GAME #1: Cornell vs. Binghamton
TIP OFF: Saturday, Feb. 21, at 12:00 p.m.
SITE: Bearcat Sport Complex, Binghamton, N.Y.
2009 RECORDS: Cornell (0-0); Binghamton (0-0)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 5-0
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 12-5, March 25, 2008; Schoellkopf Field
RADIO: WHCU 870 AM (Ithaca, N.Y.)
THE MATCHUP — The 114th Cornell men's lacrosse season opens this weekend as the No. 7/6 Big Red travels down I-81 for the first-ever trip to Binghamton at the Bearcats Sports Complex on Saturday, Feb. 21 at noon. The game is the season-opener for both teams, marking the third time in the last four years that Cornell has opened the season against the Bearcats. The Big Red is coming off an 11-4 season, while Binghamton finished 2008 with an overall record of 4-8.
SERIES HISTORY VS. BINGHAMTON — Cornell holds a 5-0 lead in the all-time series with Binghamton, defeating the Bearcats at Schoellkopf Field for the past five seasons. Saturday's game will be the first contest in the series to be played in Binghamton.
LOOKING AT THE BEARCATS — Binghamton finished the 2008 season with a record of 4-8 and a mark of 2-3 in the America East. Still, the team was competitive in almost every contest, with five of its losses coming by two goals or fewer, including an overtime heartbreaker to UMBC in the conference tournament semifinals. The Bearcats return their top five scorers from the 2008 squad, including team-leading Andy Cook, who tallied 10 goals and four assists for 14 points. Binghamton, the top man-down defensive team in the nation last year, also returns starting goalie Larry Kline. The senior netminder finished the 2008 season ranked 11th in the nation with a 7.41 goals-against average and 22nd with a .564 save percentage.
A WIN OVER BINGHAMTON WOULD –
• be the 85th of coach Tambroni's career.
• make Cornell 6-0 all-time vs. the Bearcats.
• improve the Big Red to 9-1 vs. America East opponents during coach Tambroni's tenure.
• give Cornell its ninth-straight victory over an America East opponent.
• make Cornell 60-50-5 all-time in season openers, as well as 7-2 during Coach Tambroni's tenure.
THE LAST TIME VS. BINGHAMTON — The No. 6/8 Big Red used five unanswered goals in the opening quarter of play to go up early and then held Binghamton scoreless for over 34 minutes late, as it defeated the Bearcats, 12-5, on Schoellkopf Field.
Ryan Hurley continued his hot streak, scoring a game-high four goals, while Chris Ritchie also posted four points on two goals and two assists.
John Espey had three points (one goal, two assists) and
Kyle Doctor scored twice and added an assist late in the game for three points.
Chris Finn was the only other mutli-point scorer, as he found the back of the net twice. Jake Boyce and Chris Mulheron registered two goals apiece for Binghamton, with Boyce adding an assist for a team-high three points. In goal,
Jake Myers made six saves in 45:57, including several impressive saves in the first quarter to help keep the Bearcats scoreless.
Mat Martinez came on in relief with 14:03 left in the contest and made two saves while allowing one goal. For Binghamton, Larry Kline kept the visitors in the game with 10 saves in 56:25 before Jeff Walker made an appearance but did not face a shot. Cornell outshot Binghamton (39-19) and held the slim advantage in ground balls (33-32). The Big Red also won 11-of-20 face-offs, thanks mostly to
Tommy Schmicker, who took 10-of-17 restarts. The home team also converted 2-of-2 extra-man opportunities, while holding Binghamton to 0-of-5 in man-up situations.
CORNELL VS. THE AMERICA EAST – The Big Red is 14-6 all-time vs. the current members of the America East. Cornell is 5-0 all-time vs. Binghamton, 3-0 vs. Stony Brook, and 1-0 vs. Albany. The Big Red has a losing record vs. UMBC (5-6) but has never faced Hartford or Vermont ... Coach Tambroni has posted a 8-1 record vs. the America East with Cornell winning its last eight contests vs. AE opponents, dating back to a 6-5 loss to UMBC during the 2001 season.
AT THE HELM — Jeff Tambroni finished his eighth season as head coach of the Big Red with a career record of 84-30. His winning percentage of .737 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 fifth in the nation among active Division I coaches with a .737 winning percentage. Georgetown head coach David Urick is the nation's leader (.752).
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.
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.
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.
FOR STARTERS - Cornell is 59-50-5 all-time in season openers, including a 6-2 mark during Coach Jeff Tambroni's tenure.
GOING STREAKING –
Max Seibald ended the 2008 season with the longest point-scoring streak on the team and the fifth longest in the nation, having registered at least one point in the last 34 games dating back to Cornell's 4-3 victory over Princeton on April 22, 2006. He enters the 2009 season with the second longest point-scoring streak in the nation, behind only Zack Greer, who played his first game of the season six days before the Big Red opened play.
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.
FINISHING STRONG – Cornell has won 23 straight contests when leading at the half, dating back to the team's 8-6 loss to Penn on April 1, 2006.
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 (106 games), Cornell has lost by five or more goals only eight 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.
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.
SINGLE-DIGIT SUCCESS – When holding its opponents to less than 10 goals, the Big Red was a perfect 10-0 last season. Cornell has won 13 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.
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.
NON-CONFERENCE WINS — Cornell is 21-3 in its last 24 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 other came when No. 7/8 North Carolina beat Cornell, 13-8 at Fetzer Field on March 2, 2008.
CLOSE CALLS — Since the beginning of the 2003 season, Cornell is 18-4 in games that have been decided by a single goal, a mark that was raised as the Big Red defeated Yale, 8-7 in overtime on March 22, 2008, at Schoellkopf Field. 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 21-10 in one-goal games during his tenure with the Big Red, including a 6-2 mark in overtime games.
SIXTH SENSE — Cornell's six consecutive regular season Ivy League titles is the longest current stretch by any team in any conference.
SIX OF ONE … — With its victory over Brown on April 26, 2008 the Big Red claimed at least a share of the Ivy League title for the sixth straight season, the longest stretch since winning 10 straight championships between 1974-83.
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. With his 63 goals and 40 assists he enters his final season with 103 career points.
John Glynn will also head into his final season looking for his 100th career point, with his 44 goals and 51 assists putting him at 95.
HOME IS WHERE THE WINS ARE — During Coach Tambroni's tenure, the Big Red is 44-10 at Schoellkopf Field, including a perfect 7-0 record in 2007 and a 6-0 slate during the 2005 season. Cornell finished the 2008 season with a 6-2 record at Schoellkopf Field.
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 652 victories rank seventh all-time among the winningest programs in collegiate lacrosse.
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.
ELITE COMPANY – Over the past five seasons, Cornell has been among the best in the nation, boasting the second highest winning percentage of all Division I teams during that span (.781) and ranking sixth overall in number of victories (57).
CONFERENCE WINS — Cornell had its 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.
HELPING HAND –
John Glynn finished 2008 ranked 17th in the country and second in the Ivy League in assists per game (1.67 apg).
MEN IN THE MIDDLE – Cornell's midfield duo of
John Glynn (.633) and
Tommy Schmicker (.611) were solid in the face-off circle for the Big Red last season, with the tandem ranking first and second, respectively, in the Ivy League. Glynn finished the year ranked third in the country and Schmicker would have ranked fifth overall, but fell just short of the minimum attempts required to be ranked. As a team, Cornell finished the year ranked third in the nation in face-off win percentage (.610).
SCORING MACHINE –
Ryan Hurley finished 2008 ranked sixth in the country and first in the Ivy League with 3.07 goals per game, while
Max Seibald ranked 49th in the country and seventh in the conference with 1.80 gpg.
GROUND BALL GOBBLER –
John Glynn finished 2008 ranked ninth in the country and third in the Ivy League with 5.47 ground balls per game.
(BIG) RED HOT OFFENSE – The Big Red finished the 2008 year ranked eighth in the country and first in the Ivy League in scoring offense, averaging 11.13 goals per game.
LOCK DOWN DEFENSE — Cornell finished the 2008 season ranked 20th in the country and fourth in the Ivy League in scoring defense, allowing only 8.53 goals per game.
MAN DOWN DEFENSE – The Big Red finished the 2008 year ranked 15th in the country and third in the Ivy League in man down defense, killing off .755 percent of the opponents penalties.
GET TO THE POINT —
Ryan Hurley finished the 2008 year ranked sixth in the nation and first in the Ivy League with 4.00 points per game, while
John Glynn was 41st in the country and seventh in the conference with 2.87 ppg.
IN THE MARGIN —The Big Red finished the 2008 season ranked ninth in the country in scoring margin, outscoring its opponents by an average of 2.6 goals per game.
80 WINS — With the Big Red's 13-5 victory over Penn on March 29, 2008, head coach Jeff Tambroni notched his 80th career win, becoming just the third head coach in Cornell men's lacrosse history to reach that plateau. Tambroni reached the milestone in his 107th career game during his eighth season. The last Big Red coach to reach 80 wins was Richie Moran, who defeated Rutgers, 14-6, in his eighth season (1976) to achieve a 80-14 record.
NUETRAL 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 eight CoSIDA Academic At-Large All-Americans, including seven 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 Mitch 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.
UP NEXT – The Big Red remains on the road next weekend as it travels to Army to take on the Black Knights at Mitchie Stadium on Saturday, Feb. 28 at 5 p.m. The game will be broadcast for a nationwide audience on ESPNU.
