Game Notes (PDF)

GAME #9: No. 6/6 Cornell vs. Dartmouth
FACE OFF: Saturday, April 3, at 12:00 p.m.
SITE: Gillette Stadium (Foxboro, Mass.)
2010 Records: Cornell (7-1, 2-0); Dartmouth (2-4, 0-1)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 45-14
LAST MEETING: Cornell won 19-6 on April 11, 2009 in Hanover, N.H.

RADIO: WHCU 870 AM
LIVE STATS: www.DartmouthSports.com  
LIVE AUDIO: http://www.cornellbigred.com/showcase/  
LIVE VIDEO: None
TICKETS: www.TicketMaster.com  
TELEVISION: None

THE MATCHUP – The No. 6 Big Red wraps up a three-game road trip with its second neutral site game of the season as it takes on Dartmouth in the New England Lacrosse Classic on Saturday, April 3, at Gillette Stadium. The teams face-off at noon in the opening game of a double-header before Princeton takes on Brown at 2:30 p.m. Cornell is riding a three-game winning streak to improve to 7-1 overall (2-0 Ivy League), while Dartmouth has lost its last three games to fall to 2-4 on the season (0-1 Ivy).

SERIES HISTORY VS. DARTMOUTH — The Cornell and Dartmouth rivalry began in 1946 with an 8-7 victory for the Big Red. The Big Green would win the next six meetings over a 10-year span, but have won only eight times since 1957. The Big Red dominates the all-time series record, 45-14, and has won the last 12 meetings.

LOOKING AT THE BIG GREEN — Dartmouth has lost its last three games to a trio of top-20 teams to fall to 2-4 on the season and 0-1 in the Ivy League. Ari Sussman leads the squad with team-highs in points (22), goals (11) and assists (11), while both Josh Etzion and Chris Costabile have tallied 10 goals on the season. In goal, Mike Novosel has made five-of-six starts, posting a 2-3 record to go along with an 11.03 goals-against average and a .500 save percentage. Fergus Campbell made the team's last start vs. Harvard, has seen action in four games, posted an 11.40 GAA and a .556 save percentage.

A WIN OVER DARTMOUTH WOULD –
• improve the Big Red to 8-1 on the season.
• be the 13th in a row for Cornell over Dartmouth.
• improve the Big Red to 46-14 in the series, while making Coach Tambroni 10-0.
• make Cornell 3-1 at Gillette Stadium.
• be the 673rd in program history, making the Big Red 673-435-27 all-time.
• keep Cornell on top of the Ivy League standings with a record of 3-0 in league play.

LAST TIME VS. THE BIG GREEN –
• No. 3 Cornell defeated Dartmouth, 19-6, at Scully-Fahey Field.
• Rob Pannell tallied two goals and four assists to break the Cornell freshman record for points in a single season, previously held by Sean Greenhalgh.
• John Glynn registered a career-high five goals.
• In net, all three goalies saw action, with Jake Myers earning the win with a three-save, three-goals-against effort. Kyle Harer stopped three shots and allowed two goals in 21:31 of action, while Mat Martinez made two saves and allowed one goal in the final 8:29.
• Dartmouth was led by Ari Sussman with one goal and two assists, while Brian Koch had one goal and one assist.
• The Big Green's goalie Fergus Campbell made just seven saves in the loss.
• Cornell dominated from the beginning, opening the game on a 10-1 scoring run in the first 20 minutes of action.

CORNELL'S LAST GAME –
• No. 9 Cornell jumped out to a 4-1 lead and held off a late surge to defeat Penn, 12-6, last Saturday at Franklin Field.
• Rob Pannell had his third straight game with more than five assists, registering six assists on the day, while Scott Austin tallied a team-high four goals.
• In between the pipes, AJ Fiore earned the win with four saves and three goals-against, before Mat Martinez came on in relief, finishing with six saves and allowing three goals.
• Penn was led Dan Savage's three goals, while Tim Schwalje had two assists.
• In goal for the Quakers, Chris Casey and Joe Hegener split time with each registering six saves and allowing six goals.
• The Big Red outshot Penn, 40-32, and held the dominant edge in ground balls, 34-17.

AT THE HELM — In his 10th season as head coach of the Big Red, Jeff Tambroni owns a career record of 104-35. His winning percentage of .748 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 second in the nation among active Division I coaches with a .748 winning percentage.

TAMBRONI'S TOUCHSTONE – After taking the 2009 team to the heights of the lacrosse world, Jeff Tambroni was given the Morris Touchstone Award as the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association's Coach of the Year. Tambroni became the third Big Red coach to take home the honor, joining three-time recipient Richie Moran (1971, 1977, 1987) and Dave Pietramala (2000). As a program, Cornell coaches have earned five Morris Touchstone Awards, the most of any program in the nation, surpassing Johns Hopkins and Navy with four apiece.

WHERE WE RANK – Cornell, as well as several Big Red players are making their mark on the national scene, ranking in the top-20 of many NCAA statistical categories. As of Monday, March 29, Cornell is ranked in the following categories …
SCORING OFFENSE
• 10th (12.0)
SCORING DEFENSE
• 7th (7.75)
FACE-OFF WIN PERCENTAGE
• 16th (.554)
MAN-DOWN DEFENSE
• 9th (.762)
SCORING MARGIN
• 6th (4.25)
ASSISTS PER GAME
• 14th (7.0)
POINTS PER GAME
• 11th (19.0)
SHOT PERCENTAGE
• 12th (.332)
GROUND BALLS PER GAME
• 12th (34.0)
… While the Big Red has players ranked in the following categories …
POINTS PER GAME
• Rob Pannell – 3rd (4.75)
GOALS PER GAME
• Ryan Hurley – 7th (3.13)
ASSISTS PER GAME
• Rob Pannell – 1st (3.25)
GOALS-AGAINST AVERAGE
• AJ Fiore – 10th (8.27)
SAVE PERCENTAGE
• AJ Fiore – 21st (.534)
CAUSED TUNROVERS
• Jason Noble – 12th (2.0)
FACE-OFFS
• Austin Boykin – 4th (.615)

NEUTRAL ZONE – Since the start of the 2006 season, the Big Red is 9-2 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), Harvard (Foxborough, Mass.), Princeton (Hempstead, N.Y.), Virginia (Foxboro, Mass.) and Hobart (Syracuse, N.Y). The two losses came at the hands of Duke in the 2007 national semifinal (Baltimore, Md.) and Syracuse in the 2009 national championship (Foxboro, Mass.) … Cornell is 2-1 at Gillette Stadium.

SWEET SWEEP – Cornell swept the Ivy League honors this week with Rob Pannell earning Player of the Week, while Jason Noble was named Rookie of the Week. Pannell and Noble were instrumental on offense and defense, respectively, as the Big Red picked up a pair of wins over No. 17 Stony Brook and Ivy foe Penn.

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 114 games.

TEWAARATON WATCH – Seniors Pierce Derkac and Ryan Hurley, as well as sophomore Rob Pannell have been named to the 2010 Preseason Tewaaraton Trophy Watch List. The Cornell trio makes up nearly half of the eight Ivy League players selected to the Watch List. Midway through the season an official list of nominees will be selected and from there, five finalists will be chosen.

SENIOR CLASS AWARD – Senior Pierce Derkac is among 10 NCAA men's lacrosse student-athletes who excel both on and off the field and was tabbed as a finalist for the 2010 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award.

BLOGGING THE BIG RED – Cornell senior Pierce Derkac will be contributing regularly to Inside Lacrosse's website with blogs throughout the season.

WIN NO. 670 – Cornell's 18-7 victory over Yale on May 20, 2010 was the 670th win in program history. The team's 670 victories rank seventh all-time among the winningest programs in collegiate lacrosse.

100 GOALS – With his four-goal performance vs. Army, Ryan Hurley became just the fifth player in Cornell history to score 100 career goals. The list of Cornell's 100-goal scorers is short, but distinguished, as Hurley joined the likes of Mike French (1974-76; 191), Sean Greenhalgh (2002-05; 136), Mark Webster (1968-70; 128) and Jon Levine (1974-76; 123).

FASTEST TO 100 WINS – Head coach Jeff Tambroni earned his 100th career win as the Big Red defeated Army, 12-11, in overtime on March 6. He achieved that feat in just 134 games, ranking him 10th all-time among Division I coaches to reach 100 wins the fastest.

100 WINS – With the Big Red's 12-11 overtime victory against Army on March 6, 2010 head coach Jeff Tambroni notched his 100th career win, becoming just the second head coach in Cornell men's lacrosse history to reach that plateau. Tambroni reached the milestone in his 134th career game during his 10th season. The only other Big Red coach to reach 100 wins was Richie Moran, who defeated Penn, 17-8, in his ninth season (1977) to achieve a 100-14 record.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK – Ryan Hurley has won the first Ivy League Player of the Week honor of the season for the Big Red on Monday, March 8. Hurley was instrumental to the Cornell offense as the Big Red picked up a pair of wins over Canisius (9-6) and Army (12-11 in OT) to 3-0 on the season. Hurley registered a game-high three goals and one assist against the Golden Griffins, before tallying four goals, including the overtime game-winner, and one assist versus the Black Knights.

MOVING ON UP – With his four goals vs. Army on March 6, Ryan Hurley moved into fifth place in Cornell history for career goals, surpassing Chris Danler (1992-95) who had 99 career goals. Hurley needs just five more goals to move into fourth place and tie Jon Levine (1975-76) with 123 career goals.

TOP 10 TEAM – Cornell has not fallen out of the top 10 in either national poll in over four years, with the last occurrence happening on March 28, 2005 when Inside Lacrosse had the Big Red ranked 11th.

ELITE COMPANY – Over the span of the past five seasons (2005-2009) Cornell has racked up the third most wins (61) of any Division I men's lacrosse program, and has posted the third best winning percentage (80.3%) overall, sitting behind only Duke and Virginia in both categories.

LUCKY NUMBER SEVEN — The Big Red has claimed at least a share of the Ivy League title for the last seven seasons, the longest stretch since winning 10 straight championships between 1974-83.

SEVENTH HEAVEN — Cornell's seven consecutive regular season Ivy League titles is the longest current stretch by any men's lacrosse team in any conference in the nation.

HOME IS WHERE THE WINS ARE — During Coach Tambroni's tenure, the Big Red is 53-11 at Schoellkopf Field, including perfect slates in 2009 (6-0), 2007 (7-0) and 2005 (6-0).

SINGLE-DIGIT SUCCESS – When holding its opponents to less than 10 goals, the Big Red under Coach Tambroni owns a 90-10 record. Including its 12-6 victory over Penn on March 27, Cornell has won 45 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.

GOING STREAKING – Cornell senior Ryan Hurley is riding a 40-game point scoring streak, the longest on the team and the third-longest in the nation. Sophomore Rob Pannell has the second longest point scoring streak on the team and sixth longest in the nation, having registered a point in every game of his collegiate career (25 games).

RULE FOLLOWERS – In the 25 games played since the start of the 2009 season, the Big Red has been flagged for more penalties than its opponents on just four occasions.

DYNAMIC DUO – Ryan Hurley and Rob Pannell have teamed up for at least one goal in 18 of the 25 games that they have played together. Of Pannell's 68 career assists, 26 (38.2 percent) have come on Hurley's goals.

CLOSE CALLS — Since the beginning of the 2003 season, Cornell is 22-5 in games that have been decided by a single goal, a mark that was raised as the Big Red defeated Army, 12-11, in overtime on March 6, 2010, 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, a 12-11 loss to Duke in the national semifinal on May 26, 2007, and a 10-9 overtime loss to Syracuse in the 2009 national championship game. Coach Jeff Tambroni is 27-11 in one-goal games during his tenure with the Big Red, including a 6-3 mark in overtime games.

FOR STARTERS - Cornell is 60-50-5 all-time in season openers, including an 8-2 mark during Coach Jeff Tambroni's tenure … The Big Red has won seven straight season openers.

FRESH FACES – Five freshmen saw action in the first game of the season for the Big Red, including starters AJ Fiore (goal) and Ross Gillum (midfield). Also seeing solid action in their first collegiate game were Thomas Keith, Cody Levine and Jason Noble.

NON-CONFERENCE WINS — Cornell owns a 31-6 record in its last 37 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. Three of those six losses during that span have come at the hands of the Orange (2006, 2008, 2009), while the other three came to ACC teams - No. 7 North Carolina (13-8 on March 2, 2008), No. 1 Virginia (14-10, March 8, 2009), and No. 1 Virginia (12-4, March 13, 2010).

OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN – Seniors Pierce Derkac and Ryan Hurley will serve as captains for the 2010 season.

EVERYBODY'S ALL-AMERICANS – The Big Red returns a pair of All-American attackmen – sophomore Rob Pannell (third team) and senior Ryan Hurley (honorable mention).

TICKLE THE (ALL) IVY – Cornell returns two All-Ivy selections from last season's squad – Rob Pannell (first-team) and Ryan Hurley (second-team).

HARD HAT – Jack Dudley has been selected to carry the Hard Hat for the 2010 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.

CHAMPIONSHIP LINEAGE – Five players on the 2010 Cornell roster have fathers that have won a national championship with the Big Red – David Lau (George '78), Julian and Cody Levine (Jon '76), Shane O'Neill (John '76) and Matt Taylor (Joe '80). George Lau was a two-time winner as part of both the 1976 and 1977 national championship squads. Jon Levine and John O'Neill joined him on the 1976 team, while Joe Taylor was on the 1977 squad.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON – David Lau tallied his first points of the 2009 NCAA tournament with a goal and an assist vs. Virginia in the national semifinal. With the assist on Cornell's final goal of the game, Lau surpassed the tournament point total of his father, George, who registered one goal for the Big Red in the 1977 national championship game.

SISTER ACT – Sophomore Roy Lang isn't the only Big Red lacrosse player in the family, as his sister Kelly is a freshman midfielder on the Cornell women's lacrosse team.

GEOGRAPHY LESSON – The 43 players on the 2010 Big Red roster hail from 12 different states – California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia and Washington – as well as the District of Columbia and Ontario, Canada.

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.

11-WINS – The Big Red has posted at least 11 wins in each of the past five seasons, matching the longest streak in school history (1974-78).

TEAM USA – US Lacrosse has announced that two players with Cornell ties – Ryan McClay '03 and Max Seibald '09 – are among the 23 players that will represent the United States at the FIL Championships in Manchester, England from July 10-24, 2010.

RECAPPING 2009 – The Big Red advanced to the national championship game for the first time since 1988. Although Cornell dropped a heartbreaking 10-9 decision in overtime to Syracuse, the Big Red made its presence felt in the lacrosse community with its second final four appearance in three years. Cornell finished the year with a 13-4 record overall and a mark of 5-1 in the conference, earning a share of its seventh straight Ivy League title, the longest stretch since Cornell won 10-straight championships between 1974 and 1983. Cornell's seven consecutive regular season Ivy titles is the longest current stretch by any men's lacrosse team in any conference. The Big Red was also a perfect 6-0 at home, upping the team's record on Schoellkopf Field to 51-10 (.836) during Tambroni's tenure. Cornell finished the year ranked in the top 10 in the nation in scoring offense (fifth – 12.18), points per game (fifth – 19.12), scoring margin (sixth – 3.76), assists per game (sixth – 6.94), face-off win percentage (10th – .552) and ground balls per game (10th – 34.94).

YOUNG GUN – Rob Pannell was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Year, becoming the fourth Big Red player to earn that distinction. Of those four players, three were recruited by head coach Jeff Tambroni (Sean Greenhalgh, Max Seibald, Rob Pannell).

SEASONED HELPER – With his 42 assists on the season, Rob Pannell etched his name in the Cornell record books, moving into a seventh place for assists in a single season.

BACK-TO-BACK 40s – Last season, Ryan Hurley became the fifth player in Cornell history to register 40 goals in back-to-back seasons, joining Mike French (1974, 75, 76), Jon Levine (1975, 76), David Mitchell (2006, 07) and Mark Webster (1968, 69).

UP NEXT – The Big Red returns home after three straight road games to take on Harvard at Schoellkopf Field on Saturday, April 10 at 3 p.m.