GAME #6: No. 3/4 Cornell at Yale

TIP OFF: Saturday, March 21, at 1:30 p.m.

SITE: Reese Stadium (New Haven, Conn.)

2009 RECORDS: Cornell (4-1, 0-0 Ivy); Yale (3-2, 1-0 Ivy)

SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 43-22-1

LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 8-7 (OT), May 22, 2007; Schoellkopf Field

TELEVISION: None

RADIO: None

LIVE STATS: www.YaleBulldogs.com  

LIVE VIDEO: None

LIVE AUDIO: None

 

THE MATCHUP — No. 3/4 Cornell (4-1, 1-0) will play in its fourth road game of the season as it travels to New Haven, Conn., to open Ivy League play at Yale at Reese Stadium on March 21 at 1:30 p.m. The Bulldogs picked up their first Ivy League win last weekend in Philadelphia as they rallied to defeat Penn, 14-13, in overtime to improve to 3-2 on the year and 1-0 in the conference.

 

IVY OPENERS – The contest vs. Yale marks the 54th Ivy League season opener for Cornell men's lacrosse. Since the league began play in the 1956 season, the Big Red has posted a 38-15 record in Ivy League openers, including a perfect mark of 8-0 during head coach Jeff Tambroni's tenure. More often than not, Cornell has met either Yale or Harvard in the conference opener, playing a different school on only six occasions. 

 

SERIES HISTORY VS. YALE — The Cornell and Yale rivalry began in 1916 with a 5-1 Big Red victory, and Cornell has dominated the series ever since. The Big Red holds a 43-22-1 record in the series, thanks in large part to 22-straight victories over the Bulldogs from 1966 to 1987. Currently, Cornell is riding a nine-game winning streak vs. Yale, thanks to a thrilling 8-7 overtime victory last season at Schoellkopf Field. The Bulldogs' last win over Cornell came in New Haven during the 1999 season. 

 

LOOKING AT THE BULLDOGS — Yale is coming off its first Ivy League victory of the season with a 14-13 win in overtime over Penn last Saturday to improve to 3-2 overall and 1-0 in the conference. The Bulldogs have seen most of their offense come from the duo of Michael Karwoski and Brendan Gibson  with 15 points apiece. Kawoski is leading the team with 11 goals, while Gibson has scored 10. Gibson's younger brother Matt has registered a team-best six assists and is the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Week after scoring three goals and adding three helpers in the victory against Penn. In goal, Yale has been splitting time between Jonathan Falcone and Andrew Brown, with Falcone playing 180 minutes and Brown seeing action for 123 minutes. Falcone (3-1) has started three contests, has posted an 11.31 goals-against average and has stopped 50 percent of the shots he has faced. Brown (0-1) has started two games, has a 14.05 GAA, and has stopped just 35.6 percent of the shots he has faced. Both goalies saw action against Penn. 

THE LAST TIME VS. YALE — Ryan Hurley tucked a shot into the upper right-hand corner of the net on a rush from the corner of the field with one second remaining in overtime to give the No. 6/7 Big Red a dramatic 8-7 victory over Yale on Schoellkopf Field. Cornell improved to 5-1 (1-0 Ivy), while the Bulldogs lost despite a spirited effort defensively to slip to 1-4 (0-2 Ivy). Hurley's goal capped an exciting game that was played evenly throughout, with the Big Red needing to rally to knock off the upstart Bulldogs. After a restart, Hurley dodged to his left, spun back to his right and double clutched before beating goalkeeper George Carafides a second before the clock expired. The loss ruined a fantastic effort from the Bulldog goalkeeper, who made 13 saves to keep Yale in the contest. Hurley posted two goals and an assist, while John Espey added a goal and two assists. Max Seibald scored twice, including the game-tying goal with 5:31 left in regulation. He added 6-of-10 wins in the face-off circle after Yale dominated early, and added a team-best six ground balls. Jake Myers had a strong day in goal, making 10 saves to earn the win. The Bulldogs got two goals and two assists from Tyler Casertano, while Gregory DuBoff won 12-of-18 face-offs. Six different players combined for the Bulldogs' seven goals in a balanced offensive effort.

A WIN OVER YALE WOULD –

• improve the Big Red to 9-0 in Ivy League season openers under head coach Jeff Tambroni.

• give Cornell its 10th straight victory over the Bulldogs.

• improve Coach Tambroni's record vs. Yale to 9-0.

• give the Big Red a 39-15 record in Ivy League season openers.

 

AT THE HELM — In his ninth season as head coach of the Big Red, Jeff Tambroni owns a career record of 88-31. His winning percentage of .739 is the second-best among the nine coaches who have served as head coach at Cornell, ahead of the legendary Richie Moran (.680) and behind the all-time leader Ned Harkness (.972).

 

TAMBRONI AMONG THE BEST — Head coach Jeff Tambroni currently ranks fourth in the nation among active Division I coaches with a .739 winning percentage. Georgetown head coach David Urick and Syracuse head coach John Desko are the nation's leaders (.748).

 

SIX OF ONE … — The Big Red has claimed at least a share of the Ivy League title for the last six seasons, the longest stretch since winning 10 straight championships between 1974-83.

 

SIXTH SENSE — Cornell's six consecutive regular season Ivy League titles is the longest current stretch by any team in any conference.

 

THAT DIDN'T TAKE LONG – Just five games into the season, rookie Rob Pannell set the Cornell freshman record for assists in a single season (15), a mark previously held by Max Seibald (14 in 2006). Pannell leads the team with 15 assists.

 

SINGLE-DIGIT SUCCESS – When holding its opponents to less than 10 goals, the Big Red under Coach Tambroni owns a 77-10 record. Including its most recent 10-6 victory over Duke, Cornell has won 32 straight games when holding opponents to single digits, dating back to April 1, 2006, when it lost an 8-6 decision to Penn at Franklin Field.

 

SENIOR STOPPER – Kyle Harer had the best game of his career earlier this week when he made 17 saves against Duke to earn the 10-6 victory. Both his 17 saves and his .810 save percentage for the game were career-highs.

 

HURLEY AND SEIBALD 8, DUKE 6 – The combination of Ryan Hurley and Max Seibald provided all the offense the Big Red would need against Duke as the pair scored Cornell's first eight goals in a 10-6 victory. Hurley scored five goals, while Seibald chipped in three goals and two assists.

 

FRESH START - In his very first collegiate game against Binghamton, freshman Rob Pannell scored three goals and registered four assists for seven total points. With that performance, he set a Cornell record for assists by a freshman in a single-game, surpassing Pat Dutton (three assists vs. Delaware in 1996) and Max Seibald (three assists vs. Binghamton in 2006). He also matched the school mark for points by a rookie in a single-game, tying Michael Egan who registered five goals and two assists for seven points against Penn in 2000. Just two games later, Pannell matched his own school record with four assists against No. 1 Virginia. 

 

LONG OVERDUE – When Cornell played No. 1 Virginia on March 8, it was the first time the Big Red played a team with the No. 1 ranking since defeating Syracuse, 15-11, on April 9, 2002.

 

BACK-TO-BACK – The Big Red has not lost back-to-back games since the 2002 season when Cornell fell to Princeton and Brown on consecutive weekends, a span of 93 games.

 

FINISHING STRONG – Prior to Cornell's loss to No. 1 Virginia, the Big Red had won 25 straight contests when leading at the half, dating back to the team's 8-6 loss to Penn on April 1, 2006. Cornell is 26-1 in its last 27 games when leading at the intermission.

 

THAT'S NEW – The Big Red made its first appearance of the season on the newly refurbished Schoellkopf Field against Canisiuis on March 10. The historic stadium got a face-lift this summer when the AstroTurf surface was replaced with FeildTurf.

 

HOME IS WHERE THE WINS ARE — During Coach Tambroni's tenure, the Big Red is 46-10 at Schoellkopf Field, including a perfect 7-0 record in 2007 and a 6-0 slate during the 2005 season. This season, Cornell has a 1-0 record at Schoellkopf Field.

 

A LITTLE HELP – Cornell ranks second in the country in assists per game (9.0 apg).

 

HELPING HAND – Rob Pannell is currently ranked first in the country and first in the Ivy League in assists per game (3.00 apg).

 

GET TO THE POINT — Rob Pannell is currently ranked first in the nation in points per game (4.75 pgp), while Ryan Hurley ranks 18th in the nation and third in the Ivy League (3.75 pgp). 

 

SCORING MACHINE – Ryan Hurley is ranked fourth in the country and first in the Ivy League with 3.00 goals per game.

 

MEN IN THE MIDDLE – John Glynn is currently fifth in the nation with a .608 face off win percentage, while Tommy Schmicker ranks 21st overall with a winning percentage of .556. As a team, the Big Red ranks 16th in the country with a .551 winning percentage.

 

(BIG) RED HOT OFFENSE – The Big Red is fifth in the country and first in the Ivy League in scoring offense, averaging 12.75 goals per game.

 

LOCK DOWN DEFENSE – Cornell is 14th in the country and third in the Ivy League in scoring defense, allowing just 8.0 goals per game.

 

IN THE MARGIN — Cornell ranks fifth in the country in scoring margin, outscoring its opponents by an average of 4.75 goals per game.

 

MAY I ASSIST YOU – Through the first five games of the 2009 season, the Big Red has assisted on 42-of-61 goals (68.8 percent). Last season, Cornell managed to assist on just 95-of-167 goals (56.9 percent).

 

GOING STREAKING – As of Wednesday, March 18, Cornell senior Max Seibald owned the longest point-scoring streak on the team and the third-longest in the nation, having registered at least one point in the last 39 games dating back to Cornell's 4-3 victory over Princeton on April 22, 2006. Junior Ryan Hurley is also on the list, owning the 10th-longest streak in the nation, registering at least one point in the last 20 games dating back to the 2008 season opener.

 

TURN OF THE CENTURY – With his two goals and one assist vs. Hobart last season, Max Seibald became the 34th player in Cornell history to register 100 career points. In the second game of this season, John Glynn joined Seibald when his one goal and two assists against Army gave the senior 101 points for his career. 

 

TEAM USA – US Lacrosse has announced that five players with Cornell ties – Ryan McClay '03, Mitch Belisle '07, Matt McMonagle '07, John Glynn '09 and Max Seibald '09 - have been selected to try out for the 2010 U.S. men's lacrosse team that will compete in the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Championship in Manchester, England from July 10-24, 2010. The tryouts will be held from June 7-10, 2009 at Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I.

 

PLAYER OF THE WEEK – Senior John Glynn earned the first Ivy League Player of the Week honor of his career following his stellar effort in No. 4 Cornell's 9-8 victory over Army on Feb. 28. Glynn became the 35th player in Cornell history to register 100 career points when he tallied one goal and two assists against the Black Knights at Michie Stadium. The senior midfielder also won 10-of-17 face-offs and picked up a game-high seven ground balls. Glynn was clutch late in the game, scoring Cornell's eighth goal of the contest before assisting on Max Seibald's game-winner with 1:00 to play. Glynn then won the crucial en suing face off, allowing the Big Red to run out the clock for the victory.

 

TEWAARATON WATCH – The Tewaaraton Award Foundation has announced its spring 2009 men's lacrosse preseason Watch List and Cornell has placed four student-athletes on the list as John Glynn, Ryan Hurley, Matt Moyer and Max Seibald have all been named to the list.

 

GEOGRAPHY LESSON – The 45 players on the Big Red roster hail from 14 different states – California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington – as well as the District of Columbia and two Canadian provinces – Ontario and British Columbia.

 

OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN – For just the second time since 1966, the Big Red will have a single team captain, as Max Seibald will serve as the Cornell captain for the second straight year.

 

HARD HAT – Attackman Ryan Hurley has been selected to carry the Hard Hat for the 2009 season. The tradition of the Hard Hat began in the fall of 1999. Midway through the fall season, a player is selected to carry the Hard Hat for the year. The recipient is someone that the coaches feel demonstrates a blue-collar approach to the game of lacrosse; he is driven and selfless, not the most talented player on the field, but consistently the hardest worker. He puts the team first, and embodies how the coaches want Cornell players to act and respond on or off the field.

 

SENIOR CLASS AWARD – Max Seibald is among 30 student-athletes that were announced as the official candidates for the men's lacrosse division of the 2009 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award.The award, presented annually to NCAA Division I student-athletes each year in eight sports, focuses on the “Four C's” of classroom, character, community and competition. The list of 30 student-athletes will be narrowed down to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those 10 names will then be placed on the official ballot. The ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select the candidate who best exemplifies excellence in the “Four C's” of Classroom, Character, Community, and Competition. The award winner will be announced and presented with his trophy at the 2009 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship in Foxborough, Mass.

 

SAVES A LOT - Last year, Cornell goalie Jake Myers posted a season-high 14 saves against Syracuse on April 8, 2008. In the very first game of the 2009 season the goalie tandem of Kyle Harer and Mat Martinez combined for 15 saves, with Harer stopping 10 shots in 51:51 before Martinez made five saves in the final 8:09 against Binghamton. 

 

85 WINS — With the Big Red's 18-6 victory over Binghamton on Feb. 21, 2009, head coach Jeff Tambroni notched his 85th career win, becoming just the second head coach in Cornell men's lacrosse history to reach that plateau. Tambroni reached the milestone in his 115th career game during his ninth season. The only other Big Red coach to reach 85 wins was Richie Moran, who defeated Harvard, 21-7, in his eighth season (1976) to achieve an 85-14 record.

 

FOR STARTERS - Cornell is 59-50-5 all-time in season openers, including a 7-2 mark during Coach Jeff Tambroni's tenure.

 

BACK ON THE OFFENSIVE – Players on the 2009 roster accounted for 221 of the 262 points (84 percent) that the Big Red registered last season.

 

NON-CONFERENCE WINS — With its victory over Duke on March 17, Cornell improved to 25-4 in its last 29 regular-season non-conference games, dating back to the Big Red's 16-14 victory over Syracuse in the Carrier Dome on April 12, 2005. Two of those three losses during that span came at the hands of the Orange (2006, 2008), while the others came to ACC teams No. 7/8 North Carolina (13-8 on March 2, 2008) and No. 1/1 Virginia (14-10, March 8, 2009).

 

ELITE COMPANY – Over the past six seasons, Cornell has been among the best in the nation, boasting the highest winning percentage of all Division I teams during that span (.782) and ranking sixth overall in number of victories (61).

 

FIVE IS RARE — When Cornell dropped a 13-8 decision to No. 7/8 UNC on March 2, it was the largest margin of defeat since the Big Red dropped a 14-4 decision to Georgetown during the 2004 season. Just over one month later, Cornell fell to No. 1 Syracuse, 15-8, the most lopsided victory in the series since 1997. During Coach Tambroni's career (119 games), Cornell has lost by five or more goals only nine times.

 

CHAMPIONSHIP LINEAGE – Three players currently on the Cornell roster have fathers that have won a national championship with the Big Red – David Lau (George '78), Julian Levine (Jon '76) and Shane O'Neill (John '76). George Lau was a two-time winner as part of both the 1976 and 1977 national championship squads, while Jon Levine and John O'Neill joined him on the 1976 team.

 

CLOSE CALLS — Since the beginning of the 2003 season, Cornell is 19-4 in games that have been decided by a single goal, a mark that was raised as the Big Red defeated Army, 9-8 Feb. 28, 2009, at Michie Stadium. The only blemishes during the stretch were a 6-5 loss to Navy in the 2004 NCAA quarterfinals, a 12-11 loss to Syracuse on April 11, 2006, a 10-9 loss to UMass in the opening round of the NCAA tournament on May 13, 2006 and a 12-11 loss to Duke in the national semifinal on May 26, 2007. Coach Jeff Tambroni is 22-10 in one-goal games during his tenure with the Big Red, including a 6-2 mark in overtime games.

 

WIN NO. 650 – Cornell's 16-11 victory over Dartmouth on April 12, 2008 was the 650th win in program history. To date, the team's 656 victories rank seventh all-time among the winningest programs in collegiate lacrosse. 

 

PRESASON POLLS – The Big Red was selected to finish fourth in the nation in both the Inside Lacrosse and USILA Coaches Preseason polls, the highest selection among all Ivy League schools.

 

11-WINS – The Big Red has posted at least 11 wins in each of the past four seasons and five times overall during head coach Jeff Tambroni's eight-year tenure.

 

NEUTRAL ZONE – Since the start of the 2006 season, the Big Red is 6-1 in neutral site games, with two victories over Notre Dame (Chicago, 2006 and Long Island, 2007), a single victory over Albany (Princeton, 2007), Navy (Long Island, 2008), Denver (Dallas, Texas) and Harvard (Foxborough, Mass.). The lone loss came at the hands of Duke in the 2007 national semifinal (Baltimore, Md.).

 

SMARTY PANTS – Cornell has had six CoSIDA Academic At-Large All-Americans, including five during Coach Tambroni's tenure, as David Key '01, Tim DeBlois '04 and Casey Stevenson '05 were named to the 2001, 2004 and 2005 second-team, respectively, while Mitch Belisle '07 and Matt McMonagle '07 earned first-team honors in 2007. Unlike other Academic All-America teams in which the selections are all from the same sport, the At-Large men's team is highly competitive as it is comprised of athletes from fencing, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming, tennis, volleyball, water polo and wrestling. To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director.

 

RECAPPING 2008 — The No. 7/8 Big Red finished the 2008 season with an 11-4 overall record and its sixth straight Ivy League title with a mark of 5-1 in the conference. Cornell advanced to the NCAA tournament for the fifth straight season and finished the year ranking in the top 10 in the nation in face-off winning percentage (third - .610 pct.), scoring offense (eighth - 11.13 gpg.), win percentage (eighth – .733 pct.) and scoring margin (ninth – 2.60 gpg.).

 

EVERYBODY'S ALL-AMERICAN – For the second straight season, midfielder Max Seibald was named a first-team All-American. Joining Seibald on the 2008 All-American teams were John Glynn (second), Ryan Hurley (honorable mention) and Matt Moyer (honorable mention). The Big Red has placed at least four members on the All-American teams for each of the past four seasons.

 

TICKLE THE (ALL) IVY – Following the 2008 season, four members of the Big Red – John Glynn, Ryan Hurley, Matt Moyer and Max Seibald – were named first-team All-Ivy, while two others – John Espey and Nick Gradinger – garnered honorable mention selections. Of the four first-team selections, Glynn, Hurley and Seibald were unanimous choices by the league's coaches.

 

SOPHOMORE STANDOUT – In his first season as a starter, Ryan Hurley proved to be one of the great young offensive threats in Big Red history. His 60 points on the season were the most by a Cornell sophomore since Eamon McEneaney tallied 96 points in 1975. Other than McEneaney, the only other sophomore in Cornell history to register more points than Hurley did during the 2008 season was Mike French (94 in 1974). In recent years, the only sophomore that has come close to matching Hurley's output was Sean Greenhalgh, who tallied 46 points in 2003.

 

CONFERENCE WINS — Cornell had a 14-game Ivy League winning-streak snapped after losing to Princeton on April 21, 2008. The 14 consecutive victories was the second-longest stretch in school history behind only its NCAA record 39-game streak from 1973-79. The 14 straight wins was also the longest active conference winning streak in the nation at the time that it ended.

 

UP NEXT – The Big Red returns to Ithaca next weekend to play host to Penn at Schoellkopf Field on Saturday, March 28 at noon.