Game Notes (PDF)

GAME #14: No. 7/6 Cornell vs. No. 17 Brown
FACE OFF: Friday, May 7, at 8:00 p.m.
SITE: Schoellkopf Field (Ithaca, N.Y.)
2010 Records: Cornell (9-4, 4-2); Brown (8-5, 4-2)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 32-17
LAST MEETING: Brown won 13-10 on April 24, 2010 in Ithaca, N.Y.

RADIO: WHCU 870 AM
LIVE STATS: www.CornellBigRed.com 
LIVE AUDIO: www.cornellbigred.com/showcase/
LIVE VIDEO: www.LiveSportsVideo.com
TICKETS: www.CornellBigRedTickets.com
TELEVISION: None




THE MATCHUP – Cornell University will host the inaugural Ivy League Men's Lacrosse Tournament this weekend at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca. The top-seeded Big Red (9-4, 4-2 Ivy) will play in the second of two semifinal games on Friday night, facing fourth-seeded Brown (8-5, 4-2 Ivy) in an 8 p.m. contest. The day begins with the first semifinal, which features second-seeded Princeton battling third-seeded Yale at 5 p.m. The championship game will be played on Sunday at noon.

LIVE FROM NEW YORK – Lacrosse fans who are not able to make this weekend's Ivy League Men's Lacrosse Tournament at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca will have a variety of ways to follow the action on Friday and Sunday. Video streaming of Friday's semifinals will be available online through www.LiveSportVideo.com, with Sunday's championship game televised live on ESPNU. Redcast subscribers will also be able to listen to the audio broadcast of Cornell's game by Barry Leonard with Tom LaFalce and Howie Borkan providing color commentary.

SERIES HISTORY VS. BROWN — The Cornell and Brown rivalry began when the Bears joined the Ivy League in men's lacrosse in 1964. The Big Red came away with an 8-7 victory in that first meeting, and won 23 of the first 28 games between the two programs. The Bears won eight-straight contests vs. Cornell from 1991 to 1997 to gain some ground in the series, but the Big Red still holds the advantage, 32-17, despite dropping its last two contests to Brown.

LOOKING AT THE BEARS — No. 17 Brown (8-5, 4-2 Ivy) used a thrilling 10-9 overtime victory against Dartmouth to secure a share of the Ivy League title, as well as the four seed in this weekend's Ivy League tournament. The Bears have a prolific scoring offense, led by first-team All-Ivy selections Thomas Muldoon, David Hawley and Reade Seligmann. Muldoon and Hawley have 27 and 25 goals, respectively, while Seligmann has been a balanced threat with 12 goals and team-best 19 assists. The team's top scorer, Andrew Feinberg, has 34 goals but missed out on an All-Ivy selection. In goal, junior Matt Chriss replaces the 2009 Ivy League Player of the Year Jordan Burke, and has started all 13 games for the Bears. Chriss has posted a 10.18 goals-against average and a .513 save percentage.

A WIN OVER BROWN WOULD –
• improve the Big Red to 10-4 on the season and put Cornell into the Ivy League championship game on Sunday.
• be Cornell's fifth victory over a top 20 team.
• improve Cornell's lead in the series to 33-17, while improving Coach Tambroni to 7-4 vs. the Bears.
• be the 675th in program history, making the Big Red 675-438-27 all-time.

LAST TIME VS. THE BEARS –
• No. 8 Cornell nearly erased a five-goal deficit with a four-goal fourth quarter, but couldn't come all the way back as Brown upset the Big Red, 13-10, on Schoellkopf Field.
• Rob Pannell was the Big Red's only multi-point scored on the day with four goals and two assists.
• Ryan Hurley, Chris Ritchie, Roy Lang, Jack Dudley, Austin Boykin and Ross Gillum all tallied one goal each, while David Lau and Jon Thompson both added one assist.
• Ryan Hurley's goal moved him into a tie for fourth place with Jon Levine (1974-76) in Cornell history with 123 career goals.
• Pierce Derkac led the team with eight ground balls and caused two turnovers.
• AJ Fiore, who finished the day with nine saves.
• Brown got a team-high five points form Thomas Muldoon (three goals, two assists) and three goals from Parker Brown, while Collins Carey handed out three assists.
• Matt Chriss stopped 13 shots, including seven in the critical fourth quarter, to earn the win.

CORNELL'S LAST GAME –
• The No. 10 Big Red took a six-goal lead into the fourth quarter and held off a late Princeton run to upset the No. 7 Tigers, 10-9, in front of a nationwide ESPNU audience and 3,133 fans at the Class of '52 Stadium in Princeton, N.J.
• With the victory, the Big Red earned a share of its eighth straight Ivy League title, the longest current streak of any men's lacrosse program in any conference, and earned the top-seed in the inaugural Ivy League tournament.
• Cornell was led by Ryan Hurley with two goals and two assists, while David Lau finished with two goals and one assist. Chris Ritchie and Roy Lang each tallied two goals as the Big Red's only other multi-point scorers.
• Princeton (9-4, 4-2) got three goals from Mike Chanenchuk and two from Scott MacKenzie, while Jack McBride handed out two assists.
•Both teams got solid days from their goalies with AJ Fiore making eight saves for the win, while Tyler Fiorito stopped 15 in the lost.

AT THE HELM — In his 10th season as head coach of the Big Red, Jeff Tambroni owns a career record of 106-38. His winning percentage of .741 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).

HOW'D WE GET HERE? – The final day of the 2010 Ivy League men's lacrosse regular season was a wild one, as all three games were decided by one goal, and for the first time in Ivy men's lacrosse history four teams -- Brown, Cornell, Princeton and Yale -- will share the regular season title and head to the inaugural Ivy League Men's Lacrosse Tournament. Cornell's victory over Princeton, combined with Brown's 10-9 overtime win against Dartmouth and Yale's 9-8 win over Harvard leave the Tigers, Big Red, Bears and Bulldogs all with 4-2 League records. A series of tiebreakers gave Cornell the top seed in the tournament and hosting privileges. The first tiebreaker was head-to-head records, which among the four teams is Cornell and Princeton at 2-1 and Yale and Brown at 1-2. That eliminated the Bears and Bulldogs and gave the Big Red the top seed, by virtue of its win over the Tigers. Because Yale beat Brown earlier in the season, the Bulldogs were awarded the three seed and the Bears are the four seed.

TAMBRONI AMONG THE BEST — Head coach Jeff Tambroni currently ranks third in the nation among active Division I coaches with a .741 winning percentage.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR FOR PANNELL – Sophomore Rob Pannell joined rare company when he was named the 2010 Ivy League Player of the Year, becoming just the fourth sophomore, and the first since Princeton's Ryan Boyle in 2002, to earn the league's top honor. Pannell was a unanimous selection for the award, voted on by the league's head coaches, and is the fifth Cornellian to be named Player of the Year during head coach Jeff Tambroni's 10 years at the helm of the Big Red program.

TICKLE THE (ALL) IVY – Rob Pannell was a unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection and was joined on the first team by senior defenseman Pierce Derkac, while senior midfielder Austin Boykin was named second-team All-Ivy. Sophomore midfielder David Lau and junior defender Max Feely were both honorable mention selections. Other than Pannell, who was first-team All-Ivy in 2009, Cornell's other four All-Ivy selections are all first-time honorees.

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.

CRAZY EIGHTS — With its victory over Princeton last weekend, the Big Red claimed at least a share of the Ivy League title for the eighth straight season, the longest stretch since winning 10 straight championships between 1974-83. Cornell's eight consecutive regular season Ivy League titles is the longest current stretch by any men's lacrosse team in any conference in the nation.

IVY KINGS – Since Ivy League play began in 1956, Cornell and Princeton have dominated their conference foes and racked up most of the conference hardware. Between the two squads, they have won at least a share of 44-of-54 Ivy League titles. Likewise, either Cornell or Princeton has won at least a share of the past 16 conference crowns, including this year's title.

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK – AJ Fiore was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week on April 19 after posting the best performance of his young career on April 13 as he helped the Big Red to nearly pull off the upset of No. 1 Syracuse, before the Orange scored as time expired to steal the 8-7 victory. The rookie goalie posted a career-high 20 saves, many of which were brilliant stops against one of the most powerful and diverse offenses in the nation. Fiore made 14 saves in the critical second and third quarters to allow the Big Red to take the slim 5-4 lead heading into the final stanza. He also faced a flurry of shots in the fourth quarter and turned away four, including one in the final moments of the game before getting beat with no time left on the clock.

SAVES A LOT – When AJ Fiore turned away 20 shots vs. No. 2 Syracuse on April 13 it was the most saves by a Big Red goalie since Justin Cynar stopped 23 vs. Maryland in an 11-6 Cornell loss on March 20, 1999.

STREAK STOPPERS – The defensive duo of Jason Noble and Andrew MacDonald held Syracuse's Stephen Keogh without a point on April 13. That performance snapped a 31-game point-scoring streak by the Orange attackman.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK, AGAIN – For the second time this season, Rob Pannell has been named the Ivy League Player of the Week. Pannell earns the honor for the second time in a three-week span after helping the Big Red to a crucial victory over No. 18 Harvard. Pannell capped an eight-point day by scoring the game-winning goal with 11 seconds to play, giving the No. 12 Big Red a much-needed 13-12 victory over the Crimson. Pannell led the Big Red offense with three goals and five assists, registering five of his eight points in the crucial fourth quarter, as Cornell erased an 8-7 deficit to earn its third Ivy League win.

THE ASSIST MAN – Rob Pannell is the top assist men in the nation, assisting nearly half of Cornell's total team assists (48.8%). That is, by far, the best percentage in the country, as Marist's Corey Zindel ranks second overall at 39.7 percent … No one in the country has registered more 5+ assist games on the season than Pannell, who has handed out five or more assists in four games. The only other player in the country who has accomplished that feat more than once is Duke's Ned Crotty.

SWEET SWEEP – Cornell swept the Ivy League honors on March 29 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.

THAT WAS QUICK! – Sophomore Rob Pannell tallied his 100th career point with a six-assist performance vs. Penn on March 27, doing so in just his 25th career game with the Big Red. Pannell becomes the fastest Cornell player to reach 100 career points since Tim Goldstein tallied 100 points in a single season over the span of 14 games in 1987. However, Goldstein was a transfer student and was considered a junior with two years playing experience at a junior college before coming to East Hill. Pannell is the only true sophomore to reach 100 career points for Cornell, while seven others, including Goldstein, accomplished the feat in two playing seasons, but none played for Cornell during their freshman season of eligibility.

BACK-TO-BACK LOSSES – The Big Red lost back-to-back games for the first time since the 2002 season when it fell to Syracuse and Brown on April 13 and April 24, respectively. Cornell won its next game against Princeton. As a result, the Big Red has not lost three-straight games since closing the 2001 season with losses to Princeton, Brown and Ohio State, a span of 127 games.

TEWAARATON NOMINEE – Cornell sophomore Rob Pannell has been named one of 26 nominees for the 2010 Tewaaraton Trophy, presented to the nation's top male collegiate lacrosse player, as was announced by the Greater Washington Sports Alliance. Five finalists will be chosen by a selection committee of collegiate coaches later in the season.

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. Fan balloting, available on the award's official website www.SeniorClassAward.com, will be combined with votes from coaches, media and sponsors to determine the recipient of the award. Fans can vote once a day between now and May 17.

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 three more goals to move into third place and tie Mark Webster (1968-70) with 128 career goals.

TOP 10 TEAM – When Cornell slipped to No. 12 in the USILA Coaches Poll on April 5, it marked the first time since March 28, 2005 that Cornell had fallen out of the top 10 in one of the national polls. The Big Red's hiatus was short-lived, however, as it earned a No. 10 ranking in the April 11th poll and has been ranked in both polls ever since.

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.

HOME IS WHERE THE WINS ARE — During Coach Tambroni's tenure, the Big Red is 55-13 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 91-12 record. Cornell had won 45-straight games in which it held its opponents to single digits, until the Big Red fell to Dartmouth, 8-6, on April 4, 2010. Just over one-week later, Cornell dropped an 8-7 decision to Syracuse.

GOING STREAKING – Cornell senior Ryan Hurley is riding a 45-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 seventh longest in the nation, having registered a point in every game of his collegiate career (30 games).

RULE FOLLOWERS – In the 30 games played since the start of the 2009 season, the Big Red has been flagged for more penalties than its opponents on just five occasions.

DYNAMIC DUO – Ryan Hurley and Rob Pannell have teamed up for at least one goal in 20 of the 30 games that they have played together. Of Pannell's 81 career assists, 28 (35.0 percent) have come on Hurley's goals.

CLOSE CALLS — Since the beginning of the 2003 season, Cornell is 24-6 in games that have been decided by a single goal, a mark that was raised as the Big Red defeated Princeton, 10-9, on May 1, 2010, at Class of '52 Stadium in Princeton, N.J. Of the six losses, three have come at the hands of the Orange (12-11 on April 11, 2006; 10-9 (OT) in the 2009 national championship game; 8-7 on April 13, 2010). Coach Jeff Tambroni is 28-12 in one-goal games during his tenure with the Big Red, including a 6-3 mark in overtime games.

NON-CONFERENCE WINS — Cornell owns a 31-7 record in its last 38 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. Four of those seven losses during that span have come at the hands of the Orange (2006, 2008, 2009, 2010), 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).

NEUTRAL ZONE – Since the start of the 2006 season, the Big Red is 9-3 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 (Foxboro, Mass.), Princeton (Hempstead, N.Y.), Virginia (Foxboro, Mass.) and Hobart (Syracuse, N.Y). The three losses came at the hands of Duke in the 2007 national semifinal (Baltimore, Md.), Syracuse in the 2009 national championship (Foxboro, Mass.) and Dartmouth during the 2010 season (Foxboro, Mass.).

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.

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).

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).

YOUNG GUN – Rob Pannell was named the 2009 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).

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).

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).