GAME INFORMATION
GAME #1: No. 20 Penn State at No. 18 Cornell
FACE OFF: Saturday, February 20, at 3:00 p.m.
SITE: Schoellkopf Field (Ithaca, N.Y.)
2016 Records: Cornell (0-0, 0-0 Ivy League); Penn State (2-0, 0-0 B1G)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 20-19
LAST MEETING: Cornell won 9-8, March 15, 2003 in Ithaca, N.Y.


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GAME NOTES (PDF)
 
THE MATCHUP: The Cornell men's lacrosse team opens its 121st season this weekend as it welcomes back former head coach Jeff Tambroni and his Penn State Nittany Lions on Saturday, Feb. 20 at 3 p.m. Penn State opened its season with a 20-7 victory over Robert Morris on Feb. 6, before beating Hobart, 17-12 this past Saturday.  The game can be seen online through the Ivy League Digital Network or heard locally on WHCU 870 AM with Barry Leonard and Tom LaFalce on the call.
 
SERIES HISTORY VS. PENN STATE: Cornell and the Nittany Lions first met in the 1923 season and went on to meet 36 times prior to the 1961 season. The series took a 40-year hiatus before Penn State took an 8-7 victory in the 2001 season. The Big Red responded by winning the next two meetings (2002, 2003) to take the slim 20-19 lead in the history of the series.
 
LOOKING AT THE NITTANY LIONS (portions courtesy GoPSUsports.com):  Penn State was voted fourth in the 2016 Big Ten Preseason Coaches' Poll, and Nittany Lions Matt Florence, Drake Kreinz, and TJ Sanders were also named Players to Watch. The team is off to a 2-0 record with wins over Robert Morris and Hobart. Freshman Grant Ament leads PSU with 12 points on five goals and a team-high seven assists. A USILA All-America honorable mention a year ago, Sanders has a team-high seven goals after leading the Nittany Lions with 29 goals and 13 assists a year ago. Florence was named to the 2015 Big Ten All-Tournament team and has picked up where he left off with five goals so far this season. Last year, he scored 16 goals and dished out eight assists for 24 points. Kreinz, Penn State's top faceoff specialist, won 129-of-237 (.544), but has yet to play this season. Junior Billy Lombardi has taken the majority of restarts this year, winning 23-of-42 (.548).
 
CORNELL VS. THE BIG 10: The Big Red is 41-52-2 against the current members of the Big 10 conference, due mostly to a 6-16-1 record vs. Johns Hopkins and a 4-14-1 record vs. Maryland. Cornell holds a winning record vs. Penn State (20-19), Rutgers (8-1) and Michigan (1-0), while the series with Ohio State is tied at 2-2 ... Coach Kerwick is 7-12 all-time vs. B1G.
 
A WIN OVER PENN STATE WOULD :
• make Cornell 12-1 in its last 13 season openers.
• be the 736th win in program history.
• be the third in a row vs. the Nittany Lions.
• make the Big Red 21-19 all-time in the series.
• improve head coach Matt Kerwick's career record to 124-112 and to 3-5 vs. the Nittany Lions.
 
DON'T I KNOW YOU?: Jeff Tambroni, who spent 10 seasons on the Big Red sidelines, returns to Schoellkopf Field for the first time since the close of the 2010 season, bringing his Nittany Lions to Ithaca. During his time with the Big Red, Tambroni posted a record of 109-40 and won a share of eight consecutive Ivy League championships. Now in his sixth season with Penn State, Tabroni enters the game with a record of 40-33.
 
FOR STARTERS:  Cornell is 64-51-5 all-time in season openers and had won 11 straight season openers before last year's 14-6 loss at Syracuse.
 
RECAPPING 2015: The Big Red finished the 2015 season with a 10-6 record overall (4-2 Ivy) and claimed a share of its 29th Ivy League title and made its 27th NCAA tournament appearance. Cornell ranked in the top 10 of the USILA Coaches Poll in 10-of-13 weeks during the season, rising as high as No. 7 on March 16 following a dominating win over Yale. The Big Red earned an eight-seed in the NCAA Tournament, where it fell to Albany in the first round.
 
WHAT WAS LOST: The Big Red lost four All-Americans to graduation – Connor Buczek (first team), Jordan Stevens (second team), Matt Donovan (honorable mention) and Chris Cook (honorable mention) … Buczek, the 2015 Senior CLASS Award winner in men's lacrosse, graduated as the top scoring midfielder in Big Red history with 155 points and ranks in the top 20 in Cornell history among all players for goals (ninth – 106), points (13th – 155), and assists (18th – 49) … Stevens proved to be one of the top cover men in the nation and finished his career ranked third in Cornell history with 63 caused turnovers … Donovan was just the 10th player in Cornell history to post at least 50 points in consecutive seasons and graduated ranked in the top 10 in Cornell history in points (fourth – 189), goals (eighth – 119) and assists (eighth – 70) … Cook had a tremendous senior campaign after transition to the defensive midfield and playing as a win on Cornell's face-off unit, where he finished the year ranked 26th in the nation, and first among all non-face-off midfielders, with 4.94 ground balls per game.
 
WHAT REMAINS: Cornell returns two of its top six scorers from a year ago in John Edmonds (21-9--30) and Bradlee Lord (13-6—19). The Big Red also brings back junior face-off specialist Domenic Massimilian, who finished the season ranked seventh in the nation in face-off winning percentage, and breaking the school record with a mark of .654. Massimilian also broke the school record for face-off wins in a season (249) and ground balls in a season (150).
 
THE HEAD COACH: Matt Kerwick (21-11, .656) 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' 121-year history ... Kerwick has 17 years of head coaching experience (123-112).
 
GROUND BALL GUY: Sophomore Domenic Massimilian broke Doug Tesoriero's school record for ground balls in a single season with 150 during the 2015 season.
 
INDIVIDUAL STREAKS
• Domenic Massimilian has won double-digits face-offs in seven straight games.
• Domenic Massimilian has won the face-off battle in three straight contests.
•Bradlee Lord has a team-long eight-game point scoring streak.
• John Edmonds has registered at least one point in three consecutive games.
• Marshall Peters has picked up at least one ground ball in 15 straight games.
• Jake Pulver and Tony Britton have caused at least one turnover in four straight contests.
 
HOME IS WHERE THE WINS ARE:
• Cornell has enjoyed a true home field advantage since beginning play on Schoellkopf Field in 1972, going 228-74 for a .748 winning percentage, with 12 undefeated seasons
• Cornell has been even more impressive since 2000, going 94-23 overall (.803) with perfect slates in 2015 (6-0), 2011 (8-0), 2009 (6-0), 2007 (7-0) and 2005 (6-0).
 
RANKED OPPONENTS:  Of the Big Red's 13 opponents this season, seven are ranked in the current  USILA Coaches' Poll – Syracuse (sixth), Yale (ninth), Brown (10th), Albany (12th), Virginia (14th), Harvard (17th), and Penn State (20th) … Two others – Princeton and Lehigh – are also receiving votes.
 
TOP 10 NATION: The Big Red finished the 2015 season ranked in the top 10 nationally in just two statistical categories – face-off winning percentage (fourth – .657), and ground balls per game (fifth – 35.81).
 
FACE-OFF FRENZY: In his first season as a starter, Domenic Massimilian was outstanding for the Big Red. He ranked fourth in the nation with a .654 face-off winning percentage. He was also second in the country with 9.38 ground balls per game … Massimilian won the face-off battle in 14-of-16 Big Red games last season and led the team in ground balls in 13-of-16 games.
 
MOVING ON UP IN CORNELL HISTORY:
•Domenic Massimilian ranks eighth in career face-offs won (252).
•Christian Knight ranks 13th in career saves (286).

ELITE COMPANY:  Over the past 10 seasons (2006-2015) only nie schools have registered 100 victories – Duke (146), UVA (126), Syracuse (124), Denver (121), Cornell (120), Notre Dame (119), Maryland (117), Hopkins (106), North Carolina (102) … During that span, only four have won at least 75 percent of its games – Duke (.785), Virginia (.754), Syracuse (.752), and  Cornell (.750).
 
PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS:  Junior face-off specialist Domenic Massimilian was named a preseason third-team All-American by Inside Lacrosse Magazine. 
 
OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN:  The Big Red has three captains this season – seniors Brennan Donville, John Edmonds, and Matt Schattner.
 
HARD HAT: Marshall Peters was selected to carry the Hard Hat for the 2016 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:
• Head Coach Matt Kerwick's parents Thomas and the late Patricia, as well as his sister Ann, all graduated from Cornell.
• Andrew Keith's brother, Thomas '13, was an All-American long-stick midfielder for the Big Red, earning four varsity letters from 2010-13.
• Ryan Matthew's cousin Matt Sutherland played lacrosse at 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.
•Anthony Teixeira's great-uncle Stephen W. Fillo graduated from Cornell in 1959.
•Sam Welch's parents, Patrick '85 and Ruth Welch '87, attended Cornell.
 
EARLY HOME DATE: The Big Red's game vs. Penn State on Schoellkopf Field is the earliest home men's lacrosse game in program history. Prior to the game with the Nittany Lions, the earliest home opener game on Feb. 22, 2014 vs. Hobart … Last season, Cornell played its first home game of the season vs. Colgate on March 17. That was the latest home opener since the 1994 squad played its first game on Schoellkopf Field on March 26 vs. Yale
 
MLL DRAFT FACTS:
• Senior attack/midfielder John Edmonds was selected in the second round of the 2016 Major League Lacrosse draft with the 17th overall pick by the Rochester Rattlers.  
• 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 10 drafts. In that same time frame, Cornell has had five first round draft picks, including one selection at No. 1 (Rob Pannell), and two at No. 2 (Connor Buczek and Max Seibald). 
 
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK:  The Big Red will added 17 newcomers to the roster for the 2016 season. The 17-member class consists of seven US Lacrosse All-Americans, the most to join the program since the 2009 season, and consists of seven midfielders, five attackmen, four defenders, and one goalie. The group hails from 10 different states, including a class-high five New Yorkers, as well as one player coming from Toronto and one from the District of Columbia.
 
BUCZEK'S BACK: Former Cornell men's lacrosse great Connor Buczek '15 has joined the Big Red staff as a volunteer assistant for the upcoming 2016 season. Buczek, a recipient of a prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, is currently a student in Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management. One of the best business school's in the country, Buczek is in rare company, as one of just two individuals, and the only one from Cornell, to be admitted directly from undergraduate studies.
 
UP NEXT: The Big Red is back in action next weekend when it meets Hobart for the 137th meeting between the two programs. The game will take place at Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach, Fla., as part of the inaugural Lacrosse News Network Florida Lacrosse Classic on Saturday, Feb. 27 at 1:15 p.m. The event marks the first time in the history of the series that the game will be played outside of New York State, but is the fourth neutral site contest since the 2010 season, with the Big Red posting a record of 3-0 in the previous meetings.