GAME INFORMATION
GAME #2: Hobart vs. Cornell
FACE OFF: Saturday, February 27, at 1:15 p.m.
SITE: Oxbrdige Academy (West Palm Beach, Fla.)
2016 Records: Cornell (0-1, 0-0 Ivy League); Hobart (1-1, 0-0 NEC)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 85-47-4
LAST MEETING: Cornell won 16-8, Feb. 20, 2015 in Binghamton, N.Y.

FOLLOW THE BIG RED
GAME LINKS: Tickets | Video | Audio
RADIO: WHCU 870 AM (PxP: Ted Baker)
TELEVISION: None
Facebook I Twitter | Instagram I YouTube
Sign up for weekly newsletters
 
GAME NOTES (PDF)
 
THE MATCHUP: The Big Red men's lacrosse team will take on Hobart in the 137th meeting between the two programs when the teams meet on Saturday, Feb. 27 at Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach, Fla. Face-off is set for 1:15 p.m. Cornell dropped its season opener in a one-goal heartbreaker to No. 20 Penn State last weekend, while the Statesmen enter the contest at 1-1 after a 12-9 victory over Siena this past Saturday. The game can be seen online at http://www.lacrossenewsnetwork.com/
 
SERIES HISTORY VS. HOBART: Cornell and Hobart will face off in college lacrosse's oldest rivalry, meeting for the 137th time. The Big Red holds an 85-47-4 advantage in the all-time series, which began in the 1896 season. After the Big Red dropped five consecutive meetings from 1996-2000, Cornell has gone on to win 14 of the next 15 meetings, including its current streak of 11 straight, the longest in the series by either team.

LOOKING AT THE STATESMEN (portions courtesy HWSathletics.com):  The Statesmen were 7-7 a year ago and 4-2 in Northeast Conference play, finishing second in the league standings. Hobart was picked to finish third in the NEC preseason coaches poll, behind four-time defending tournament champion Bryant and 2015 regular season champion Saint Joseph's. Third-year Head Coach Greg Raymond welcomes back 31 letter winners, including five starters. Hobart will be strongest on defense where second team All-NEC goalie Jackson Brown and all three starting close defensemen return. The midfield will be without the productive Taylor Vanderbeek '15, but this year's middies are the deepest in Coach Raymond's tenure. With the graduation of All-NEC first teamer Alex Love '15, Hobart is without a star on attack. The Statesmen enter the game with a 1-1 record after defeating Siena last weekend, 12-9. Junior midfielder Frank Brown leads the team with seven goals, while line mate Sean Donnelly has posted four goals and three assists. The team already has 10 goal scorers on the season, and 11 players that have registered at least one point. In the face-off circle, sophomore J. Andrew Spallanzani has won 28-of-46 restarts (.609), but has just eight ground balls on the year. In goal, Brown has posted a .447 save percentage and a 13.05 goals-against average. 
 
LAST TIME VS. HOBART:  No. 10 Big Red closed the second quarter on a 7-1 run to blow open a tied game and defeat Hobart, 16-8, on Feb. 20, 2015 at the Greater Binghamton Sports Complex. Domenic Massimilian dominated in the face-off circle, winning 21-of-27 restarts and picking up 11 ground balls. Short stick defensive midfielder Chris Cook also had an outstanding game with seven ground balls and one goal. Matt Donovan led the Big Red offense with five goals, while Connor Buczek and John Edmonds each registered hat tricks. Buczek also added a pair of assists to finish with five points and move into the top 10 in Cornell history for career points scored by a midfielder (109). John Hogan was the Big Red's only other mulit-point scorer with two goals and two assists. Four Cornell players – Jordan Stevens, John Hogan, Jack Bolen and Marshall Peters – registered a caused turnover, with Peters adding five ground balls. After a slow start, sophomore goalie Christian Knight finished with nine saves and allowed seven goals in 57:08 before Brennan Donville played the final 2:52 and allowed the Statesmen's last goal of the contest. Hobart (1-1) was led by Alex Love, who registered four goals to set the new Hobart Division I standard for goals in a career, while Cooper Stefaniak and Matt Opsahl finished with one goal and one assist apiece.
 
A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING: Although it will be the 137th meeting between Cornell and Hobart, it will be the first time in the history of the series that the game will be played outside of New York State.
 
STUCK IN NEUTRAL: The game vs. Hobart in Florida will be the fourth neutral site contest vs. the Statesman since the 2010 season. During that time, with the Big Red has gone 3-0.
               
CORNELL VS. THE NEC: The Big Red had never played a member of the NEC conference prior to the 2014 season when Hobart joined the league. Cornell is 85-47-4 all-time vs. Hobart, but has never faced Bryant, Mount St. Mary's, Robert Morris, Sacred Heart, Saint Joseph's or Wagner.

A WIN OVER HOBART WOULD:
• improve the Big Red to 4-0 all-time in the state of Florida.
• make Cornell 86-47-4 all-time in the series.
• improve head coach Matt Kerwick's career record to 124-113 and to 3-0 vs. his alma mater.
• be the 736th win in program history.
• be the longest winning streak by either team in the series at 12 consecutive games.
 
THE HEAD COACH: Matt Kerwick (21-12, .636) 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).
 
RAISE THE ORANGE AND PURPLE HIGH: Cornell head coach Matt Kerwick graduated from Hobart College in 1990 and went on to coach the Statesmen from 2002-10, leading the team to a pair of NCAA appearances and a Patriot League championship in 2002.
 
MOST CONTESTED: With this season's 137th meeting, the Cornell/Hobart game is the most contested game in the history of collegiate lacrosse, followed by Johns Hopkins vs. Maryland at 113 meetings. While the two teams have met more often than any other two teams in the history of the game, Hobart is not the Big Red's oldest rival. That distinction is held by Lehigh, who first played Cornell in 1893. Next on the list is Johns Hopkins, which met the Big Red for the first time in 1894. Cornell's oldest rival in a series that is still active today is none other than Harvard, who first played the Big Red in 1895. Cornell and the Statesmen first met in 1896, but often played twice a season prior to 1937.
 
OUT OF THE RANKINGS: After falling by a single goal to No. 20 in its season opener, Cornell slipped out of the USILA Coaches Poll for the first time since the 1998 season.
 
BABY BIG RED: Of the 22 players that saw action in the Big Red's season opener vs. Penn State, nearly one-third (7) are freshmen, including a pair of starters in Colton Rupp, and Ryan Bray.
 
EXPERIENCE BY THE NUMBERS:
• The Big Red has just three players that have seen action in at least 30 career games – John Edmonds (51), Matt Schattner (46) and Marshall Peters (33).
• Cornell has 11 players that have seen action in 15-29 games – Christian Knight (29), Andrew Keith (29), Tony Britton (27), Sean Doyle (23), Domenic Massimilian (21), Walt Gahagan (20), Brennan Donville (17), Jake Pulver (17), Jordan Dowiak (16), Bradlee Lord (15), and Kason Tarbell (15)
• There are 31 players on the Big Red roster that have played in less than 15 games in their collegiate careers.
 
IVY KINGS:
• Since Ivy League play began in 1956, Cornell has won a conference-high 29 titles, including 17 undefeated crowns.
• With its share in 2015, Cornell has won a share of 12 of the last 13 Ivy League titles.
• The Big Red also has the best regular season Ivy League record of any team in the conference at 251-100-1.
 
EMPIRE STATE OF MIND:  Cornell has traditionally been very successful against collegiate teams from New York state, posting an all-time record of 284-162-7 (.635) … The Big Red has four New York teams on its schedule this season – Hobart, Albany, Colgate and Syracuse ... A year ago, Cornell played eight contests vs. teams from New York during the, posting a record of 6-2.
.
FOR STARTERS:  Cornell is 64-52-5 all-time in season openers after falling to No. 20 Penn State, 8-7, on Feb. 20.
 
FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET: On Dec. 21, 2014, Marshall Peters tied the Cornell Department of Athletics record for fastest 40-yard dash, running it in a time of 4.38 seconds and matching the mark set by Max Seibald in 2008. Administered by Tom Howley, Associate Director of Athletics for Athlete Performance, the dash is laser timed and the record is across several sports in the department.
 
GROUND BALL GUY: 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 eight straight games.
• Domenic Massimilian has won the face-off battle in four straight contests.
• Bradlee Lord has a team-long eight-game point scoring streak.
• John Edmonds has registered at least one point in four consecutive games.
• Jake Pulver has caused at least one turnover in five straight contests.
 
250 IVY WINS: With its 8-2 victory over Dartmouth on March 28, 2015, Cornell became the first program in the Ivy League history to reach 250 regular season conference victories … The Big Red's 251 regular season conference wins are also the most conference wins by any school in Division I men's lacrosse history.
 
HOME IS WHERE THE WINS ARE:
• Cornell has enjoyed a true home field advantage since beginning play on Schoellkopf Field in 1972, going 228-75 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).
 
CLOSE CALLS: Since the beginning of the 2003 season, Cornell is 33-19 in games that have been decided by a single goal, a mark that was lowered when the Big Red fell to Penn State, 8-7, on Feb. 20, 2016. Of the 19 losses, 16 have come against ranked opponents, including 11 against squads ranked in the top-10, five of which were ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 in the nation.
 
RANKED OPPONENTS:  Of the Big Red's 13 opponents this season, seven are ranked in the current  USILA Coaches' Poll – Syracuse (fourth), Yale (seventh), Brown (ninth), Virginia (11th), Harvard (14th), Penn State (15th), and Albany (18th),  … Three others – Princeton, Penn, and Lehigh – are also receiving votes.
 
TOP 10 NATION: The Big Red opened the week ranked in the top 10 nationally in two statistical categories – face-off winning percentage (fourth – .737), and clearing percentage (eighth – .938).
 
FACE-OFF FRENZY: Domenic Massimilian entered the week ranked fifth in the nation in face-off win percentage (.737) and is second overall in ground balls per game (10.0).  A year ago, Massimilian finished his first season as a starter 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 … For his career, he has won the face-off battle in 15-of-17 games and led the team in ground balls in 14-of-17 contests.
 
MOVING ON UP IN CORNELL HISTORY:
•Domenic Massimilian ranks eighth in career face-offs won (266).
•Christian Knight ranks 13th in career saves (286).
 
BALANCED OFFENSE: So far this season, the Big Red has had a balanced scoring effort, with the attack unit accounting for 4-of-9 points on the season. A year ago, Cornell saw 122-of-256 points coming from the attack unit (48 percent).
 
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 735-460-27 all-time, and its 735 victories rank seventh among the winningest programs in collegiate lacrosse.
 
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).
 
OVERTIME NOTES: With its 10-9 overtime win vs. Penn on March 21, 2015 Cornell has played at least one overtime game in each of the past nine 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 9-5 record in OT games … Head Coach Matt Kerwick is 3-1 all-time at Cornell in overtime games.
 
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.
•Sam Welch's parents, Patrick '85 and Ruth Welch '87, are both former Big Red athletes. A two-time Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association champion at 150 pounds, Patrick is in the Cornell Hall of Fame, while Ruth was a three-year letter winner for gymnastics, serving as team captain as a senior. 
• 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.
 
EARLY HOME DATE: The Big Red's game vs. Penn State on Schoellkopf Field on Feb. 20 was 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.
 
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).
 
UP NEXT: The Big Red remains on the road next weekend as it travels to No. 18 Albany on Saturday, March 5 for a game at 1 p.m.