GAME INFORMATION
GAME #5: Cornell at Colgate
FACE OFF: Tuesday, March 15 at 4 p.m.
SITE: Crown Field at Andy Kerr Stadium (Hamilton, N.Y.)
2016 Records: Cornell (2-2, 0-0 Ivy League); Colgate (3-3, 1-2 Patriot)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads, 41-7-1
LAST MEETING: Cornell won 10-9 (OT), March 17, 2015 in Ithaca, N.Y.

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GAME NOTES (PDF)
 
THE MATCHUP: Coming off its best win of the season, the Big Red men's lacrosse team will look to keep the momentum going in its first mid-week game of the season as it travels to Hamilton, N.Y. to take on Colgate at Kerr Stadium on Tuesday, March 15 at 4 p.m. Cornell evened its record at 2-2 after upsetting No. 17 Virginia this weekend, while the Raiders are also at .500 on the season (3-3) after falling last weekend to No. 18 Boston University. The game can be seen online on the Patriot League Network or heard locally on WHCU 870 AM with Barry Leonard and Tom LaFalce on the call.
 
SERIES HISTORY VS. COLGATE: Cornell first met its upstate rival Colgate during the Raiders' inaugural season in 1921, and the two teams played to a 3-3 tie. The Big Red went on to win the next four meetings and currently holds a 41-7-1 advantage in the all-time series. The two teams played each other fairly regularly until the 1971 season, after which the rivalry took a 21-year hiatus. Since resuming play in the 1993 season, Cornell has gone on to win 14 of 15 meetings, including the last 10 contests, with Colgate's lone win in that span coming in 1997 when it took a 9-6 victory away from Schoellkopf Field.

LOOKING AT THE RAIDERS: Colgate enters the contest with a 3-3 record, posting wins over Binghamton, Bucknell and Hobart. The squad is used to tight decisions with three of its contests being decided by one goal, including an overtime win vs. the Bison. Sophomore attackman Chase Wittich has a team-high 10 goals, while freshman attackman Sam Cleveland has a team high 17 points on nine goals and a team best eight assists. The duo is joined by sophomore attackman Anthony Abbadessa (8-2–10) and junior midfielder Peter Donato (3-7–10) as the only four Colgate players to reach double-figures on the season. In the face-off circle the Raiders have utilized both Collin Orr and Peter Marchetto, with Orr winning .475 percent (29-61) and Marchetto winning .385 percent (20-52). Goalie Brandon Burke continues to be a force for Colgate, posting an 8.62 goals-against average and a .514 save percentage.    
 
LAST TIME VS. COLGATE: Colgate rallied with five straight goals to take a late lead in regulation, but in the end, No. 7 Cornell had the late magic to earn a hard-fought 10-9 overtime victory over its Central New York rival at Schoellkopf Field. Senior Dan Lintner scored the game-tying goal with 63 seconds left in regulation and classmate Matt Donovan ended the game with 64 seconds left in the first sudden victory extra period. Both goals were set in motion by faceoff wins by Domenic Massimillian. That wasn't a rare sight in his first extended playing time on Schoellkopf Field, as the sophomore won 15-of-22 restarts, including the final two. Donovan's quick crease roll ended in the game winner on the Big Red's second possession of overtime and gave him a career-high eight points on the night. That came nearly exactly four minutes of game time after his fourth assist of the night ended in the crosse of Lintner, who buried the quick-stick shot to knot the game at 9-9 and send it to overtime. Massimillian won the ensuing faceoff with a minute to play, but Cornell could not put a game-winning attempt on goal. The Big Red won the opening faceoff of overtime and immediately called a timeout, but an unforced turnover gave the ball to the visitors. Colgate gave it right back on an errant pass and Cornell milked a minute off the clock before Donovan deposited the game-winner over Colgate goalie Brandon Burke's shoulder to end the contest. Donovan ended the day with four goals and four assists, while Lintner scored four times. John Hogan and Connor Buczek each chipped in a goal and an assist as the only four Big Red scorers on the day. Massimillian won a game-high 11 ground balls, while Jordan Stevens caused two turnovers and won five ground balls on the defensive side of the ball. The victory overshadowed a valiant performance in the cage by Burke, who made 16 stops in taking the hard-luck loss. Chase Wittich had two goals and three assists and three others had two goals apiece. Leading scorer Ryan Walsh was held without a point with Stevens doing a majority of the work against him.
               
CORNELL VS. THE PATRIOT LEAGUE – The Big Red is 66-56-4 all-time vs. the current members of the Patriot League, thanks mostly to a 41-7-1 record vs. Colgate. Cornell is 15-24 all-time vs. Army, 4-9-3 vs. Lehigh, 0-1 vs. Bucknell and 5-15 vs. Navy. The Big Red has never faced Boston University, Holy Cross, or Lafayette in men's lacrosse.

A WIN OVER COLGATE WOULD:
• improve the Big Red to 42-7-1 vs. Colgate and 67-56-4 all-time vs. the current members of the Patriot League.
• be Cornell's 11th straight over the Raiders.
• improve head coach Matt Kerwick's career record to 126-114 and to 6-0 vs. the Raiders.
• be the 738th win in program history.
• make Cornell 63-61 all-time when unranked in the USILA Coaches' Poll.
• be the Big Red's fourth straight win against an unranked opponent.
 
CAMPUS CONNECTIONS:
• Scott Flynn's father Bob played football for Colgate.
• When Mike Murphy left Army West Point to take the head coaching job at Colgate, the Black Knights added former Cornell All-American Kyle Georgalas '05 to the coaching staff.
 
THE HEAD COACH: Matt Kerwick (23-13, .638) 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 (125-114).
 
U19 TEAM CANADA: Three Big Red – freshman Clarke Petterson, and incoming student-athletes Jeff Teat and Caelahn Bullen – have been named to Team Canada's roster for the upcoming Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) U19 Men's Lacrosse World Championship, as was announced in March by the Canadian Lacrosse Association.
 
PLAYER OF THE WEEK NOTES:
• Cornell has had one Ivy League Player of the Week award winner so far this season – Brennan Donville.
• Donville becomes the first Big Red netminder to be named Player of the Week since Kyle Harer '09 took home the honor on March 23, 2009.
• Donville was named Player of the Week after posting a career-high 17 saves in Cornell's 14-10 upset of No. 17 Virginia.
 
ROOKIE OF THE WEEK NOTES:
• The Big Red has had two freshmen – Clarke Petterson and Colton Rupp – named Ivy League Rookie of the Week so far this season.
• This marks the first time Cornell has had two separate players named Rookie of the Week since Jason Noble and AJ Fiore during the 2010 season.
• Following his outstanding play in a 10-8 victory over Hobart, short stick defensive midfielder Clarke Petterson took home the honor on March 1. He was the first Big Red to be named Rookie of the Week since Christian Knight on April 28, 2014. Petterson was also the first member of the defensive unit, other than a goalie, to win an Ivy award for the Big Red since Jason Noble was named Player of the Week on March 4, 2013.
• Colton Rupp was named Rookie of the Week on March 14 after helping the Big Red upset No. 17 Virginia. For the second game in a row, Rupp put five shots on goal and scored four times.
 
BABY BIG RED: Of the 26 players that have seen action so far this season, more than one-third (nine) are freshmen, including four starters – Colton Rupp (attack), Ryan Bray (midfield), Zach Ward (attack) and Clarke Petterson (midfield).
 
EXPERIENCE BY THE NUMBERS:
• The Big Red has just five players that have seen action in at least 30 career games – John Edmonds (53), Matt Schattner (48), Marshall Peters (35), Andrew Keith (32), and Tony Britton (30).
• Cornell has nine players that have seen action in 15-29 games – Christian Knight (29), Sean Doyle (24), Domenic Massimilian (24), Walt Gahagan (23), Brennan Donville (20), Jake Pulver (20), Jordan Dowiak (19), Kason Tarbell (18), and Bradlee Lord (15).
• There are 31 players on the Big Red roster that have played in less than 15 games in their collegiate careers.
 
EMPIRE STATE OF MIND:  Cornell has traditionally been very successful against collegiate teams from New York state, posting an all-time record of 285-163-7 (.634) … The Big Red has four New York teams on its schedule this season – Hobart, Albany, Colgate and Syracuse – and is currently 1-1 in those contests ... A year ago, Cornell played eight contests vs. teams from New York during the, posting a record of 6-2.
 
INDIVIDUAL STREAKS
• Domenic Massimilian has won double-digits face-offs in 11 straight games.
• Domenic Massimilian has won the face-off battle in seven straight contests.
• John Edmonds has registered at least one point in seven consecutive games.
• Bradlee Lord has a team-long eight-game point scoring streak.
• Colton Rupp has registered a hat trick in two straight games.
 
TEAM STREAKS
• Cornell has won the ground ball battle in five straight games dating back to last season.
• The Big Red has won the face-off battle in seven straight contests.
  
RANKED OPPONENTS:  Of the Big Red's 13 opponents this season, six are ranked in the current  USILA Coaches' Poll – Syracuse (third), Yale (fourth), Brown (fifth), Albany (11th), Harvard (14th),  and Penn State (20th) … Three others – Lehigh, Virginia, and Penn – are also receiving votes … So far this season, Cornell is 1-2 vs. ranked opponents.
  
TOP 10 NATION: The Big Red opened the week ranked in the top 10 nationally in just one statistical categories – face-off winning percentage (seventh –.648).
 
FACE-OFF FRENZY: Domenic Massimilian entered the week ranked 10th in the nation in face-off win percentage (.648) … For his career, he has won the face-off battle in 18-of-20 games
 
GOOD OFF THE GROUND: Domenic Massimilian entered the week leading the nation in ground balls per game (9.75) … For his career, he has led the team in ground balls in 17-of-20 contests.
 
YOUNG GUN: Colton Rupp entered the week ranked 19th in the nation, and third among freshmen, with 2.75 goals per game.
 
MOVING ON UP IN CORNELL HISTORY:
•Domenic Massimilian ranks fifth place in career face-offs won (311).
•Domenic Massimilian ranks 15th (192) in career ground balls.
•Marshall Peters ranks seventh in caused turnovers (37).
•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 27-of-58 points on the season (47%). A year ago, Cornell saw 122-of-256 points coming from the attack unit (48%).
 
GROUND BALL GUY: Domenic Massimilian broke Doug Tesoriero's school record for ground balls in a single season with 150 during the 2015 season.
 
LOTS OF WINS: Cornell's 12-10 victory over Princeton on April 26, 2014 was the 725th win in program history. The Big Red is now 737-460-27 all-time, and its 737 victories rank seventh among the winningest programs in collegiate lacrosse.
 
ELITE COMPANY:  Over the past 10 seasons (2006-2015) only nine 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 Matthews' 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.
 
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 will travel to Penn to take on the Quakers on Saturday, March 26 at noon