In the 129-year history of Harvard men's lacrosse, the Crimson hold a record of 524-524-11. This Saturday, Penn will try to make the squad from Cambridge an all-time losing program.
More recent history is not on the Quakers' side: Harvard has beaten Penn three seasons in a row, including a 7-6 overtime victory last year in Boston.
The Quakers (3-2, 1-0 Ivy) return to Franklin Field after two spring break road trips, in which they topped Air Force 13-10 and Yale 9-7, but fell to Denver 11-12 in overtime.
"It was good, but it could have been better," coach Brian Voelker said. "We feel like we let one get away from us in the Denver game."
The No. 19 Crimson (4-1) open their Ivy League schedule riding a four-game winning streak and are averaging 10 goals per game over that stretch.
But Penn might have to worry more about solving goalie Joe Pike. The junior leads the conference with a 4.29 goals against average and has a 64.4 save percentage to boot.
"They're not blowing anybody's doors off, but they're playing well together," Voelker said of the Crimson, who returned 30 letterwinners and six starters from last year.
"Their coach is having them do the right things."
Just the fourth man atop Harvard since 1949, John Tillman arrived in Boston this past fall after 13 seasons as an assistant with Navy. His only slip so far has been a 6-5 loss to unranked Siena that Voelker described as "shocking."
Since then, the Crimson have been on fire, downing current No. 20 Stony Brook, Massachusetts, Hartford and then-No. 20 Fairfield. They outscored their opponents by 24 goals over that stretch.
The Quakers hope to fight fire with fire, using attacker Craig Andrzejewski as the main weapon.
Andrzejewski earned USILA All-America honorable mention and second-team All-Ivy honors last season. He's sticking to form so far this year, leading the Quakers with 19 points.
"Going into the season, we were counting on him to be our best offensive player and to be one of the best players in our league - and he's done that," said Voelker.
"He's got a tough match-up [this week], but he's going to be the guy who leads us on the offensive end."
Andrzejewski chuckled at the prospect of being named among the best in the league.
"I just do what I can out there and see what happens," he said. "I don't know what you want me to say."
The junior from Maryland said his squad needs to commit fewer turnovers and focus harder on holding a lead this weekend.
His coach would surely agree, noting that the Crimson have a lot of buzz around them this year.
"Our goal is to win the league," Voelker said. "To win the league you have to win the games, and they're not many of them."
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