No. 13 Men's Lacrosse Takes On No. 8 Albany In Texas For Patriots Cup
 
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #4: No. 13 Cornell vs. No. 8 Albany
FACE OFF: Saturday, February 28, at 1:00 p.m.
SITE: SMU's Ford Field (Dallas, Texas)
2015 Records: Cornell (2-1, 0-0 Ivy League); Albany (1-0, 0-0 AE)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 1-0
LAST MEETING: Cornell won 12-11 (OT), May 19, 2007 in Princeton, N.J.
GAME NOTES: Cornell | Albany

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THE MATCHUP: The No. 13 Cornell men's lacrosse team opens up a grueling stretch, playing three consecutive top 10 opponents away from Ithaca, N.Y., beginning with a contest vs. No. 8 Albany at SMU's Ford Field in Dallas, Texas. The game is part of the seventh annual Patriot's Cup and is played with the goal of raising awareness and funds to support the HEADstrong Foundation and Wounded Warrior Project. The Big Red is coming off a 17-10 victory over Binghamton to improve to 2-1 on the year, while UAlbany won its season-opener against Drexel, 15-8, on Feb. 21. Fans in the Ithaca area can hear Dan Matthews of Lacrosse Talk call the game live, with color analysis by Kyle Hartzell and Marcus Holman on WHCU 870 AM/95.9 FM. Out of town fans will be able to hear the call live on the Ivy League Digital Network.
 
SERIES HISTORY VS. UALBANY: Cornell holds a 1-0 lead in the all-time series with Albany, defeating the Great Danes in overtime of 2007 NCAA tournament quarterfinals, held in Princeton, N.J.

LOOKING AT THE GREAT DANES (portions courtesy UAlbanySports.com):  The two-time defending America East champion UAlbany men's lacrosse team was predicted unanimously to finish first in 2015 conference preseason coaches' poll. The Great Danes are coming off a perfect 5-0 conference mark a year ago, going 12-6 overall and earning a trip to the NCAA Quarterfinals after defeating Loyola in the first round. Reigning two-time America East Coach of the Year Scott Marr returns two all-conference players, reigning co-Tewaaraton winner Lyle Thompson at attack and preseason All-American Blaze Riorden in goal, as well as two members of the America East all-rookie team and seven of the team's top eight midfielders from last season. In its season-opener, Albany defeated No. 19 Drexel, 15-8. Nine different Great Danes scored as UAlbany (1-0) snapped a five-game skid against Drexel (0-2), netting six-straight goals from 10:36 left in the second to 10:30 left in the third to build a decisive lead. Freshman Connor Fields led UAlbany with six points off three goals and three assists, including four points in the 6-0 run.  Seth Oakes scored four goals in his UAlbany debut, while Jake Cullen scored two goals and an assist off the bench. Riorden finished the game with 16 saves.
 
LAST TIME VS. UALBANY: Junior John Glynn took a pass from senior Eric Pittard and buried a shot with 4.8 seconds remaining in overtime to propel the Big Red to the Final Four with a 12-11 victory over Albany on May 19, 2007 at Princeton Stadium. After spending all week answering questions about a foot injury that he sustained in the third quarter of last weekend's game with Towson, sophomore Max Seibald let his play on the field do the talking, as he played a key role in setting up Glynn's game-winner. With time running down in overtime, Albany picked up a loose ball and streaked up-field but Seibald, one of the fastest players on the field, streaked 50-yards from Cornell's restraining line to catch up with the Great Dane ball handler. A resounding check by the Tewaaraton Trophy finalist sent the Albany player's stick flying and Brian Clayton picked up the loose ball and sent it to Glynn at midfield. Glynn passed the ball to Pittard, but continued towards the goal, where he received the ball back and one-timed it into the back of the net for the first post-season goal of his career. Glynn's only score of the game punctuated a hard-fought contest that saw both teams play at a frantic pace well beyond the 60 minutes of regulation. Senior David Mitchell had a game-high four goals, while Pittard had a pair of goals and five assists sending him past the 100-point plateau for his career.  Senior Matt McMonagle made 12 saves against the high-powered Great Dane offense. Albany (15-3) got three goals and an assist from John Alpizar, while Brett Queener had 14 saves to lead the Albany defense. Cornell defenseman Mitch Belisle and defensive midfielder Danny Nathan played an outstanding game for the Big Red, holding the second- and third-highest scoring players in the nation, Frank Resetarits (3.29 gpg.) and Merrick Thomson (3.18 gpg.), to a collective three goals. Albany held the edge in shots, 43-37 and ground balls, 39-36, while dominating in the face-off circle, winning 17-of-26. Seibald, who had two goals and two assists on the day, also helped the Big Red in the circle in the second half, winning 6-of-13 restarts.
 
CORNELL VS. THE AMERICA EAST: The Big Red is 22-6 all-time vs. the current members of the America East. Cornell is 12-0 all-time vs. Binghamton, 5-0 vs. Stony Brook and 1-0 vs. Albany and Hartford. The Big Red has a losing record vs. UMBC (5-6) and has never faced Vermont ... Cornell has won its last 19 games vs. America East opponents.

A WIN OVER UALBANY WOULD:
• make Cornell 2-0 all-time in the series.
• make the Big Red 3-0 in neutral site games so far this season.
• improve head coach Matt Kerwick's career record to 123-107 and to 1-0 vs. Albany.
• be the 728th win in program history.
• be the 20th straight victory for Cornell against an America East opponent.

THE HEAD COACH: Matt Kerwick was named the Richard M. Moran Head Coach of Men's Lacrosse at Cornell University on June 11, 2014. Kerwick, who served in the position on an interim basis during the 2014 season, became the 11th head coach in the programs' 122-year history ... Kerwick has 16 years of head coaching experience (122-107) with stints at Jacksonville University, Hobart, Alfred and Randolph-Macon. 
 
EMPIRE STATE OF MIND:  Cornell has traditionally been very successful against collegiate teams from New York state, posting an all-time record of 280-161-7 (.633) … The Big Red will face seven teams from New York in 2015.

RANKED OPPONENTS:  The Big Red's 2015 season currently features eight opponents ranked in the USILA Coaches Poll – Syracuse (second) Virginia, (fifth), Yale (seventh), Albany (eighth), Harvard (10th), Penn (16th), Princeton (18th) and Colgate (20th).

ELITE COMPANY:  Over the past 10 seasons (2005-2014) only eight schools have registered 100 victories – Duke (151), UVA (127), Cornell (121), Syracuse (118), Notre Dame (114), Denver (113), Maryland (112), Hopkins (111) … During that span, only six have won at least 70 percent of its games – Duke (.803), Cornell (.766), Virginia (.760), Notre Dame (.735), Syracuse (.728) and Hopkins (.715).
 
MOVING ON UP:
•Matt Donovan ranks 16th in Cornell history for career points (135) and needs just three more to surpass Tom Marino in 15th place.
•Matt Donovan ranks 23rd in Cornell history for career assists (45) and needs just one more to move into a five-way tie for 19th place.
•Matt Donovan ranks 15th in Cornell history for career goals (90) and needs just one more to move into a tie with Max Seibald in 14th place, and three more to jump into the top 10 all-time.
•Dan Lintner ranks 45th in Cornell history for career goals (58) and needs just two more to move into a tie with David Key in 44th place.
 
BIG IN THE MIDFIELD: With two points vs. Penn on May 2, 2014 Connor Buczek became just the 14th midfielder in Cornell history to reach 100 career points … He currently ranks ninth all-time among midfielders with 113 career points and needs just two more to surpass Bill O'Hanlon (1987-90) and move into eighth place overall.
 
FACE-OFF FRENZY: In his first season as a starter, sophomore Domenic Massimilian enters the game with Binghamton ranked 10th in the nation with a .696 winning percentage. He is also third in the country with 9.33 ground balls.

PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS:  Cornell had three players named to the 2015 Face-Off Magazine Preseason All-American list. Connor Buczek was a first-team selection, while Jordan Stevens and Matt Donovan were named to the second- and third-team, respectively.
 
EARLIEST START: The Feb. 15 start to the season was the earliest in Cornell program history. Previously, the earliest the Big Red had ever started a season came in an 18-6 victory at Binghamton on Feb. 21, 2009 ... By comparison, in1892, Cornell's first-ever season, the team played its first contest on May 28. 
 
OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN:  The Big Red will have four captains this season – seniors Connor Buczek, Matt Donovan, Dan Lintner, and Jordan Stevens.

HARD HAT: Brennan Donville has been selected to carry the Hard Hat for the 2015 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.
 
WIN NO. 725: Cornell's 12-10 victory over Princeton on April 26, 2014 was the 725th win in program history. The Big Red is now 726-448-27 all-time, and its 726 victories rank seventh among the winningest programs in collegiate lacrosse.

CLOSE CALLS: Since the beginning of the 2003 season, Cornell is 31-16 in games that have been decided by a single goal, a mark that was lowered when the Big Red fell to No. 6 Maryland, 8-7, on May 10, 2014. Of the 15 losses, 14 have come against ranked opponents, including 10 against squads ranked in the top-10, five of which were ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 in the nation.

FAMILY TIES:
• Head Coach Matt Kerwick's parents Thomas and the late Patricia Kerwick, as well as his sister Ann, all graduated from Cornell.
• Russell Scott has a total of 14 family members that attended Cornell, while his grandfather, Thomas W. Scott, is a retired Cornell professor of Agronomy … His father, Tom (football), his uncles John Dentes (football), George Dentes (football/sprint football/baseball), Terry Scott (sprint football), and Sam Happel (lacrosse) and his cousins Scott Dentes (sprint football) and Zak Dentes (sprint football) all played sports at Cornell … Happel played on the Big Red's national semifinal team in 1982.
• Chris Cook's father, Kevin '84, and uncle, Ed Cook '86, were All-American lacrosse players for Cornell.
• Ryan Matthew's cousin Matt Sutherland played lacrosse at Cornell.
• Tim LaBeau's father Tim '77 played football for the Big Red from 1973-77, while his mother, Nancy '78, and two sisters, Kristi '09 and Kate '10, all graduated from Cornell.
• Matt Schattner's uncle, Mark Major, played hockey at Cornell from 1984-87, while his aunt, Martha Manilla Major, played soccer for the Big Red from 1986-87.
• Dan Nemirov's mother, Jamie, as well as one aunt and his maternal grandfather all graduated from Cornell. 
• Scott Flynn's grandfather Norman Penney attended Cornell Law School and later served as both a professor in the law school and Dean of University Faculty. 
•Charlie Estill's grandfather Frederick Siefke graduated from Cornell in 1948.
•Troy Revello's older sister Grace attends Cornell.
 
IVY KINGS:
• Since Ivy League play began in 1956, Cornell has won a conference-high 28 titles, including 17 undefeated crowns.
• Cornell has won a share of 11 of the last 12 Ivy League titles.
• The Big Red also has the best Ivy League record of any team in the conference at 247-98-1 (.715).
 
MLL DRAFT FACTS:
•Senior midfielder Connor Buczek was selected second overall by the Florida Launch in the 2015 Major League Lacrosse Draft becoming the Big Red's highest ranked draft pick since Rob Pannell was taken first overall by the New York Lizards in 2012.
•Cornell had a pair of third round selections in senior attackman Matt Donovan (18th – Chesapeake Bayhawks) and senior defensemen Jordan Stevens. (21st – Rochester Rattlers).
•Cornell was one of eight schools with three or more players drafted, but of those eight schools, only Notre Dame also featured a first round draft pick (Jack Near – seventh overall).  
•Since having a program-high five players selected in the 2007 MLL Draft, the Big Red has had multiple picks in five of the last nine drafts. In that same time frame, Cornell has had five first round draft picks, including one selection at No. 1 (Pannell), and two at No. 2 (Buczek and Max Seibald).  
 
ON THE WORLD STAGE:  The Big Red had 10 former or current players suit up on the field at this past summer's 2014 Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Championships, including junior Brennan Donville, Jesse Gamble '11 and Jason Noble '13, who took home the gold medal with Team Canada. Additionally, Mitch Belisle '07, Max Seibald '09, and Rob Pannell '13 earned silver with Team USA, while Myan Adams '13 won the bronze with the Iroquois Nation. Cornell also had two players with Israel Lacrosse (Coldy Levine '13 and Cole McCormack '14) and one with Team Sweden (Sten Jernudd '14).
 
HI, MY NAME IS:  The Big Red has a new faces on the sideline, as Chris Kivlen has joined the staff as an assistant coach. Kivlen came to East Hill following three extremely successful seasons as the head coach at Montclair State where he registered an overall record of 41-13, including a perfect conference record (18-0), three league championships and three NCAA Tournament appearances. For his efforts, he was named the Skyline Conference Coach of the Year each season and turned Montclair State into one of the top programs in the region. A standout defenseman during his playing career for Albany, Kivlen was part of three conference championship teams. 

FRESH FACES:  The Big Red added 14 newcomers to the 2015 roster, two of whom are transfer students. The group features seven high school All-Americans and is comprised of seven midfielders, three defenders, three attackmen, and one long stick midfielder. Additionally, the players represent six states with seven players hailing from New York, three from New Jersey and one each from Colorado, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
 
NEXT UP:  The Big Red remains on the road for the next two weekends, taking on No. 5 Virginia at Klockner Stadium on Saturday, March 7, before opening up Ivy League play against No. 7 Yale at Reese Stadium on Saturday, March 14. Both games are slated to face-off at 1 p.m.