Game Notes (PDF)

GAME #8: Cornell at Penn
FACE OFF: Saturday, March 22, at 1 p.m.
SITE: Adams Field at Penn Park (Philadelphia, Pa.)
2014 Records: Cornell (7-0, 1-0 Ivy); Penn (3-2, 0-1 Ivy)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 63-22-3
LAST MEETING: Cornell won, 10-5, March 23, 2013 in Ithaca, N.Y.

RADIO: None
LIVE STATS: www.PennAthletics.com 
LIVE VIDEO: http://www.ivyleaguedigitalnetwork.com/cornell 
LIVE AUDIO: None
TELEVISION: None

THE MATCHUP: The No. 4 Cornell men's lacrosse team will face its toughest roadtrip of the season when it travels to Philadelphia to take on No. 14 Penn in an Ivy League battle at Adams Field on Saturday, March 22 at 1 p.m. The Big Red is off to its best start since the 2007 season, sitting at 7-0 on the year (1-0 Ivy), while the Quakers enter the contest at 3-2 overall (0-1 Ivy). Fans can watch live on the Ivy League Digital Network.

SERIES HISTORY VS. PENN — The Cornell and Penn rivalry is the second-oldest in the Ivy League and ninth longest in the nation, 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 2014 edition will be the 89th meeting in the series history, with the Big Red holding a dominating 63-22-3 record overall, including winning the last seven meetings.

A WIN OVER PENN WOULD:
• be the second this week vs. a head coach named Mike Murphy.
• make Cornell 8-0 to start a season for the first time since the 2007 campaign.
• be Cornell's eighth straight over the Quakers.
• improve the Big Red to 64-22-3 vs. Penn and 244-97-1 all-time vs. Ivy League.
• improve interim head coach Matt Kerwick's career record to 117-101 and to 1-0 vs. Penn.
• be the 722nd win in program history.

THE HEAD COACH: Matt Kerwick (7-0) will serve as the Interim Head Coach of Cornell Lacrosse for the 2014 season ... Kerwick comes to Cornell with 15 years of head coaching experience (116-101) with stints at Jacksonville University, Hobart, Alfred and Randolph-Macon. 

SEASON STREAKS:
• Cornell has reached double-digit goals in all seven games.
• The Big Red has had at least one man-up goal in all seven games.
• Cornell has registered more ground balls than its opponents in all seven games this season.
• The Big Red has taken at least 40 shots in 6-of-7 games.
• The Big Red has had at least two man-up goals in 6-of-7 games.
• Cornell has held its opponents to less than 10 goals in 5-of-7 games.
• The Big Red has put at least 25 shots on goals in 5-of-7 games.
• The Big Red has had more penalties than its opponents in 5-of-7 games.
• Cornell's goalies have registered more saves than its opponents in 4-of-7 games.
• Cornell has held its opponents to less than 30 shots in 3-of-7 games.
• The Big Red has held its opponents to less than 20 shots on goal in 3-of-7 games.

THE UNDEFEATED: Cornell is one of just two undefeated team remaining in Division I men's lacrosse, joining No. 1 Maryland. The Terrapins will face No. 7 UNC on Saturday, March 22 at 2 p.m.

GREATER SAVES: In each of its last four contests – Canisius (Donville 3; Knight 7), Virginia (Knight 15), Yale (Knight 14), and Colgate (Knight 11), Cornell has posted more saves than its opponents. That is the longest streak since 2008 when Jake Myers recorded more saves in a stretch of games vs. Penn, Harvard, Syracuse and Dartmouth. During the 2008 stretch, the Big Red went 3-1 with a loss to the Orange.

STARTING 7-0: With its 7-0 record, the Big Red is off to its best start since the 2007 season when it went 15-0 before losing to Duke, 12-11, in the national semifinals.

EMPIRE STATE OF MIND: Cornell has traditionally been very successful against collegiate teams from New York state, posting an all-time record of 279-158-7 (.636) … The Big Red, which will face six teams from New York in 2014, is currently 4-0 against teams from the Empire State.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Matt Donovan has earned back-to-back Ivy League Player of the Week honors on March 3 and March 10. His first honor came after registering eight goals, including the overtime game-winner vs. Michigan, in a pair of games vs. Binghamton and the Wolverines. The next week, he posted two goals and one assist in just three quarters vs. Canisius before helping the Big Red upset No. 2 Virginia with two goals and three assists. Of his five points vs. the Cavaliers, four came as Cornell fought back from an early deficit to take a 6-5 halftime lead.

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK: For the second straight week, Cornell freshman goalie Christian Knight has been named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week. He is the first Big Red player to take home back-to-back Rookie of the Week honors since Matt Donovan did so on April 2 and April 9, 2012. Knight was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week after helping the Big Red upset No. 2 Virginia with 15 saves in his first collegiate start on March 8. He then posted 14 saves in his first-ever Ivy League contest, leading Cornell to an 11-9 win over No. 17 Yale.

FRESHMAN STOPPER: Christian Knight is the first freshman goalie to start a game for the Big Red since AJ Fiore started 17 contests in 2010. In his first start vs. No. 2 Virginia, Knight stopped 15 shots. Fiore made 15 saves twice during his rookie season, posting 20 in a loss to Syracuse and 15 in a triple overtime win against Loyola in the NCAA tournament.

FACE-OFF FRENZY:
• Doug Tesoriero set the school record for face-off wins in a career vs. Michigan on March 1, passing Addison Sollog. (1999-2002). He currently has 564 career face-off wins.
• With 564 career face-off wins, Tesoriero ranks fourth in NCAA Division I among active.  
• Doug Tesoriero entered the week ranked third in the Ivy League and 23rd in the nation in face-off winning percentage (.568).
• Last season, Tesoriero set the single season record with 241 face-off wins, breaking the old mark of 192, which was set by Clayton Weber 1995.

GROUND BALL GUY:
• Doug Tesoriero needs just five ground balls to set the school's career ground ball record, surpassing Paul Schimoler (299; 1986-89).
• With his 295 career ground balls, Doug Tesoriero ranks fifth overall in NCAA Division I among active players.  
• Doug Tesoriero entered the week ranked first in the Ivy League and 10th in the nation with 8.33 ground balls per game.
• With his 133 ground balls in 2013, Doug Tesoriero broke the school record by edging out Craig Jaeger, who had won 127 ground balls in 1978.

BALANCED OFFENSE: So far this season Cornell has received 77 points (54 goals, 23 assists) from its attack (52 percent) and 72 points (44 goals, 28 assists) from its midfield and defense. 

TEWAARATON TROPHY WATCH: The Tewaaraton Foundation has announced the 2014 Tewaaraton Award men's watch list and a pair of Cornell players – Connor Buczek and Matt Donovan – have made the initial cut. The list includes the top players across all three divisions of NCAA lacrosse and highlights the early contenders for the 2014 Tewaaraton Award.

STEPPING UP: With 10 goals in the first two games of the season, Dan Lintner matched his season total from a year ago. He has registered a hat trick in five of seven games so far this season and currently leads the Big Red with 25 goals.

TOP 10 NATION: The Big Red opened the week ranked in the top 10 nationally in several statistical categories, including ground balls per game (second – 38.50), scoring offense (third – 13.83), scoring margin (fifth – 4.83),man-up offense (sixth – .556), and points per game (eighth – 21.17).

RANKED OPPONENTS: The Big Red's 2014 season currently features five opponents ranked in the USILA Coaches Poll – Virginia, Syracuse, Penn, Princeton, and Yale … Cornell is 2-0 so far this season vs. ranked opponents.

ELITE COMPANY: Over the span of the past five seasons (2009-13), Cornell has racked up the third-most wins (62) and the fourth best winning percentage (.747) of any Division I men's lacrosse program.

HOME IS WHERE THE WINS ARE: Cornell has enjoyed a true home field advantage since beginning play on Schoellkopf Field in 1972, going 221-71 for a .757 winning percentage. Cornell has been even more impressive since 2000, going 87-20 overall (.813), with perfect slates in 2011 (8-0), 2009 (6-0), 2007 (7-0) and 2005 (6-0) … So far this season, Cornell is 4-0 at home.

IVY OPENERS: Since the conference began play in the 1956 season, the Big Red has posted a 44-15 record in Ivy League openers, including winning its last 15, dating back to the 1999 season when it fell to the Bulldogs, 7-6. More often than not, Cornell has met either Yale or Harvard in the conference opener, playing a different school on only six occasions.

IVY KINGS: Since Ivy League play began in 1956, Cornell has won a conference-high 27 titles, including 17 undefeated crowns. The Big Red also has the best Ivy League record of any team in the conference at 243-97-1 (.714).

RECORD SETTER: Dan Lintner scored a pair of goals just four seconds apart at Binghamton on Feb. 25, 2014, setting the school record and matching the NCAA mark for the fastest consecutive goals scored by the same player.

FOR STARTERS: Cornell is 64-50-5 all-time in season openers and has won its last 11 season openers dating back to a 13-6 loss to Georgetown in the first game of the 2003 season.

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!: A trio of Cornell alumni – Mitch Belisle '07, Max Seibald '09, and Rob Pannell '13 – have been named to the United States men's lacrosse national team that will participate at the 2014 Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Championships, which will be held July 10-19 in Denver, Colo. The Big Red players are the only representatives from the Ivy League to make the squad and Cornell, along with Syracuse, has the third most players on the team, following Johns Hopkins (5) and Maryland (4). The three selections to the US national team are the most for Cornell since Bob Henrickson, Norm Engelke, Matt Crowley, Tim Goldstein, Paul Schimoler and Kevin Cook all earned the gold medal at the 1990 world championship.

OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN: The Big Red will have four captains this season – seniors Tom Freshour and Dan Lintner, as well as juniors Connor Buczek and Matt Donovan.

HARD HAT: Connor Buczek was selected to carry the Hard Hat for the 2014 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.

FAMILY TIES: Connor Entenmann's father, Ken '85, and Russell Scott's uncle, Sam Happel '82, both played on the Big Red's national semifinal team in 1982, while Mike O'Neil's uncle, Geoff Hall '88 and Cole McCormack's uncle, Brian MCormack '88 both played on the national runner up squads in 1987 and 1988. Chris Cook's father Kevin '84 and his uncle Ed Cook '86 were All-American lacrosse players for the Big Red.

WIN NO. 700: Cornell's 12-6 victory over Syracuse on April 10, 2012 was the 700th win in program history. The Big Red is now 721-445-27 all-time, and its 721 victories rank seventh among the winningest programs in collegiate lacrosse.

CLOSE CALLS: Since the beginning of the 2003 season, Cornell is 31-13 in games that have been decided by a single goal, a mark that was raised when the Big Red defeated Michigan, 15-14 in overtime on March 1, 2014. Of the 13 losses, 11 have come against ranked opponents, including eight against squads ranked in the top-10, five of which were ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 in the nation.

OVERTIME NOTES: With its overtime win at Michigan on March 1, 2014, Cornell has played at least one overtime game in each of the past eight seasons, dating back to a 12-11 overtime triumph over Albany in the 2007 NCAA quarterfinals. During that span, the Big Red has posted a 7-4 record in overtime games.

HI, MY NAME IS: The Big Red has two new faces on the sideline, as Peter Milliman and MJ Kiekebelt have joined the staff as assistant coaches. Milliman came to Cornell after one season as a member of the Princeton coaching staff. A native of Rochester, N.Y., Milliman spent four seasons as the head coach at Division II Pfeiffer, where he was twice named the Conference Carolinas Coach of the Year. Kiekebelt comes to East Hill after spending two seasons as an assistant coach at his alma mater RIT. Kiekebelt joined the Tigers coaching staff after a highly successful playing career that culminated in being named the Empire 8 Men's Lacrosse Player of the Year and leading RIT to the NCAA Division III national semifinals in 2011.

FRESH FACES: The Big Red added 12 newcomers to the 2013 roster, three of whom are transfer students. The group features four high school All-Americans and is comprised of eight midfielders, two defensemen and two goalkeepers. Additionally, the players represent six states, with seven players hailing from New York and one each from Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Texas, and Virginia.

PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS: Cornell had three players named to the 2014 Face-Off Magazine Preseason All-American list. Connor Buczek was a first-team selection, while both Matt Donovan and Doug Tesoriero earned honorable mention selections.

GEOGRAPHY LESSON: The 35 players on the 2014 Big Red roster hail from 12 different states – California, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and two Canadian provinces – Alberta 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.

WHAT WAS LOST: The Big Red lost one of the most prolific attack duos in Cornell men's lacrosse history with the graduation of Tewaaraton Trophy winner Rob Pannell and the NCAA scoring champion Steve Mock.  Cornell graduated three additional All-Americans in midfielder Max Van Bourgondien, long stick midfielder Thomas Keith and defender Jason Noble, as well as three-year starting goalie AJ Fiore. 

WHAT RETURNS: Cornell returns All-American Connor Buczek to the midfield, the 2011 Ivy League Rookie of the Year in attackman Matt Donovan, and one of the best face-off men in the nation in Doug Tesroriero, all of whom were named preseason All-Americans ...  The Big Red offense returns 106-of-262 goals (40 percent) and 40-of-139 assists (29 percent). 

RECAPPING 2013: The Big Red returned to the national spotlight in 2013, rising as high as No. 2 in the national rankings, going undefeated in Ivy League play, and advancing to the NCAA semifinals before falling to eventual national champion Duke in an epic game. The team posted a 14-4 record overall, with three losses coming by a single-goal before their final loss came by a two-goal margin against the Blue Devils. During the course of the season, Rob Pannell '14 broke a handful of Cornell, Ivy League and NCAA records, becoming the all-time leading scorer in Division I history (354), as well as the Cornell all-time assist leader (204). Pannell then punctuated his epic career by winning the Tewaaraton Trophy, the USILA Lt. Raymond J. Enners Award for the Outstanding DI Player of the Year, as well as the Ivy League Player of the Year. He is just the fifth player in USILA history to earn the Enners award twice and is the first-ever three-time Ivy League Player of the Year in men's lacrosse, and just the fourth player in the history of Division I college lacrosse to be named conference player of the year three times. Pannell also became just the fourth player in Cornell men's lacrosse history to be a four-time All-American, earning a first-team selection for the third consecutive season. Joining him on the first-team was defender Jason Noble '13, while midfielder Connor Buczek '15 earned a second-team nod. Van Bourgondien (third-team), attackman Steve Mock '13 (third-team) and long-stick midfielder Thomas Keith '13 (honorable mention) were also honored. Pannell, Mock, Buczek and Noble were all unanimously chosen first-team All-Ivy, with Van Bourgondien, Keith and goalie AJ Fiore '13 earning second-team selection.

NEXT UP: The Big Red remains on the road when it travels to Dartmouth on March 29 for a contest at 1 p.m.