 5-4, and Conn College defeated Northeastern 7-2.
Colby and Hamilton will play for the Epps Cup at 10 am tomorrow at Princeton.
E Division: Pool A action continued with Georgetown sweeping Fordham. The next round of matches is underway.
