Bulldogs kick off regular season at Villanova on Feb. 19
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Six games in the friendly confines of Reese Stadium highlight the 2023 Yale men's lacrosse schedule. The Bulldogs were a perfect 8-0 in their home stadium last season. In all, there are 12 regular season games on the schedule, eight of which will come against teams that finished in the top 22 in the final NCAA national RPI last spring.
Yale, which advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament a year ago, has a pair of scrimmage dates before kicking off the season - at Fairfield on Feb. 4 and home vs. Wesleyan and RIT on Feb. 12.
The season opener is set for Feb. 19 at Villanova. Last year at Reese, Matt Brandauscored five goals and added an assist as the Bulldogs edged the Wildcats 17-14 on a snowy afternoon in New Haven.
Yale's home opener comes on Feb. 25 at noon vs. Penn State. The Bulldogs have won 15 straight games at Reese. Their last home loss came to Villanova, 17-16, in the 2019 home opener.
Yale visits UMass on Mar. 4 before hosting Denver on Mar. 11. The Pioneers are visiting New Haven for the first time since 2005.
The Ivy League had five teams advance to the NCAA Tournament last spring and should be among the nation's best conferences again in 2023. Yale's Ivy opener comes on Mar. 18 at Reese against Cornell, which advanced to the championship game of the NCAA Tournament last year.
Yale meets Princeton on Mar. 25 in New Jersey. The two teams played a pair of highly entertaining games a year ago. Brandau had eight points in a 14-12 Bulldog victory in the regular season, but the Tigers won the rematch, 14-10, in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament.
The Bulldogs are back on the road a week later, facing Penn on Apr. 1 at Franklin Field. The Quakers were No. 7 in the final RPI last season.
Yale takes a break from Ivy play to host Boston University on Apr. 4. The Terriers, who were No. 16 in the RPI, are coached by Ryan Polley who spent six seasons as an assistant coach on Andy Shay's staff at Yale.
The BU game is the first of three straight home games. The Bulldogs host Dartmouth on Apr. 8 and Brown on Apr. 15.
The final non-conference game takes Yale to New York's Capital Region to face Albany. The Bulldogs then close out the regular season at Harvard on Apr. 29.
The four-team Ivy League Tournament will be held the following weekend at the site of the top seed.
The NCAA Tournament quarterfinal sites are set for Annapolis, Md., and Albany, N.Y., and championship weekend returns to Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia over Memorial Day weekend.