TIP OFF: Saturday, April 4, at 1:00 p.m.
SITE: Schoellkopf Field (Ithaca, N.Y.)
2009 RECORDS: Cornell (6-1, 2-0 Ivy); Harvard (5-1, 1-0 Ivy)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 58-23
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 11-7, April 5, 2008; Gillette Stadium (Foxborough, Mass.)
TELEVISION: None
RADIO: WHCU 870 AM (Ithaca, N.Y.)
LIVE STATS: www.CornellBigRed.com
LIVE VIDEO: www.CornellBigRed.com
LIVE AUDIO: None
THE MATCHUP — No. 3/4 Cornell looks to get some separation in the Ivy League standings on Saturday as it plays host to No. 13/17 Harvard in a battle of conference unbeatens on Schoellkopf Field at 1 p.m. The Big Red is riding a four-game winning streak, including a 21-11 victory against Penn last weekend to improve to 6-1 overall and 2-0 in the conference. After losing a midweek overtime heartbreaker to Georgetown last Wednesday, Harvard (5-2, 1-0 Ivy) righted the ship on Friday with a 17-2 throttling of Presbyterian.
SERIES HISTORY VS. HARVARD — Although official Ivy League play began in 1956, the Cornell and Harvard rivalry dates back nearly as far as both teams' lacrosse programs, as the two squads first squared off in the 1895 season. The Big Red won that first meeting, 2-1 and has dominated the series ever since, holding a 58-23 overall record against the Crimson, and is currently riding a 10-game winning streak.
LOOKING AT THE CRIMSON — Harvard is led by Jeff Cohen, who ranks first on the team with 20 points off 13 goals and a team-best seven assists. Dean Gibbons has scored a team-high 14 goals, while Jesse Fehr has matched Cohen's assist total with seven helpers. As a team, the Crimson is winning .535 percent of its face-offs, thanks to the duo of Christian Oberbeck (33-for-60; .550) and Andrew Parchman (29-for-50; .580). In net, Harvard has used four different goalies this season, but Joe Pike is the clear choice, starting all seven games and playing all but 30:47 of the season. Pike has posted a 5.51 goals-against average and a .544 save percentage.
LAST TIME VS. HARVARD – The No. 7/8 Big Red used an 8-1 scoring run in the first half of play, and then held off a late Harvard push to earn an 11-7 victory over the Crimson in the first-ever lacrosse game played at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. With the win, the Big Red improved to 8-1 overall and 3-0 in the Ivy League, while Harvard fell to 4-5 overall and 0-2 in the conference.
Ryan Hurley led Cornell with five goals and one assist for six points, while
John Glynn chipped in two goals and two assists.
Max Seibald found the back of the net twice, while Chris Ritchie and
Chris Finn posted one goal and one assist apiece. Harvard was led by Dean Gibbons' four points (one goal, three assists), while Zach Widbin and Max Motschwiller each tallied two goals. Cornell held a slim edge in shots (33-32) and ground balls (33-27), but excelled in face-offs and riding. The Big Red won 14-of-22 face-offs, thanks mostly to
Tommy Schmicker, who took 12-of-19 restarts. On the ride, Cornell allowed Harvard to clear the ball successfully just 16-of-23 times. The Big Red also held the Crimson to an 0-for-6 performance on man-up opportunities. Goalie
Jake Myers was solid, posting double-digit saves for the third time in his last four games with 10 stops, while Joe Pike made eight saves in the loss.
A WIN OVER THE CRIMSON WOULD –
• make Cornell 59-23 all-time in the series, while improving Coach Tambroni's record to 9-0 vs. the Crimson.
• be the 11th straight victory by the Big Red in the series.
• keep Cornell on top of the Ivy League standings with a 3-0 record.
• improve the Big Red to 38-10 against Harvard on Schoellkopf Field.
AT THE HELM — In his ninth season as head coach of the Big Red, Jeff Tambroni owns a career record of 90-31. His winning percentage of .744 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).
COACHING CONNECTIONS – Current Harvard head coach John Tillman is a 1991 graduate of Cornell's School of Hotel Administration and lettered once for the Big Red under legendary head coach Richie Moran. Tillman took over the Crimson reigns from longtime head coach Scott Anderson, who served for Harvard from 1988-2007. Anderson was an assistant coach under Coach Moran from 1974-77, helping the Big Red to two national championships, two national semifinals and four Ivy League titles ... Both Cornell and Harvard enjoyed the coaching services of Talbot Hunter, who was the head coach of the Big Red from 1915-1916 (7-8-1), before coaching the Crimson from 1927-28 (7-18).
ROUGH ROAD – Beginning with Saturday's game, the Big Red plays four of its next five games against teams ranked in the top 20. The stretch begins against No. 13/17 Harvard before Cornell travels to No. 2/2 Syracuse. A road game at Dartmouth gives the Big Red a slight reprieve, before facing No. 5/5 Princeton at home and No. 12/12 Brown on the road.
90 WINS – With the Big Red's 21-11 victory over Penn last weekend, head coach Jeff Tambroni notched his 90th career win, becoming just the second head coach in Cornell men's lacrosse history to reach that plateau. Tambroni reached the milestone in his 121st career game during his ninth season. The only other Big Red coach to reach 90 wins was Richie Moran, who defeated Cortland, 16-1, in his eighth season (1976) to achieve an 90-14 record.
21 GOALS – When Cornell defeated Penn, 21-11 last weekend, it marked the third year in a row that the Big Red has at least one game in which it registered at least 20 goals. The 21 goals against the Quakers are the most scored by Cornell during head coach Jeff Tambroni's tenure and are the most since the Big Red beat Canisius, 23-2, on May 2, 1998.
RAISING RAESLY – After an injury-plagued start to his career, sophomore
Kevin Raesly saw his first playing time against Penn, winning 3-of-7 face-offs and picking up four ground balls.
TAMBRONI AMONG THE BEST — Head coach Jeff Tambroni currently ranks fourth in the nation among active Division I coaches with a .744 winning percentage. Syracuse head coach John Desko is the nation's leaders (.752), while David Urick (Georgetown) and Bill Tierney (Princeton) are tied for second (.745).
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.
CLEAN SWEEP – The Big Red swept the conference weekly awards on March 23 when
Kyle Harer and
Rob Pannell were named the Ivy League Player and Rookie of the Week, respectively. It was the first honors sweep for Cornell since April 10, 2006 when Matt McMonagle (player) and
Max Seibald (rookie) took home the honors. The awards were the first for each player in his career with Cornell. Harer was honored after posting a career-high 17 saves against No. 8 Duke in a 10-6 victory before making 10 saves and allowing just six goals in 52:48 of action in a 15-18 victory over Yale. Of his 12 goals allowed, two were in man-up situations and for the week he stopped nearly 70 percent of the shots he faced. For Pannell, the freshman attacker was honored after handing out three assists against the Blue Devils to set the school record for assists by a freshman (15), before registering three goals and one assist against the Bulldogs.
ROMERO TIME – Senior
Rocco Romero has traditionally stepped up his game when Ivy League play begins and so far this season, that trend looks to be continuing. For his career, Romero has played in 49 games, scored 23 goals and registered 19 assists for 42 points. (0.86 ppg.). In just 20 career conference games, Romero has tallied 15 goals and nine assists for 24 points (1.20 ppg). Despite Ivy League play representing just 40.8 percent of his total games played, that is where Romero has registered 57.1 percent of his points.
WHAT A RIDE – The Big Red did an amazing job on the ride against Yale on March 21, allowing the Bulldogs to clear the ball successfully just 14-of-26 times. Conversely, Cornell was 16-of-19 on the day, including a perfect 10-for-10 at halftime.
SUTHERLAND IN THE CIRCLE – Junior
Matt Sutherland is finally getting a chance to show off his skills in the face-off circle, going 10-for-24 over the past three games. Those numbers include an impressive 5-of-8 performance against Yale's Kevin Disceplo, the 18th ranked face-off man in the nation.
CREEPING UP – With his five goals and one assist against Penn,
Ryan Hurley has registered 94 career points, needing just six more to become the third 100-point scorer on the team, joining seniors
Max Seibald and
John Glynn.
SENIOR CLASS AWARD –
Max Seibald is among 10 student-athletes that were announced as finalists 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 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.
GOING STREAKING – As of Wednesday, April, Cornell senior
Max Seibald owned the longest point-scoring streak on the team and the fourth-longest in the nation, having registered at least one point in the last 41 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 ninth-longest streak in the nation, registering at least one point in the last 22 games dating back to the 2008 season opener.
INCREASED DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY – Of the 12 lacrosse players nationwide that own the longest point-scoring streaks in the country,
Max Seibald (fourth – 41 games) is one of only two midfielders on the list, joining Notre Dame's Grant Krebs (seventh – 24 games).
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 currently leads the team with 17 assists.
SINGLE-DIGIT SUCCESS – When holding its opponents to less than 10 goals, the Big Red under Coach Tambroni owns a 78-10 record. Including its most recent 15-8 victory over Yale, Cornell has won 33 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.
HARER HURTS 'EM –
Kyle Harer had the best game of his career 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 28-1 in its last 29 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 47-10 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 2-0 record at Schoellkopf Field.
A LITTLE HELP – Cornell ranks fourth in the country in assists per game (8.43 apg).
HELPING HAND –
Rob Pannell is currently ranked second in the country and first in the Ivy League in assists per game (2.43 apg).
GET TO THE POINT —
Ryan Hurley is currently ranked third in the nation in points per game (4.14 pgp), while
Rob Pannell ranks fifth in the nation (4.00 pgp). As a team, Cornell ranks third overall with 22.29 ppg.
SCORING MACHINE –
Ryan Hurley is ranked first in the country with 3.57 goals per game.
SENIOR STOPPER – Senior netminder
Kyle Harer currently ranks 17th in the country with a 8.01 goals-against average, and 24th overall with a .557 save percentage.
MEN IN THE MIDDLE –
John Glynn is currently ninth in the nation with a .603 face-off win percentage. As a team, the Big Red ranks 17th in the country with a .531 winning percentage.
(BIG) RED HOT OFFENSE – The Big Red is second in the country in scoring offense, averaging 13.86 goals per game.
LOCK DOWN DEFENSE – Cornell is 20th in the country in scoring defense, allowing just 8.14 goals per game.
MAN UP! – The Big Red ranks third in the nation in man-up offense, scoring on .536 of its extra man opportunities.
IN THE MARGIN — Cornell ranks third in the country in scoring margin, outscoring its opponents by an average of 5.7 goals per game.
MAY I ASSIST YOU – So far this season, the Big Red has assisted on 58-of-97 goals (59.8 percent). Last season, Cornell managed to assist on just 95-of-167 goals (56.9 percent).
GROUND BALL GOBBLER – Senior
John Glynn ranks 21st in the nation in ground balls per game (5.0 gbpg), while the Big Red as a team ranks fifth overall with 37.29 ground balls per game.
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.
GEOGRAPHY LESSON, PART TWO – Since 1950, the Big Red has had players from 33 different states – Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. During his tenure, Coach Tambroni has had players from 19 different states.
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.
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.
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.
FOR STARTERS - Cornell is 59-50-5 all-time in season openers, including a 7-2 mark during Coach Jeff Tambroni's tenure.
IVY OPENERS – The Big Red's contest vs. Yale on March 21 marked 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 39-15 record in Ivy League openers, including a perfect mark of 9-0 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.
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 (.788) and ranking fifth overall in number of victories (63).
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 (121 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.
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 travels up I-81 to take on in-state rival No. 2 Syracuse at the Carrier Dome on Tuesday, April 7, at 7 p.m.
