Game Notes (PDF)

GAME #7 No. 10/7 Cornell vs. No. 13 Penn
FACE OFF: Saturday, March 26, at 1:00 p.m.
SITE: Schoellkopf Field (Ithaca, N.Y.)
2011 Records: Cornell (5-2, 1-0 Ivy); Penn (4-1, 1-0 Ivy)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 60-22-3
LAST MEETING: Cornell won 12-6, March 27, 2010 in Philadelphia, Pa.

RADIO: WHCU 870 AM (Barry Leonard, play-by-play; Tom LaFalce, color commentary)
TICKETS: www.CornellBigRedTickets.com
LIVE STATS: http://livestats.internetconsult.com/cornell/mlax/index.htm
LIVE VIDEO: http://www.cornellbigred.com/showcase/
LIVE AUDIO: None
TELEVISION: None

THE MATCHUP – The No. 10/7 Big Red welcomes No. 13 Penn to Schoellkopf Field for what will be a critical early-season Ivy League match-up on Saturday, March 26 at 1 p.m. Cornell improved to 5-2 on the season after a dominating 17-9 victory over Stony Brook on Tuesday night in Long Island, while the Quakers registered a huge upset last weekend, beating No. 11 Princeton for the first time since 1989 to improve to 4-2 on the season and 1-0 in the Ivy League.

THE SERIES VS. PENN – The Cornell and Penn rivalry is the second-oldest in the Ivy League, beginning in the Quakers' second varsity season, 1901. The Big Red, which had already been fielding a team for nine seasons, took the 3-1 victory, the first of six-straight for Cornell. The two programs began playing each other regularly in 1920, meeting nearly every season since. The 2011 edition will be the 86th meeting in the series history, with the Big Red holding a dominating 60-22-3 record overall, including winning the last four meetings.

LOOKING AT THE QUAKERS – Penn is coming off a historic win, as it upset No. 11 Princeton, its first win over the Tigers since 1989, to improve to 4-2 on the season and 1-0 in the Ivy League. The Quakers, which brought in a highly-regarded recruiting class, are showing that their youngsters can play, most notably freshman goalie Brian Feeney, his twin brother, midfielder Danny Feeney and freshman defender Maxx Meyer. In goal, Brian Feeney has played every minute for Penn, posting a 4-2 record, a 6.46 goals-against average and a .530 save percentage. Danny Feeney has taken nearly every face-off for the Quakers (44-of-97) and has posted a .454 winning percentage. Meyer, meanwhile, has proven to be a solid defender, earning Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors last week for his performance against the Tigers. Despite the much-heralded youth, the offense, which averages just 7.33 goals per game, is led by a pair of seniors – midfielder Al Kohart (10 goals, 3 assists) and attackman Corey Winkoff (3 goals, 9 assists).

A WIN OVER PENN WOULD –
• improve the Big Red to 6-2 on the season and keep Cornell atop the Ivy standings at 2-0.
• make Cornell 61-22-3 all-time, while extending its winning streak against the Quakers to five games.
• improve the Big Red to 35-9-1 against Penn in Ithaca.
• be the third straight against a ranked opponent, improving Cornell to 3-2 overall against teams that are nationally ranked.
• be the 683rd victory in program history.

LAST TIME VS. THE QUAKERS –
• No. 9 Cornell scored three goals in the first four minutes of action, eventually jumping out to a 4-1 lead as it went on to defeat Penn, 12-6, at Franklin Field on March 27, 2010.
• Rob Pannell had his third straight game with more than five assists, registering a career-high six on the day.
• Scott Austin tallied a team-high four goals, while Chris Ritchie had four points on two goals and two assists.
• 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.
• Chris Casey and Joe Hegener split time in goal, 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. Cornell also dominated the in the face-off circle, going 16-of-22, with Austin Boykin wining 14-of-18 restarts.
• Neither team registered a man-up goal, with Cornell going 0-for-3 and Penn going 0-for-1.

LAST TIME OUT –
• No. 10/7 Cornell jumped out to a 7-1 lead midway through the second period and never looked back as it defeated No. 12/10 Stony Brook, 17-9, to improve to 5-2 on the season with its second-straight victory over a ranked opponent.
• Long Island natives Rob Pannell (four goals, four assists), David Lau (career-high five goals, one assist) and Steve Mock (four goals) returned home in style, combining for 13 goals, and 18 of the Cornell's 27 total points.
• The 17 goals were the most scored by Cornell against a ranked opponent since defeating No. 17 Yale, 18-7, on March 20, 2010.
• Cornell improved to 5-0 all-time against SBU and won its 14th straight over an America East opponent.
• Midfielder Roy Lang had a career-high three goals and one assist.
• In addition to registering one assist, Mitch McMichael went 12-of-25 in the face-off circle against preseason All-American Adam Rand. McMichael finished with a game-high eight ground balls and caused two turnovers.
• The second-ranked face-off man in the nation, Rand was held to well below his season winning average of 71 percent, finishing at 59 percent (13-of-22).
• Jason Noble picked up six ground balls and caused two turnovers, while Mike Bronzino finished with three ground balls and three caused turnovers.
• Netmider AJ Fiore posted nine saves, allowed eight goals, picked up three ground balls and caused one turnover.
• Stony Brook was led by Kevin Crowley's four points on two goals and two assists, while Tom Compitello and Russ Bonanno finished with three and two goals, respectively.
• In goal, Rob Camposa struggled with just 10 saves and allowed 17 goals in 56:51 of action.
• The Big Red held a commanding 43-30 advantage on ground balls and turned the ball over four fewer times than SBU (18-14).

MEET THE NEW BOSS — Ben DeLuca was named the Richard M. Moran Head Coach of Cornell Lacrosse this past summer. After spending 10 years as first an assistant, then an associate head coach of the Big Red program, he has posted a 5-2 record in his first season at the helm of the program. The 10th head coach in program history, DeLuca played for, or coached under Cornell's last three coaches – Richie Moran, Dave Pietramala, and Jeff Tambroni. DeLuca earned four letters on defense for the Big Red, serving as captain his senior year and went on to be named the team's outstanding senior athlete for his leadership and dedication on and off the field.

ROUGH ROAD – The game vs. Penn will be the Big Red's fifth game against a nationally ranked opponent since March 5. All four of the previous contests have been away from Ithaca, as Cornell played at Army, vs. Virginia at M&T Bank Stadium, at Yale and at Stony Brook. The Big Red posted a record of 2-2 in those games … According to the March 21 USILA coaches' poll, Cornell will face two more nationally ranked opponents this season, taking on Syracuse and Harvard on the road.

THRICE AS NICE – The Big Red have won three straight Ivy League Player of the Week accolades, beginning with junior attackman Rob Pannell earning the award on March 7 & March 14 before sophomore attackman Steve Mock was honored on March 21 … Pannell swept back-to-back weeks after tallying 22 points on 11 goals and 11 assists and accounting for nearly 1/3 of the Big Red's total points (22-of-67) during a four-game span … Mock was honored for matching a career-high with four goals against Yale to hand the Bulldogs their first loss of the season.

CAREER-HIGH OFFENSE – Several Big Red players matched or set career highs against Stony Brook on March 22. Rob Pannell matched career highs with eight points and four goals, while Steve Mock matched a career high with four goals. David Lau set career highs with six points and five goals, while Roy Lang and Mike O'Neil set career highs with three goals and two points, respectively.

EMPIRE STATE OF MIND – Cornell has traditionally been very successful against collegiate teams from New York state, posting an all-time record of 263-156-6 (.626). Head coach Ben DeLuca has posted a record of 4-1 (.800) vs. teams from the Empire State … The Big Red has already faced five team from New York state (4-1), with one more still on the schedule.

DEFENSIVE STOPPER – Max Feely turned some heads on March 12 when he shut down Virginia's Steele Stanwick, holding the junior attackman without a goal or an assist. At the time, Stanwick ranked third in the nation in points per game and had registered at least seven points in the three games prior to his meeting with the Big Red … One week later, Feely held Yale's Brian Douglass to one single assist. At the time, Douglass ranked second in the country with 4.75 points per game.

NATIONAL CAREER ASSISTS LEADER – Despite being only a junior, Rob Pannell is currently the national leader in career assists, having posted 114. He has a double-digit lead on second place Jeremy Boltus, a senior at Army that has 103 career assists. Other than Pannell, Virginia's Steele Stanwick (10th) is the only other junior in the top 10.

HOME IS WHERE THE WINS ARE — Since 2001, the Big Red has gone 59-14 at Schoellkopf Field, including perfect slates in 2011 (2-0), 2009 (6-0), 2007 (7-0) and 2005 (6-0).

TEWAARATON WATCH LIST – For the second straight year, Cornell lacrosse players Rob Pannell and Jessi Steinberg (women's lacrosse) have been named to the Tewaaraton Trophy Watch list. Pannell is the reigning USILA Jack Turnbull Award winner as the outstanding attackman in Division I. The junior attackman finished the 2010 season as a unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection, a first-team All-American and was the unanimous Ivy League Player of the Year. Steinberg was also a unanimous first-team All-Ivy League selection a year ago.

NEUTRAL ZONE – Since the start of the 2006 season, the Big Red is 10-5 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, 2008), Harvard (Foxboro, 2009), Princeton (Hempstead, 2009), Virginia (Foxboro, 2009), Hobart (Syracuse, 2010) and Army (Stony Brook, 2010). The five losses came at the hands of Duke in the 2007 national semifinal (Baltimore, Md.), Syracuse in the 2009 national championship (Foxboro, Mass.), Dartmouth during the 2010 season (Foxboro, Mass.), Notre Dame in the 2010 national semifinal (Baltimore, Md.) and Virginia at the 2011 Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic (Baltimore, Md.).

WIN NO. 680 – Cornell's 14-7 victory over Canisius on March 9, 2011 was the 680th win in program history. The Big Red is 682-442-27 all-time, and its 682 victories rank seventh among the winningest programs in collegiate lacrosse.

FLAWLESS DEFENSE – The Big Red did not commit a single penalty vs. Canisius on March 9, marking the first time since the 2010 season-opener against Hobart, a span of 20 games, that Cornell was not flagged.

BALANCED OFFENSE – So far this season, Cornell's scoring has come from all over the field. Of its 86 goals, 46 have come from attackmen, 36 have come from the midfield, and four have been scored by the defense.

MOVING ON UP – With his six assists vs. Canisius on March 9, Rob Pannell moved into third place in Cornell history for career assists. He currently needs just eight more to surpass Tim Goldstein (122; 1987-88) and 51 more assists over the next two seasons to pass Eamon McEneaney and become the Big Red's all-time leader … With his eight points vs. Stony Brook on March 22, Pannell moved into third place in Cornell history, surpassing with Ryan Hurley (179; 2007-10) for career points. He needs69 more points to surpass Eamon McEneaney (256; 1975-77).

HELPING HAND – Rob Pannell ranks second in the country in assists per game (2.83 apg).

GET TO THE POINT —Rob Pannell ranks first in the nation in points per game (5.77 pgp).

NOBLE EFFORT – Jason Noble matched a career-high with five caused turnovers in the Big Red's season opener against Hobart. He currently ranks 24th in the nation with 1.8 caused turnovers per game.

BACK IN NET – Incumbent starter AJ Fiore returns to backstop the Big Red this year. So far this season, he has posted a 7.99 goals-against average and a .500 save percentage. As a rookie, he posted an 11-6 record, finished the year ranked first in the Ivy League and 15th in the nation in goals-against average (8.69) and was third in the conference and 23rd in the nation in save percentage (.545).

NON-CONFERENCE WINS — Cornell owns a 35-9 record in its last 44 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.

MIDFIELD MEN – The offensive midfield remains nearly unchanged from a season ago, with five of the top six players - Jack Dudley and All-Ivy selection David Lau, as well as returning starters Roy Lang, Chris Langton and Ross Gillum - returning. As a group, four of the five ranked among Cornell's leading scorers a season ago and they accounted for 67 percent of the scoring that came out of the offensive midfield in 2010.

ON THE DEFENSIVE – The Big Red returns all three starting defensemen from a season ago, including All-American Max Feely, preseason All-American Jason Noble, and Mike Bronzino.

BRONZINO BONANZA – Sophomore defender Mike Bronzino tallied two goals against Hobart in the season opener, becom¬ing the first Big Red close defender to score twice in a single game since Ryan McClay scored twice against the Statesmen on May 4, 2002. In Cornell's next game against Binghamton, he registered two assists.

SINGLE-DIGIT SUCCESS – Since 2000, Cornell has posted a 106-13 record (89 percent) when holding its opponent to less than 10 goals.

RULE FOLLOWERS – In the 42 games played since the start of the 2009 season, the Big Red has been flagged for more penalties than its opponents on just 10 occasions.

GOING STREAKING – Junior Rob Pannell has the longest point-scoring streak on the team and second longest in the nation, having registered a point in every game of his collegiate career (42 games). Siena's Bryan Neufeld leads the nation with a 43-game streak.

ELITE COMPANY – Over the span of the past five seasons (2007-11) Cornell has racked up the third most wins (56) of any Division I men's lacrosse program, and has posted the fifth best winning percentage (76.7 percent) overall.

FOR STARTERS - Cornell is 61-50-5 all-time in season openers … Including 2011, the Big Red has played Hobart 15 times to start a season, posting an 8-7 record against the Statesmen in those games.

PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS – Cornell had three players named to the 2011 preseason All-American list. Rob Pannell was named a first-team selection, while Max Feely was a second-team choice and Jason Noble was named an honorable mention selection.

TICKLE THE (ALL) IVY – Cornell returns three players that earned All-Ivy honors last season, led by Rob Pannell, a unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection. Pannell was joined by midfielder David Lau and defender Max Feely, who were both honorable mention selections.

CRAZY EIGHTS — Last season, 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.

11-WINS – Cornell has posted at least 11 wins in each of the past six seasons, surpassing the longest previous streak in school history (1974-78).

CLOSE CALLS — Since the beginning of the 2003 season, Cornell is 25-7 in games that have been decided by a single goal, a mark that was raised as the Big Red defeated Loyola, 11-10, in triple overtime on May 15, 2010, at Schoellkopf Field. Of the seven losses, three have come against Syracuse (12-11 on April 11, 2006; 10-9 (OT) in the 2009 national championship game; 8-7 on April 13, 2010).

OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN – Senior Jack Dudley and junior Rob Pannell will serve as captains for the 2011 season.

HARD HAT – Roy Lang has been selected to carry the Hard Hat for the 2011 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 – Four players on the 2011 Cornell roster have fathers that have won a national championship with the Big Red – David Lau (George '78), 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 … Additionally, Connor Entenmann's father Ken was on Cornell's national semifinalist team in 1982, while Cole McCormack and Mike O'Neil each have uncles (Brian McCormack and Geoff Hall, respectively) that played together on the Big Red's national runner up squads in 1987 and 1988.

SISTER ACT – Junior Roy Lang and freshman Mike O'Neil each have a sister on the Big Red women's lacrosse team. Lang's sister Kelly is a sophomore, while O'Neil's sister Aly is a junior.

GEOGRAPHY LESSON – The 43 players on the 2011 Big Red roster hail from 11 different states – California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia and Washington – as well as the District of Columbia, and two Canadian provinces – British Columbia and Ontario.

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.

ATTACKMAN OF THE YEAR - For the first time since 1987, a member of the Cornell men's lacrosse team won the USILA's Jack Turnbull Award as the outstanding attackman in Division I, as Rob Pannell took home the award. He became just the seventh sophomore in the 64-year history of the award to earn the honor. Pannell joins an elite list, becoming the fourth Cornell player to win the Turnbull Award, joining Eamon McEneaney '77, Mike French '76, and Tim Goldstein '87.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR FOR PANNELL – 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 was the fifth Cornellian to be named Player of the Year during the past 10 seasons.

BIG RED INTERNATIONAL – Brad Kamedulski '10 (Poland), Scott Lee '02 (Korea), Ryan McClay '03 (USA), Max Seibald '10 (USA), and Sten Jernudd '14 (Sweden) all participated in the FIL Championships this summer in Manchester, England. McClay and Seibald won gold medals with Team USA and were both named to the All-World team following the tournament. Jernudd was also honored with a selection to the All-Presidents team as one of the top players in the tournament from a team that did not advance to the medal round.

RECAPPING 2010 – The Big Red advanced to the national semifinal game for the second straight year, and third time in the last four seasons. Although Cornell fell to Notre Dame, 12-7, the Big Red made its presence felt in the lacrosse community with its incredibly young squad impressing all spectators. Cornell finished the year with a 12-6 record overall and a mark of 4-2 in the conference, earning a share of its eighth straight Ivy League title, the longest stretch since Cornell won 10-straight championships between 1974 and 1983. Cornell's eight consecutive regular season Ivy titles is the longest current stretch by any men's lacrosse team in any conference. The Big Red earned an at-large bid to the 2010 NCAA men's lacrosse tournament, garnering a seventh seed. In the first round, Cornell defeated Loyola, 11-10, in triple overtime to advance to the quarterfinals before beating Army, 14-5, to earn a trip to the Final Four.

UP NEXT – Cornell remains at home next weekend to take on Dartmouth in an Ivy League contest on Saturday, April 2 at 3 p.m. The game will be part of a double-header as the Big Red women's lacrosse team will take on Princeton at noon.