CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Harvard women's basketball's (16-11, 9-5 Ivy) quest to its first Ivy Madness title will begin Friday, March 15 as the Crimson battle two-seed Columbia (22-5, 13-1 Ivy) in a rematch of the 2023 historic semifinals.  Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. ET in Levien Gymnasium and on ESPN+. 

What to Know

• The Crimson started its season with 13 non-conference games, starting the year 7-6 with wins over Boston College, Quinnipiac, UMass, North Dakota State, SMU, UMass Lowell, and Delaware.
• Harvard has accumulated a 9-5 league record and earned the third-seed in Ivy Madness for the second straight season. 
• The Crimson closed out its regular season more than a week ago by downing Dartmouth in dominant fashion, 75-48. 
• The Crimson will battle the two-seeded Columbia Lions to open the weekend, setting the stage for a rematch of last year's semifinals clash.  Harvard walked away with the victory last season, posting the first upset in tournament history by downing the Lions, 72-65, in overtime. 
• The contest will feature the league's top two scorers in Columbia's Abbey Hsu and the Crimson Harmoni Turner.  Hsu averages 20.6 points per game to Turner's 19.3.  Both players were named First-Team All-Ivy this past week. 
• At the conclusion of the Ivy League regular season, the Crimson rank first in three-point percentage defense (28.8%), second in assists (14.5), and third in scoring (69.0), field goal percentage (43.2%), three-point percentage (31.8%), and three-pointers made per game (6.7). 
• Harmoni Turner is one of just five Division I women's basketball players to average at least 19.0 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 4.3 assists.  Turner is among elite company as only Daisha Bradford (UL Monroe), Rachael Rose (Wofford), Hannah Hidalgo (Notre Dame), and Caitlin Clark (Iowa) match or best the stat line. 
• This past week, three Crimson players earned All-Ivy honors, led by Harmoni Turner taking home her second straight First-Team All-Ivy followed by Katie Krupa and Lola Mullaney each earning Honorable Mention All-Ivy. 
• Elena Rodriguez has consistently provided all-around performances for the Crimson through her first 22 appearances.  The junior is averaging 10.7 PTS, 6.7 REB, 3.3 AST, 0.7 BLK, and 1.2 STL per contest.  The Aguimes, Spain native who had a breakout season last year continues to shine for the Crimson.  In 2023-24, Rodriguez has scored in double figures in 13 games, and led the team in rebounding and assists 13 and 10 times, respectively. 
• As the lone active Crimson senior, Lola Mullaney has made her familiarity with college basketball known this season.  Mullaney is currently averaging 13.6 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 1.1 steals per game through the first 27 contests.  Currently with 278 career three-pointers and by averaging 2.2 per game this year, Mullaney looks to continue to move up the Harvard all-time career three-pointers list.  The senior most recently moved into No. 2 all-time, passing Erin Maher '93 and trails only Katie Benzan '20 (287) on the all-time lists.
• Katie Krupa has had a breakout sophomore season, having started and contributed high statistical numbers in each of the Crimson 27 games in 2023-24.  The sophomore is averaging 11.1 points while shooting 50.0% from the field, 2.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 0.9 blocks per game as opposed to her 5.3 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 0.7 assists in her first year with the Crimson. 
• The Crimson hold a dominant 65-13 lead in the all-time series against the Lions and will look to snap a three game losing streak on Friday. 

Next Up

The winner of Friday's second semifinal match up will face off against the winner of No. 1 Princeton versus No. 4 Penn on Saturday, March 15 at 5:00 p.m. on ESPNews.