GAME INFORMATION
GAME #1: No. 10 Cornell at No. 4 Syracuse
FACE OFF: Sunday, February 15, at 4:00 p.m.
SITE: The Carrier Dome (Syracuse, N.Y.)
2015 Records: Cornell (0-0, 0-0 Ivy League); Syracuse (1-0, 0-0 ACC)
SERIES RECORD: Syracuse leads, 63-37-1
LAST MEETING: Syracuse won 14-9, April 8, 2014 in Ithaca, N.Y.
GAME NOTES: Cornell | Syracuse 

FOLLOW THE BIG RED
GAME LINKS: Tickets | Video | Audio | Live Stats 
RADIO: WHCU 870 AM (Ithaca)
TELEVISION: TWC Sports (Channel 51 in Ithaca)
Facebook I Twitter I YouTube
Sign up to receive text messages I Sign up for weekly newsletters
 
THE MATCHUP: The Cornell men's lacrosse team opens its 120th season this weekend as it takes on one of its fiercest non-conference rivals, No. 4 Syracuse, on Sunday, Feb. 15 at the Carrier Dome at 4 p.m. The Feb. 15 start to the season is the earliest in the history of the Big Red program and will mark just the third time in the history of the series that Cornell will face the Orange in its season opener. Syracuse opened its season with a 21-7 victory over Siena last weekend. The game can be seen locally on Time Warner Cable Sports (channel 51 in Ithaca) and can be heard online through the Ivy League Digital Network or locally on WHCU 870 AM with Barry Leonard and Tom LaFalce on the call.
 
SERIES HISTORY VS. SYRACUSE: The Cornell and Syracuse rivalry began in 1920 with a 5-3 victory for the Orangemen. Since that time, there have been only four seasons (1944, 1945, 1977, 1978) that the two squads have not faced each other. Syracuse holds the edge in the series, 63-37-1, but the teams have split the last four outings with the Orange winning the last two seasons. Since the 2000 season, the series has been extremely close, with the Orange holding a 10-6 lead as the teams have played six one-goal games, with two others being decided by two goals.

LOOKING AT THE ORANGE (portions courtesy Cuse.com):  Fourth-ranked Syracuse opened its season with a 21-7 victory over Siena on Feb. 7. Thirteen different players scored goals for Syracuse and senior goalie Bobby Wardwell tallied five saves in 36:40. He was replaced by junior transfer Warren Hill midway through the third quarter. Hill made three saves in his SU debut. The Orange brings back six of its top nine point producers from last season and 75 percent of its total goals from a year ago (156-208). The leading returning goal-scorer is Dylan Donahue (37). Donahue (54), Kevin Rice (80) and Randy Staats (56) all topped 50 points last season, the first time since 2001 Syracuse featured three 50-point scorers. Overall, SU returns 76.2 percent of its points (256-336), led by Rice's 80 (36 goals, 44 assists).

CORNELL VS. THE ACC: Cornell is 55-80-1 all-time vs. the current members of the ACC, thanks mostly to its newest member Syracuse, which owns the lead in the series, 63-37-1. The Big Red holds a winning record vs. Duke (5-4), North Carolina (4-3) and Notre Dame (5-1) but has a losing mark vs. Virginia (5-9).

A WIN OVER SYRACUSE WOULD:
• be Cornell's 12th consecutive victory in a season opener.
• be the 726th win in program history.
• end a two-game winning streak by the Orange.
• make Cornell 38-63-2 all-time in the series.
• improve head coach Matt Kerwick's career record to 121-106 and to 2-7 vs. the Orange.

RECAPPING 2014: Under the direction of Interim Head Coach Matt Kerwick, the 2014 squad exceeded all expectations. Cornell was selected 17th overall in the 2014 Inside Lacrosse Face-Off Yearbook Preseason Poll, marking the first time since being tabbed 11th in 2003 that Cornell was chosen to finish outside the top 10. Once the Big Red season began on Feb. 22, the team rose in the USILA poll for four straight weeks before earning a No. 2 ranking on March 24. Altogether, the team stayed in the top 10 for five straight weeks. The Big Red opened the season with a 9-0 record and was the last undefeated team in the nation. The 9-0 start was the best by a first-year coach in Cornell history since Ned Harkness won 22 straight and the team finished with an 11-5 record overall and a mark of 5-1 in the Ivy League. The team won the Ivy League title and earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, where it fell to national semifinalist Maryland on a goal scored with two seconds to play in the contest. Following the season, Cornell swept the major Ivy League awards with Connor Buczek and Christian Knight earning Player and Rookie of the Year honors, respectively. The Big Red also had seven All-Ivy selections, including four first-team honorees, and five All-Americans.

THE HEAD COACH: Matt Kerwick was named the Richard M. Moran Head Coach of Men's Lacrosse at Cornell University on June 11, 2014. Kerwick, who served in the position on an interim basis during the 2014 season, became the 11th head coach in the programs' 122-year history ... Kerwick has 16 years of head coaching experience (120-106) with stints at Jacksonville University, Hobart, Alfred and Randolph-Macon. 
 
WHAT WAS LOST:  One of Cornell's most significant losses from the 2014 roster came with the graduation of Doug Tesoriero, who established himself as one of the best face-off men in Big Red history, setting the school record and ranking 11th in NCAA history with 667 career face-off wins. Other significant losses include All-American defender Tom Freshour and four-year letter winner Mike O'Neill. 

WHAT RETURNS: Cornell returns eight starters and 19 letter winners overall, including the 2014 Ivy League Player of the Year and first-team All-American midfielder Connor Buczek, and the Ivy League Rookie of the Year in goalie Christian Knight. The team features 14 seniors, including 10 that have seen at least one season worth of significant playing time on East Hill, including a trio of All-Americans in attackmen Matt Donovan and Dan Lintner, as well as defender Jordan Stevens.

PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS: Cornell had three players named to the 2015 Face-Off Magazine Preseason All-American list. Connor Buczek was a first-team selection, while Jordan Stevens and Matt Donovan were named to the second- and third-team, respectively.
 
EARLIEST START: The Feb. 15 start to the season is the earliest in Cornell program history. Previously, the earliest the Big Red had ever started a season came in an 18-6 victory at Binghamton on Feb. 21, 2009 ... By comparison, in1892, Cornell's first-ever season, the team played its first contest on May 28.  
 
FOR STARTERS: Cornell is 64-50-5 all-time in season openers and has won its last 11 season openers dating back to a 13-6 loss to Georgetown in the first game of the 2003 season.

EMPIRE STATE OF MIND: Cornell has traditionally been very successful against collegiate teams from New York state, posting an all-time record of 278-160-7 (.633) … The Big Red will face seven teams from New York in 2015.

RANKED OPPONENTS: The Big Red's 2015 season currently features seven opponents ranked in the USILA Coaches Poll – Syracuse (fourth) Virginia, (ninth), Harvard (11th), Albany (12th), Penn (13th), Yale (15th), and Hofstra (17th).

ELITE COMPANY: Over the past 10 seasons (2005-2014) only eight schools have registered 100 victories – Duke (151), UVA (127), Cornell (121), Syracuse (118), Notre Dame (114), Denver (113), Maryland (112), Hopkins (111) … During that span, only six have won at least 70 percent of its games – Duke (.803), Cornell (.766), Virginia (.760), Notre Dame (.735), Syracuse (.728) and Hopkins (.715).

OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN: The Big Red will have four captains this season – seniors Connor Buczek, Matt Donovan, Dan Lintner, and Jordan Stevens.

HARD HAT: Brennan Donville has been selected to carry the Hard Hat for the 2015 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.

HI, MY NAME IS: The Big Red has a new faces on the sideline, as Chris Kivlen has joined the staff as an assistant coach. Kivlen came to East Hill following three extremely successful seasons as the head coach at Montclair State where he registered an overall record of 41-13, including a perfect conference record (18-0), three league championships and three NCAA Tournament appearances. For his efforts, he was named the Skyline Conference Coach of the Year each season and turned Montclair State into one of the top programs in the region. A standout defenseman during his playing career for Albany, Kivlen was part of three conference championship teams. 

FRESH FACES; The Big Red added 14 newcomers to the 2015 roster, two of whom are transfer students.
The group features seven high school All-Americans and is comprised of seven midfielders, three defenders, three attackmen, and one long stick midfielder. Additionally, the players represent six states with seven players hailing from New York, three from New Jersey and one each from Colorado, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

MOVING ON UP:
•Matt Donovan ranks 21^st in Cornell history for career points (125) and needs just three more to move into a tie with John Glynn and Matt Crowley in 19th place.
•Matt Donovan ranks 23rd in Cornell history for career assists (45) and needs just one more to move into a five-way tie for 19th place.
•Matt Donovan ranks 25th in Cornell history for career goals (80) and needs just one more to move into a tie with Matt Crowley in 24th place.
•Dan Lintner ranks 45th in Cornell history for career goals (58) and needs just two more to move into a tie with David Key in 44th place.
 
WIN NO. 725: Cornell's 12-10 victory over Princeton on April 26, 2014 was the 725th win in program history. The Big Red is now 725-448-27 all-time, and its 725 victories rank seventh among the winningest programs in collegiate lacrosse.
 
FAMILY TIES:
• Head Coach Matt Kerwick's parents Thomas and the late Patricia Kerwick, as well as his sister Ann, all graduated from Cornell.
• Russell Scott has a total of 14 family members that attended Cornell, while his grandfather, Thomas W. Scott, is a retired Cornell professor of Agronomy … His father, Tom (football), his uncles John Dentes (football), George Dentes (football/sprint football/baseball), Terry Scott (sprint football), and Sam Happel (lacrosse) and his cousins Scott Dentes (sprint football) and Zak Dentes (sprint football) all played sports at Cornell … Happel played on the Big Red's national semifinal team in 1982.
• Chris Cook's father, Kevin '84, and uncle, Ed Cook '86, were All-American lacrosse players for Cornell.
• Ryan Matthew's cousin Matt Sutherland played lacrosse at Cornell.
• Tim LaBeau's father Tim '77 played football for the Big Red from 1973-77, while his mother, Nancy '78, and two sisters, Kristi '09 and Kate '10, all graduated from Cornell.
• Matt Schattner's uncle, Mark Major, played hockey at Cornell from 1984-87, while his aunt, Martha Manilla Major, played soccer for the Big Red from 1986-87.
• Dan Nemirov's mother, Jamie, as well as one aunt and his maternal grandfather all graduated from Cornell. 
• Scott Flynn's grandfather Norman Penney attended Cornell Law School and later served as both a professor in the law school and Dean of University Faculty. 
•Charlie Estill's grandfather Frederick Siefke graduated from Cornell in 1948.
•Troy Revello's older sister Grace attends Cornell.
 
IVY KINGS
• Since Ivy League play began in 1956, Cornell has won a conference-high 28 titles, including 17 undefeated crowns.
• Cornell has won a share of 11 of the last 12 Ivy League titles.
• The Big Red also has the best Ivy League record of any team in the conference at 247-98-1 (.715).
 
MLL DRAFT FACTS:
•Senior midfielder Connor Buczek was selected second overall by the Florida Launch in the 2015 Major League Lacrosse Draft becoming the Big Red's highest ranked draft pick since Rob Pannell was taken first overall by the New York Lizards in 2012.
•Cornell had a pair of third round selections in senior attackman Matt Donovan (18th – Chesapeake Bayhawks) and senior defensemen Jordan Stevens. (21st – Rochester Rattlers).
•Cornell was one of eight schools with three or more players drafted, but of those eight schools, only Notre Dame also featured a first round draft pick (Jack Near – seventh overall).  
•Since having a program-high five players selected in the 2007 MLL Draft, the Big Red has had multiple picks in five of the last nine drafts. In that same time frame, Cornell has had five first round draft picks, including one selection at No. 1 (Pannell), and two at No. 2 (Buczek and Max Seibald).  
 
ON THE WORLD STAGE: The Big Red had 10 former or current players suit up on the field at this past summer's 2014 Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Championships, including junior Brennan Donville, Jesse Gamble '11 and Jason Noble '13, who took home the gold medal with Team Canada. Additionally, Mitch Belisle '07, Max Seibald '09, and Rob Pannell '13 earned silver with Team USA, while Myan Adams '13 won the bronze with the Iroquois Nation. Cornell also had two players with Israel Lacrosse (Coldy Levine '13 and Cole McCormack '14) and one with Team Sweden (Sten Jernudd '14).

GEOGRAPHY LESSON: The 43 players on the 2015 Big Red roster hail from 12 different states – California (2), Colorado (1), Connecticut (1), Florida (1), Maryland (4), New Jersey (7), New York (18), Ohio (1), Pennsylvania (1), Tennessee (1), Texas (1), and Virginia (2), as well as two Canadian provinces – Alberta (1) and Ontario (2).

NEXT UP: The Big Red remains on the road to take on its oldest rival and Coach Kerwick's alma mater, Hobart in Geneva on Saturday, Feb. 21 at 1 p.m. The game will be the 135th meeting between the two programs, with the Big Red holding an 84-47-4 advantage in the all-time series, which began in 1896.