GAME INFORMATION
GAME #4: Cornell vs. No. 17 Virginia
FACE OFF: Saturday, March 12, at Noon
SITE: Schoellkopf Field (Ithaca, N.Y.)
2016 Records: Cornell (1-2, 0-0 Ivy League); Virginia (3-3, 0-1 ACC)
SERIES RECORD: Virginia leads, 10-5
LAST MEETING: Virginia won 15-14, March 7, 2015 in Charlottesville, Va.

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GAME NOTES (PDF)
 
THE MATCHUP: The Big Red men's lacrosse team returns home to take on No. 17 Virginia at Schoellkopf Field on Saturday, March 12 at noon. Cornell's record slipped to 1-2 after falling to No. 15 Albany, while the Cavaliers evened their record at 3-3 after defeating Saint Joseph's on Tuesday. The game can be seen online on the Ivy League Digital Network or heard locally on WHCU 870 AM with Barry Leonard and Terry Cullen on the call.
 
SERIES HISTORY VS. VIRGINIA: Despite being two of the oldest lacrosse teams in the nation, Cornell and Virginia have met just 15 times, and only eight of those meetings have occurred during the regular season. The Cavaliers, who own the 10-5 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 of the last three meetings.

LOOKING AT THE CAVALIERS: After closing the 2015 campaign with a 10-5 record (0-4 ACC) and a first round exit from the 2015 NCAA tournament at the hands of Johns Hopkins, 24th-year head coach Dom Starsia returns 32 letter winners, including six starters, to his squad for the 2016 season. The team enters the game with a record of 3-3 overall (0-1 ACC) after defeating Saint Joseph's, 9-7, on Tuesday. UVA had five players named to the Tewaaraton Trophy Watch List – junior goalie Matt Barrett, senior midfielder Greg Coholan, senior attackman James Pannell, junior defenseman Tanner Scales and junior midfielder Zed Williams. The offense is led by Pannell with a team-high 16 points on 10 goals and six assists, while Williams is the only other Cavalier to reach double-digit goals (10). AJ Fish (8-3), Coholoan (6-6), and Ryan Lukacovic (6-7) all have double-digit points. In the face-off circle, Jason Murphy has won 60-of-99 restarts (.606) and has picked up a team-high 22 ground balls. In goal, Barrett has posted a 10.23 goals-against average to go along with a .460 save percentage.  
 
LAST TIME VS. VIRGINIA: The No. 8 Big Red scored five goals in the final 2:32 of the game but couldn't find the equalizer as its comeback came up just short in a 15-14 loss to No. 7 Virginia at U-Hall Turf Field in Charlottesville, Va. The Big Red played some inspired lacrosse over the final moments of the contest, despite trailing by six goals with less than three minutes to play, but the Cavaliers managed to win the final face-off of the game, just its ninth win of the afternoon and leg out the final 34 seconds to earn the victory. After allowing five goals in the first quarter, Virginia goalie Matt Barrett settled down and made 21 saves, including 14 during the middle two quarters as the Cavaliers used a 6-1 run to take control of the contest. Cornell (3-2) was led by Matt Donovan with five goals and two assists for a career-high seven points, while Dan Lintner registered his first hat trick of the season. ­Bradlee Lord (two goals), John Edmonds (one goal, one assist) and Connor Buczek (one goal, one assist) also posted mulit-point games for the Big Red. Domenic Massimilian was outstanding in the face-off circle, winning a career-high 23 restarts and picking up a career-high 12 ground balls. He won 10-of-13 face offs in the final quarter, including a streak of three straight as the Big red went on its late run. One the wing, Chris Cook picked up a career-high nine ground balls, while Marshall Peters had four ground balls and scored his first goal of the season. In goal, Christian Knight made 10 saves, including four in the final quarter. Virginia (4-1) was led by James Pannell's seven points (six goals, one assist), while Zed Williams hand a game-high four assists to go along with one goal. Both Greg Coholan and Ryan Lukacovic finished the game with two goals and one assist. The Big Red held the edge in shots (58-34) and ground balls (43-32). Cornell also posted more turnovers than the home team (13-8). Both teams manage to score just one man-up goal, with Cornell going 1-of-5 and Virginia going 1-of-4.
               
CORNELL VS. THE ACC: Cornell is 55-82-1 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 (5-10).

A WIN OVER VIRGINIA WOULD:
• narrow the Cavaliers lead in the series to 10-6.
• improve head coach Matt Kerwick's career record to 125-114 and to 2-1 vs. Virginia.
• be the 737th win in program history.
• be the first for Cornell over a ranked opponent this season.
• make Cornell 62-61 all-time when unranked in the USILA Coaches' Poll.
• improve Cornell to 17-2 all-time vs. the No. 17 ranked team in the USILA Coaches' Poll.
 
CAMPUS CONNECTIONS:
•Matt Schattner's father Mike was a three-time All-American lacrosse player at Virginia.  
• Fleet Wallace's mother, Elizabeth, ran track for one season at UVA, while his uncle Charles McDaniel was a member of the Cavaliers' football team.
• Virginia senior James Pannell is the younger brother of the Big Red's all-time leading scorer, Rob Pannell '13.

THE HEAD COACH: Matt Kerwick (22-13, .628) 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 (124-114).
 
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.
 
ROOKIE OF THE WEEK: Following his outstanding play in a 10-8 victory over Hobart, short stick defensive midfielder Clarke Petterson was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week on March 1. He was the first Big Red to be named Rookie of the Week since Christian Knight took home the honor on April 28, 2014. Petterson is 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.
 
BABY BIG RED: Of the 24 players that have seen action so far this season, one-third (eight) are freshmen, including a pair of starters on attack in Colton Rupp, and Ryan Bray, and one of the team's starting SSDM in Clarke Petterson.
 
EXPERIENCE BY THE NUMBERS:
• The Big Red has just four players that have seen action in at least 30 career games – John Edmonds (52), Matt Schattner (47), Marshall Peters (34), and Andrew Keith (31).
• Cornell has 10 players that have seen action in 15-29 games – Christian Knight (29), Tony Britton (29), Sean Doyle (23), Domenic Massimilian (23), Walt Gahagan (22), Brennan Donville (19), Jake Pulver (19), Jordan Dowiak (18), Kason Tarbell (17), 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.
 
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 10 straight games.
• Domenic Massimilian has won the face-off battle in six straight contests.
• John Edmonds has registered at least one point in six consecutive games.
• Bradlee Lord has a team-long eight-game point scoring streak.
  
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).
 
RANKED OPPONENTS:  Of the Big Red's 13 opponents this season, six are ranked in the current  USILA Coaches' Poll – Syracuse (third), Yale (fourh), Brown (fifth), Harvard (eighth), Albany (15th), and Virginia (17th) … Three others – Penn, Lehigh and Penn State – are also receiving votes.
 
TOP 10 NATION: The Big Red opened the week ranked in the top 10 nationally in three statistical categories – man-down defense (first – 1.000), face-off winning percentage (fourth –.688) and clearing percentage (ninth – .898).
 
FACE-OFF FRENZY: Domenic Massimilian entered the week ranked fourth in the nation in face-off win percentage (.688) and is second overall in ground balls per game (9.33) … For his career, he has won the face-off battle in 17-of-19 games and led the team in ground balls in 16-of-19 contests.
 
MOVING ON UP IN CORNELL HISTORY:
•Domenic Massimilian ranks seventh place in career face-offs won (296).
•Domenic Massimilian ranks 17th (181) in career ground balls.
•Marshall Peters ranks seventh in caused turnovers (36).
•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 16-of-33 points on the season (48%). A year ago, Cornell saw 122-of-256 points coming from the attack unit (48%).
 
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 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.
  
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 play its first mid-week game of the season when it travels to Hamilton, N.Y. to take on Colgate on Tuesday, March 15 for a game at 4 p.m.