GAME INFORMATION
GAME #5: No. 8 Cornell vs. No. 7 Virginia
FACE OFF: Saturday, March 7, at 1:00 p.m.
SITE: Klöckner Stadium (Charlottesville, Va.)
2015 Records: Cornell (3-1, 0-0 Ivy League); Virginia (3-1, 0-1 ACC)
SERIES RECORD: Virginia leads, 9-5
LAST MEETING: Cornell won 12-9, March 8, 2014 in Ithaca, N.Y.
GAME NOTES: Cornell | Virginia (to come)

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THE MATCHUP: The No. 8 Cornell men's lacrosse team continues a grueling stretch of taking on three consecutive top 10 opponents away from Ithaca, N.Y., when it battles No. 7 Virginia at Klöckner Stadium in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday, March 7. The Big Red is coming off a 16-9 victory over No. 8 Albany to improve to 3-1 on the year, while the Cavaliers suffered their first loss of the season, falling to Syracuse, 15-9 on March 1. Due to conflicts with men's basketball and men's ice hockey, the game will not be broadcast on WHCU or on the Ivy League Digital Network. The game will be video streamed live by Virginia ($9.95). Fans can also follow via live stats.
 
SERIES HISTORY VS. VIRGINIA: Despite being two of the oldest lacrosse teams in the nation, Cornell and Virginia have met just 14 times, and only seven of those meetings have occurred during the regular season. The Cavaliers, who own the 9-5 lead in the series, defeated Cornell, 10-9, in the first meeting in 1971 at Virginia. The teams met again in the 1974 NCAA tournament, with the Big Red taking the commanding 15-8 victory. It would be five years before the teams squared off again, also in the NCAA tournament, but this time the Cavaliers took the 15-8 victory. Virginia managed two more one-goal wins in the NCAA tournament (1980; 9-8 in overtime, and 2002; 11-10), while Cornell used a 19-6 victory over the Cavaliers in the 1988 NCAA tournament to propel into the national championship game. During the 2009 regular season, Virginia used a second-half comeback to defeat the Big Red, 14-10, at Klöckner Stadium, but Cornell won the rematch, 15-6, in the national semifinal to advance to the 2009 NCAA title game. The Cavaliers regained the upper-hand with four straight victories, but the Big Red has won the last two meetings.

LOOKING AT THE CAVALIERS: Virginia returns 25 lettermen, including five starters, from a squad that went 10-6 a year ago with an appearance in the NCAA Tournament's first round, falling to Johns Hopkins at Klöckner Stadium. The Cavaliers won their first three games of the 2015 season before falling to No. 2 Syracuse, 15-9, on March 1 at the Carrier Dome. Virginia is led by Zed Williams and Greg Coholan with 14 and 13 points, respectively, with a team-high 10 goals apiece. Ryan Tucker and Ryan Lukacovic have each posted six goals and five assists as the only other Cavaliers in double figures. In the face-off circle, Virginia has won just .368 percent with Jeff Kratky (18-53; .340) and Jason Murphy (17-41; .415) taking the majority of the draws. Matt Barrett has started all four games between the pipes and has posted a .558 save percentage and a 10.67 goals-against average. 
 
LAST TIME VS. VIRGINIA: Down 5-2 to No. 2 Virginia and looking for a spark late in the second quarter, the No. 15 Big Red turned things around quickly thanks to senior midfielder Doug Tesoriero. The Big Red began a 9-0 run with two goals five seconds apart, the first coming just six seconds after the Cavaliers' fifth of the game, and Cornell knocked off Virginia 12-9 at Schoellkopf Field. Freshman goalkeeper Christian Knight was outstanding between the pipes with 15 saves in his first collegiate start, including six huge stops in the first quarter as the Big Red settled in after a slow start. Junior Matt Donovan had two goals and three assists, both Connor Buczek and Dan Lintner had hat tricks and Tom Freshour caused four of the Cornell's 17 turnovers. Doug Tesoriero won 12-of-24 face-offs, including a stretch of several key ones late in the second and early in the third quarters. Virginia was led by Mark Cockerton with three goals, while Owen Van Arsdale handed out three assists. Three other Cavaliers – James Pannell, Ryan Tucker and Rob Emery – chipped in two goals apiece. In goal, Matt Barrett made nine saves and allowed 12 goals in 58:18 before giving way to Matt Robertson, who did not face a shot in the final 1:42.
 
CORNELL VS. THE ACC: Cornell is 55-81-1 all-time vs. the current members of the ACC, thanks mostly to its newest member Syracuse, which owns the lead in the series, 64-37-1. The Big Red holds a winning record vs. Duke (5-4), North Carolina (4-3) and Notre Dame (5-1) but has a losing mark vs. Virginia (5-9).

A WIN OVER VIRGINIA WOULD:
• narrow the Cavaliers lead in the series to 9-6.
• improve head coach Matt Kerwick's career record to 124-107 and to 2-0 vs. Virginia.
• be the 729th win in program history.
• make Cornell 2-1 vs. ranked opponents this season.
• give Cornell three consecutive wins over the Cavaliers for the first time in series history.

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 (123-107) with stints at Jacksonville University, Hobart, Alfred and Randolph-Macon. 
 
TEAM OF THE WEEK: The Big Red was named the NCAA Team of the Week after improving to 3-1 on the year with wins over Binghamton and No. 8 Albany. Cornell opened the week with a 17-9 victory over the Bearcats, before downing the Great Danes, 16-9.
 
BUCZEK'S GOT SENIOR CLASS: Cornell senior Connor Buczek has been named one of 20 candidates for the 2015 Senior CLASS Award in collegiate men's lacrosse, as one of the top NCAA student-athletes who excels both on and off the field. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.
 
ON THE ROAD: With freezing temperatures forcing the Big Red to relocate its Feb. 24 contest vs. Binghamton to a neutral site, Cornell will now play its first six games away from Schoellkopf Field. That is the longest stretch of consecutive games away from Ithaca since the 1953 team opened the season with a stretch of six games played at Baltimore, Duke, UNC, RPI, Syracuse and Hobart.
 
OPEN LATE: Cornell will play its first home game of the season vs. Colgate on March 17. That is the latest home opener since the 1994 squad played its first game on Schoellkopf Field on March 26 vs. Yale. In 1994, the season began on March 6 and the Big Red played just two games before its home opener.

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. 

RANKED OPPONENTS:  The Big Red's 2015 season currently features eight opponents ranked in the USILA Coaches Poll – Syracuse (first) Yale (sixth), Virginia, (seventh), Princeton (11th), Harvard (13th), Albany (16th), Colgate (18th) and Brown (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 (140) and needs just two more to surpass Max Seibald and move in 14th place.
•Matt Donovan ranks 18th in Cornell history for career assists (47) and needs just one more to move into a tie with Bruce Cohen for 17th place.
•Matt Donovan ranks 10th in Cornell history for career goals (93) and needs just two more to move into a tie with Bruce Cohen in ninth place.
•Dan Lintner ranks 44th in Cornell history for career goals (60) and needs just two more to move into 41st place.
•Jordan Stevens currently ranks fifth in Cornell history for career caused turnovers (50), needing just two more to surpass Mike Bronzino in fourth 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 sixth all-time among midfielders with 119 career points and needs just four more to tie Bob Shaw (1970-72) and move into fifth place overall.
 
FACE-OFF FRENZY: In his first season as a starter, sophomore Domenic Massimilian entered the week ranking ninth in the nation with a .667 winning percentage. He is also third in the country with 9.75 ground balls.

TOP 10 NATION: So far this season, the Big Red ranks in the top 10 nationally in four statistical categories, including man-up offense (second – .727), face-off winning percentage (fifth – .661);  ground balls per game (eighth – 34.75), and scoring offense (10th – 13.75).

A LITTLE OFF BALANCE: So far this season, the Big Red has had a disproportionate amount of its offense come from the midfield with just 26-of-72 points coming from the attack unit (36 percentt). During the 2014 season, Cornell received 156 points (114 goals, 42 assists) from its attack (49.1 percent) and 162 points (90 goals, 72 assists) from its midfield and defense. 
 
SAVES A LOT: So far this season, Christian Knight has averaged 10.5 saves per game, good for 28^th in the nation. A year ago, his 11.00 saves per game ranked 25th in Cornell history and was the most by a Big Red goalie since Matt McMonagle averaged 11.25 saves per game during the 2007 season.
 
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 727-448-27 all-time, and its 727 victories rank seventh among the winningest programs in collegiate lacrosse.
 
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.

NEXT UP:  The Big Red remains on the road for its sixth straight contest when it takes on No. 6 Yale at Reese Stadium on Saturday, March 14 at 12:30 p.m.