CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Harvard Women's Lacrosse returns to Ivy League play tomorrow when it hosts No. 23 Penn in a noon contest at Jordan Field on ESPN+. The Crimson will honor the 50^th anniversary of Title IX with a free postgame clinic for kids 12 and under.

Junior Riley Campbell, coming off back-to-back four goal performances, leads Harvard with 16 goals on the season. Classmate Callie Hem leads Harvard with 20 points (14G, 6A) overall. Junior Ilana Kofman (12 ground balls, five caused turnovers) and senior captain Shea Jenkins (five caused turnovers, 20 draw controls, seven ground balls) have been impactful on the defensive end, as have first-year Despina Giannakopoulos (six caused turnovers, seven ground balls) and junior midfielder Maddie Barkate (four ground balls, 35 draw controls).

QUICK HITTERS 

- Harvard has won two straight games, most recently dispatching Coastal Carolina on Tuesday (March 14) with a 12-10 road victory. In that contest, Campbell scored four goals, Callie Hem had a game-high six points (two goals, four assists), and Charlotte Hodgson added a season high three goals to lead the Crimson. Sophomore goalie Lizzie Francioli made a career high 11 saves to earn the win.
- Hem was named Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week on Monday. She had seven goals in two games last week and is 24th (fourth in Ivy League) in the nation with a 62.5% mark on free position shots. Hem is also second in the Ivy League with 6.67 shots per game.
- Junior Maddie Barkate is one of the best in the nation on draw controls, leading the Ivy League with an average of 5.83 per game (28^th, NCAA).
- Harvard is third in the Ivy League with an average of 17.33 ground balls per game with Ilana Kofman (2.00 ground balls/game) leading the way.
- Harvard is second in the Ivy League in draw control percentage (53.2%) and clearing percentage (85.7%).
- Harvard returns all six players that earned All-Ivy League honors last season, including leading scorer Callie Hem (34 goals, 10 assists), and midfielders Grace Hulslander (19 goals, six assists, 50 draw controls) and Shea Jenkins (31 ground balls, 21 caused turnovers) each earned First Team All-Ivy honors. Maddie Barkate (22 goals, five assists), Stephanie Hong (27 ground balls) and Grace Taylor (31 ground balls, 17 caused turnovers) earned All-Ivy Honorable Mention.
 - Last season the Crimson clinched a bid into postseason play in thrilling fashion, defeating Brown, 15-14 on Senior Day with a last-minute defensive stop. Harvard met Princeton in the Ivy League semifinals in a back-and-forth contest that saw the Tigers pull away late for a 13-6 win.  
- Harvard was the top-ranked team in the Ivy League with an average of 17.93 ground balls per game in 2022, with six student-athletes (Shea Jenkins – 31, Grace Taylor – 31, Stephanie Hong – 27, Grace Hulslander – 21, Chloe Provenzano – 21, and Charley Meier – 20) all posting 20 or more ground balls.
- Senior captain Shea Jenkins and sophomore Grace Taylor will lead the Crimson defensively. Jenkins (1.40/game) and Taylor (1.29/game) were ranked 2^nd and 3^rd in the Ivy League respectively in caused turnovers per contest last season.
- Battling through injury and a career interrupted by the pandemic, junior midfielder Callie Hem enjoyed a breakout 2022 season, finishing fifth in the Ivy League with an average of 2.27 goals per game. She recorded a season high six goals against Yale last April and had Harvard's game-winning goal in its Ivy playoff-clinching win over Brown later in that same month.

THE MATCHUP

A LOOK AT PENN
Penn (3-2) is coming off a narrow 12-11 defeat to nationally-ranked Jacksonville in its last game, and is led by a balanced scoring attack featuring five players with seven or more goals. Leading the way for the Quakers is Niki Miles (12 goals, two assists), while Anna Brandt (11 goals, assist) is also a top scoring option. Kelly Van Hoesen has started all five games and has a 9.20 GAA and .403 Save%. Penn leads the Ivy League and is No. 3 in the nation with 21.20 ground balls per game.

HARVARD VS. PENN
Penn owns a 31-19 record in the all-time series against Harvard. Last year, the Crimson picked up its first win over Penn since April 9, 2000 with a 9-8 victory at Franklin Field on March 5, 2022. Riley Campbell scored four goals and Chloe Provenzano made six saves to lead Harvard.

NOTES AND STORYLINES 

HARVARD PICKED THIRD IN IVY PRESEASON POLL
Harvard women's lacrosse was picked to finish third in the 2023 Ivy League Women's Lacrosse Preseason Poll, the league announced in late January – Harvard's highest preseason ranking in several years.
 
IVY LEAGUE WOMEN'S LACROSSE PRESEASON POLL
Predicted Order of Finish

1.	Princeton (14)	126
2.	Yale (2)	114
3.	Harvard	81
4.	Cornell	77
5.	Penn	72
5.	Brown	53
7.	Dartmouth	37
8.	Columbia	16

 
HONG, JENKINS, LANGMUIR ELECTED CAPTAINS
Last fall, Devon Wills, The Carole Kleinfelder Head Coach for Harvard Women's Lacrosse, announced that seniors Stephanie Hong, Shea Jenkins, and Meredith Langmuir will serve as captains for the 2023 season.

Hong, a midfielder from Bethesda, Md., was an All-Ivy League Honorable Mention selection in her first full season of college lacrosse. An IWLCA Academic Honor Roll selection, Hong emerged as a regular starter in 2022 and was a key part of Harvard's efforts on clears, recording 27 ground balls with six caused turnovers and six draw controls.
 
Jenkins, a midfielder from Newburyport, Mass., is a two-time All-Ivy honoree, earning First Team honors in 2022 and Second Team honors in 2019. She led the team with 31 ground balls and 21 caused turnovers in 2022 and was a force in the defensive end. She added 26 draw controls and was named Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week on March 7 after Harvard's 9-8 win at Penn.
 
Langmuir, a midfielder from Providence, R.I., became a regular contributor in 2022, recording five goals in 11 games played, including standout performances in wins against Holy Cross (three goals) and Boston University (two goals). Langmuir is also an IWLCA Academic Honor Roll selection.

HARVARD AND PRINCETON TO BATTLE ON ESPNU
In its final regular season game of the 2023 season, the Harvard and Princeton will meet on April 30 at noon in a game that will be played on ESPNU, the network announced in early February. Harvard and Princeton are the lone Ivy schools that will open the season against ranked competition this weekend.

UP NEXT
Harvard will play a non-conference contest next Wednesday (March 22) at Merrimack with a 5 p.m. start.