* Game Notes (PDF)

GAME #4: No. 14/9 Cornell vs. Canisius
FACE OFF: Wednesday, March 9, at 4 p.m.
SITE: Schoellkopf Field (Ithaca, N.Y.)
2011 Records: Cornell (2-1, 0-0 Ivy League); Canisius (0-3, 0-0 MAAC)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 7-0
LAST MEETING: Cornell won 9-6, March 2, 2010 in Buffalo, N.Y.

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

THE MATCHUP — The No. 14/9 Big Red returns to Schoellkopf Field on Wednesday, March 9 to take on in-state rival Canisius at 4 p.m. Cornell is looking to bounce back from its first loss of the season, as it dropped an 11-9 decision to No. 19 Army on March 5 to fall to 2-1 on the season. The Golden Griffins also lost its last outing to Binghamton to fall to 0-3 overall.

SERIES HISTORY VS. CANISIUS — Cornell first faced the Golden Griffins in the final game of the 1997 season. That game, a 24-14 victory for the Big Red, was the final contest of legendary head coach Richie Moran's illustrious career. The teams have met six times since then (1998, 2002, 2003, 2008, 2009, 2010), all of which have been victories for Cornell as it owns a perfect 7-0 record in the series ... Last season was the first in the series to be played in Buffalo and it was the closest of the series, with the Big Red taking a slim 9-6 victory.

LOOKING AT THE GOLDEN GRIFFINS — Canisius dropped an 11-7 decision to Binghamton on March 5 to fall to 0-3 on the season. The team was picked to finish third in the MAAC and features the conference's preseason player of the year, Adam Jones. The senior midfielder is a three-time first-team All-MAAC selection and last season he led all league midfielders with 3.08 points per game and 1.92 goals per game. He is the most consistent scorer on the team, carrying a 32-game point scoring streak into the game. The biggest addition for Canisius in 2011 is a healthy Nick LoCoco, who saw an ankle injury limit his production last season. The 2008 MAAC Rookie of the Year is back in full form and has two goals and four assists on the season. Joining him on the attack is Greg Michael, who leads the team with three goals and three assists. Team captain Dan Coates anchors a defensive unit that returns just one other player, Drew Caldiero, that saw significant minutes in the defensive end a season ago. The Griffs return face-off man Justin Maderer, who won 40 percent of his restarts a season ago and is off to a 24-of-48 start this year. In goal, incumbent starter Sean Callahan carries a 12.00 goals-against average and a .423 save percentage.

CORNELL VS. THE MAAC – The Big Red owns a perfect 7-0 record vs. the current members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, thanks solely to a 7-0 record vs. Canisius. Cornell has never faced Detroit, Jacksonville, Manhattan, Marist, Siena or VMI.

A WIN OVER CANISIUS WOULD –
• be the eighth-straight against the Golden Griffs.
• improve Cornell to 3-1 on the season.
• be the 680th victory in program history.
• be Cornell's third-straight win at home and improve the Big Red to 56-12 at Schoellkopf Field over the last 10 seasons.

LAST TIME VS. CANISIUS –
• No. 8 Cornell used a five-goal run to end the second and start the third quarters and held on for a 9-6 victory over Canisius on a frigid day at the Demske Sports Complex in Buffalo, N.Y.
• Cornell was led by Ryan Hurley (3 G, 1 A) and Rob Pannell (1 G, 3 A) with four points apiece.
• Chris Ritchie and Roy Lang also had a pair of goals and Jon Thomson rounded out the scoring with a single tally.
• Canisius was led by Adam Jones' three goals and one assist, while Mike Benzinger, Matt Barkas and Jon Domres scored once.
• The two teams combining for seven turnovers in the first eight minutes, as Cornell ended the game with 21 turnovers, 15 unforced, while the Griffs finished with 18 turnovers, 11 of which were unforced.
• Cornell held the edge in shots (30-26) and ground balls (31-24) and won 12-of-18 face-offs, thanks mostly to Austin Boykin who won 7-of-9 restarts.
• Boykin also had six ground balls, while Pierce Derkac, who played the wing on face offs, picked up seven.
• In-between the pipes, AJ Fiore stopped nine shots, while Sean Callahan made 12 saves in the loss.

NOTING THE ARMY GAME –
• Army's 11-9 victory snapped a six-game winning streak by Cornell in the series.
• Black Knights goalie Tom Palesky's 17 saves pushed his total to 57 in four career games against the Big Red (14.2 saves per game).
• Rob Pannell led Cornell with three goals, while Cody Bremner tallied two goals.
• Sophomore Matt Taylor registered his first career goal with a man-up tally at the 4:41 mark of the fourth quarter.
• Jason Noble registered a career-high nine ground balls, while Mitch McMichael won a career-high 11 face offs (11-of-18).

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 2-1 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.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK FOR PANNELL – Junior attackman Rob Pannell was named the Ivy League Player of the Week on March 7 after a stellar performance against Binghamton and Army. It was the first league award of the season for the Big Red and the third Player of the Week award of Pannell's career. Despite playing in just the first half against Binghamton, Pannell still had a hand in 8-of-13 goals against the Bearcats. Against Army and one of the top goalies in the nation, Pannell led the Big Red with three goals.

ROUGH ROAD – According to the March 7 USILA coaches' poll, the Big Red will face a total seven ranked teams this season. Of those games, four are on the road, two are at home and one will be played at a neutral site … Cornell has already played one of its seven ranked teams, falling to Army on March 5.

EMPIRE STATE OF MIND – Cornell has been traditionally very successful against collegiate teams from New York state, posting an all-time record of 261-156-6 (.624). Head coach Ben DeLuca has posted a record of 2-1 (.667) vs. teams from the Empire State … The Big Red will face a total of six teams from New York state in 2011.

TOP 10 TEAM – With Cornell ranked 14th in the latest USILA Coaches Poll, it marks just the second time since March 28, 2005 that the Big Red has fallen out of the top 10 in one of the national polls. The last time it happened (April 5, 2010), Cornell was back in the top 10 the next week.

BALANCED OFFENSE – Through its first two games of the season, Cornell's scoring has come from all over the field. Of its 36 goals, 18 came from the midfield, 15 goals were scored by attackman and three goals came from the defense.

MOVING ON UP – With his five assists vs. Binghamton, Rob Pannell moved into fourth place in Cornell history for career assists with 102. He needs just three more to surpass Mike French (105; 1974-76) and 63 more assists over the next two seasons to pass Eamon McEneaney and become the Big Red's all-time leader … With his three points at Army, Pannell moved into seventh place in Cornell history for career points. He needs just four more points to move into fifth place, matching Sean Greenhalgh (169; 2002-05), while 16 points will catapult him into third place.

HELPING HAND – Rob Pannell is ranked first in the country in assists per game (3.00 apg).

GET TO THE POINT — Rob Pannell is first second in the nation in points per game (5.67 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 fifth in the nation with 3.0 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 7.78 goals-against average and a .474 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).

HOME IS WHERE THE WINS ARE — Since 2001, the Big Red has gone 58-14 at Schoellkopf Field, including perfect slates in 2011 (1-0), 2009 (6-0), 2007 (7-0) and 2005 (6-0).

NON-CONFERENCE WINS — Cornell owns a 33-8 record in its last 41 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 103-13 record (88.8 percent) when holding its opponent to less than 10 goals.

RULE FOLLOWERS – In the 38 games played since the start of the 2009 season, the Big Red has been flagged for more penalties than its opponents on just eight 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 (38 games). Siena's Bryan Neufeld leads the nation with a 39-game streak.

ELITE COMPANY – Over the span of the past five seasons (2007-11) Cornell has racked up the third most wins (53) of any Division I men's lacrosse program, and has posted the fourth best winning percentage (76.8 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.

WIN NO. 675 – Cornell's 14-8 victory over Brown on May 7, 2010 was the 675th win in program history. The team currently has 678 victories, which rank seventh all-time among the winningest programs in collegiate lacrosse.

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.

NEUTRAL ZONE – Since the start of the 2006 season, the Big Red is 10-4 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 four 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.) and Notre Dame in the 2010 national semifinal (Baltimore, Md.).

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 will participate in one of the premier lacrosse events of the regular season this weekend, as it faces No. 2 Virginia at the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 1:30 p.m. The game will be part of a tripleheader that will also feature a game between Syracuse and Georgetown at 11 a.m., and a contest between Johns Hopkins and UMBC at 4 p.m.