GAME INFORMATION

GAME #4: No. 3 Cornell vs. No. 6 Penn State
FACE OFF: Friday, March 8, at 8:00 p.m.
SITE: Sportsplex At Matthews (Charlotte, N.C.)
2019 Records: No. 3 Cornell (3-0, 0-0 Ivy League); No. 6 Penn State (4-1, 0-0 B1G)
SERIES RECORD: Series tied, 21-21
LAST MEETING: Cornell, 9-7 (3/10/2018 in Sparks, Md.)
  

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GAME NOTES (PDF)
 
THE MATCHUP: The No. 3 Big Red men's lacrosse team will face its toughest challenge of the young season when it travels to the Crown Lacrosse Classic for a pair of games this weekend in Charlotte, N.C. The weekend kicks of with a contest vs. No. 6 Penn State at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 8. Cornell is one of three undefeated teams remaining in the nation after Connor Fletcher scored the game-winning goal with 14 seconds to play against UAlbany to send the Big Red to 3-0 on the year, its best start since the 2014 squad went 9-0 to start the season. Penn State dominated its first three opponents of the season before falling to No. 6 Yale, 14-13. The Nittany Lions rebounded with a 15-14 victory last weekend at Penn to improve to 4-1 on the year. Live stats will be available at www.judolphins.com and the game can be heard locally on WHCU 870 AM with Barry Leonard and Howie Borkan '81 on the call.
 
THE SERIES VS. PENN STATE: Cornell and PSU first met in the 1923 season and went on to play 36 times prior to 1961.
• 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), but the Nittany Lions won two in a row (2016, 2017) before Cornell won last season to tie the series at 21-21.
• Last year's meeting at Tierney Field in Sparks, Md. was the first neutral site game in the history of the series.
 
A WIN WOULD:
• improve the Big Red to 4-0 on the season.
• be the second in a row vs. the Nittany Lions.
• give Cornell the 22-21 advantage in the all-time series with Penn State.
• be the first over a ranked opponent this season.  
• be the 762nd win in program history.
• make Cornell 34-8 all-time when ranked No. 3 in the USILA Coaches' Poll.
• improve Cornell to 7-8 all-time vs. the No. 6 team in the USILA Coaches' Poll.  
 
CAMPUS CONNECTIONS:
• Penn State head coach Jeff Tambroni spent 10 seasons on the Big Red sidelines as the Richard M. Moran Head Coach of Cornell Lacrosse. During his time with the Big Red, Tambroni posted a record of 109-40 and won a share of eight consecutive Ivy League championships.
• Penn State volunteer assistant coach John Hogan played lacrosse for Cornel from 2012-2015 and was teammates with current Big Red assistant coaches Jordan Stevens and Connor Buczek.
• Cornell sophomore Joe Wolf's uncle, Mike Wolf, played football at Penn State.
• There are four high schools represented on both the Cornell and Penn State rosters:
                •Haverford School (CU's Parker Henderer; PSU's Grant Ament, John Nostrant, Chris Sabia, TJ Malone)
                •Lawrenceville School (CU's Harrison Bardwell; PSU's Dean Lamela)
                •Salisbury School (CU's JJ Lombardi; PSU's Dylan Sulzbach)
                •Landon School (CU's Colton Rupp; PSU's Nate Buller)     
  
CORNELL VS. THE BIG 10: The Big Red is 42-54-2 against the current members of the Big 10 conference.
• Cornell has a winning record vs. Rutgers (8-1) and Michigan (1-0).
•The Big Red's series with Penn State (21-21) and Ohio State is tied (2-2).
• Cornell has a losing record vs. Johns Hopkins (6-16-1) and Maryland (4-14-1).
  
MEET THE NEW BOSS, SAME AS THE OLD BOSS: After leading the Big Red on an interim basis during the 2018 season, Peter Milliman was named the 12th head coach in the programs' 126-year history in May 2018.
 
THE HEAD COACH
• Peter Milliman (16-5, .762) was promoted to the position of Richard M. Moran Head Coach of Men's Lacrosse in May 2018 after spending one season as the interim head coach.
• He spent the previous four seasons as an assistant coach and then as the program's Mario St. George Boiardi '04 Associate Head Coach of Men's Lacrosse.
• The 2019 season is his sixth as a head coach (53-31).
 
YOUNGEST STAFF: Cornell boasts a pair of recent grads as assistant coaches – Jordan Stevens '15 and Connor Buczek '15. No other Division I staff had two full-time assistant coaches as young as or younger than the Big Red duo.
 
USILA TEAM OF THE WEEK: Cornell has had two players named to the USILA Team of the Week this season.
• After posting a 14-point opening weekend with 10 goals and four assists vs. Hobart and Lehigh, Jeff Teat was named to the team on Feb. 26.
• Connor Fletcher earned the March 5 honor after scoring the game-winner vs. UAlbany with 14 seconds to play.
 
INSIDE LACROSSE PRESEASON MEDIA ALL-AMERICANS: Jeff Teat (first-team) and Jake McCulloch (third-team) were named Inside Lacrosse Preseason Media All-Americans.
 
USILA ALL-AMERICANS: The Big Red had four players named USILA All-Americans following the 2018 season, including junior Jeff Teat.
 
TICKLE THE ALL-IVY: The Big Red returns six All-Ivy selections from a year ago – Jeff Teat (unanimous first-team), Jake McCulloch, Ryan Bray, Fleet Wallace, Paul Rasimowicz, and Brandon Salvatore.
 
OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN:  The Big Red has four captains this season – seniors Ryan Bray, Jake McCulloch, Clarke Petterson and Fleet Wallace.
 
HARD HAT: Jeff Teat was selected to carry the Hard Hat for the 2019 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.
 
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK:  The 14-member Class of 2022 features four US Lacrosse All-Americans, and a member of the Australian national team that competed at the 2018 FIL World Championships. The group consists of six defenders, three players that can play attack or midfield, two midfielders, two face-off specialists, and one goalie. The 14 hail from five different states, including a class-high five New Yorkers, as well as one player coming from Australia and one from Ontario.
 
INTERNATIONAL BIG RED: With six international players on the roster (five Canadians, one Australian), Cornell has the fifth most international players in Division I men's lacrosse this season.  
• Only Robert Morris (15 Canadians); Vermont (nine Canadians; one German); St. Bonaventure (nine Canadians) and Hobart (seven Canadians) have more.
• Other than Cornell (Tim Graham – Australia) only Vermont has a player on its roster from a foreign country other than Canada (Per-Anders Olters – Germany).
• Tim Graham is the first Cornell men's lacrosse player to come from a foreign country other than Canada since John E. Beeby (Dersingham, Eng.), Thomas H. Beeby (Dersingham, Eng.) and John S. Roederer (Paris, France) all appeared on the 1961 roster.
 
AUSTRALIAN NOTES: Tim Graham is the first Australian to play men's lacrosse in the Ivy League.
• Graham becomes just the eight Australian to play Division I men's lacrosse, and the first since Adam Sear (Yokin) and James Watson-Galbraith (Perth) played for Maryland and UMBC, respectively, during the 2010 season.
 
THE SEASON 2019: The Big Red will be featured in a five-chapter multi-platform video and digital content series, "The Season 2019." Now in its second season, the series also features the Florida Gators' women's lacrosse team and is being broadcast on ESPNU.
 
MOVING ON UP IN CORNELL HISTORY:
• Jeff Teat ranks fourth in career assists (109) … He needs 13 more to move into third place.
• Jeff Teat ranks fourth in career points (190) … He needs 66 more to move in to third place.
• Paul Rasimowicz ranks ninth in career faceoffs won (269) … He needs just 26 to move into eighth place.
 
RANKED OPPONENTS: Cornell's schedule features five opponents currently ranked in the USILA Coaches' Poll.
• Cornell will play Towson (first), Yale (fourth), Penn State (sixth), Notre Dame (10th), and Syracuse (15th).
• A year ago, the Big Red posted six wins over nationally ranked opponents, the most for Cornell since 2013.
 
NEW YORK STATE OF MIND
• Cornell has traditionally been very successful against collegiate teams from New York state, posting an all-time record of 293-167-7 (.635).
• The Big Red has four New York teams on its schedule during the 2019 season –Hobart, Albany, St. Bonaventure, and Syracuse – and is 2-0 on the season.
 
THROWBACK NUMBERS
• The 2019 roster feature four unique numbers on it - #51, #61, #77, and #88.
• Jeff Teat is the first player to wear #51 since Jerome Dolins wore it in 1966.
• Tom Reilly is the first Big Red men's lacrosse player to ever wear #77.
• Theodore Batson is just the second player to ever wear No. 61, joining teammate Parker Henderer, who wore the number last season.  
• JQ Stramanak is the first player to wear #88 since Joseph Ryan in 1959
 
ELITE COMPANY
• During the 10-year span of 2009-2018 only 12 schools have registered 100 victories – Duke (145), Maryland (132), Denver (129), Syracuse (114), Loyola (113), Notre Dame (110), Virginia (109), North Carolina (108), Yale (108), Cornell (107), Albany (106), and Johns Hopkins (101).
• During that time, only 10 teams have won at least 65 percent of its games – Syracuse (.754), Maryland (.754), Denver (.746), Duke (.744), Notre Dame (.720), Loyola (.717), Yale (.692), Cornell (.673), Virginia (.671) and North Carolina (.665).
 
DOUBLE-DIGIT GAMES: With his 10 points vs. Brown on April 21, 2018, Jeff Teat matched the Cornell record held by Mike French '76, with five double-digit games.
• Of his five 10+ point games, two have come against nationally ranked teams, and three have come against Ivy opponents.
12 – Jeff Teat vs. Harvard (4/7/2018)       
12 – Jeff Teat vs. No. 16 Princeton (4/29/2017)                  
11 – Jeff Teat vs. No. 13 Virginia (3/11/2017)
10 – Jeff Teat vs. Hobart (2/24/2018)
10 – Jeff Teat vs. Brown (4/21/2018)
 
SIEVE! SIEVE! SIEVE! 
• For the 2018 season, Big Red opponents managed to save just 39.2 percent of shots faced – the lowest in program history. 
• Since opponent save percentage started being recorded in 1977, Cornell's opponents have saved fewer than 45 percent of shots faced just once (2013; .435 percent).
• Through three games this season, Cornell's opponents are saving just .359 percent.
 
100-POINT: With his four points vs. Yale in the Ivy League Tournament, Clarke Petterson became the 43rd player in Cornell history to register 100 career points.
 
60-60 POINT SCORERS:
• Clarke Petterson (63) and Jeff Teat (99) are just the eighth pair of Cornell teammates to each register 60 points in a season.
• They are the first pair of 60-60 scorers since Rob Pannell (102) and Steve Mock (70) in 2013.
 
90-POINT PERFORMANCE: Jeff Teat finished the 2018 season with 99 points to become just the eighth Big Red player to finish a season with 90+ points.
• Cornell's last 90+ point scorer was Rob Pannell with 102 points in 2013.
 
TWO 70-POINT SEASONS: Jeff Teat has amassed more than 70 points in back-to-back seasons.
• He is just the fourth player in Big Red history to put together at least two 70-point seasons in a career, joining Mike French '76, Eamon McEneaney '77, and Rob Pannell '13. 

THE 30-30 CLUB: In his first two seasons, Jeff Teat has posted 30 goals and 30 assists.
• Only three other Big Red players – Mike French '76, Eamon McEneany '77 and Rob Pannell '13 – have tallied at least 30 goals and 30 assists in a season twice in their career, with French reaching the mark three times.
• Including Teat's performance in 2017 and 2018 there have been just 13 seasons in Cornell history with a 30-30 performer.
 
WIN NUMBER 750
• Cornell picked up the 750th win in program history when it defeated Air Force, 23-5 on March 27, 2018.
• The Big Red is one of just seven NCAA Division I men's lacrosse programs to boast at least 750 wins.
 
HOME IS WHERE THE WINS ARE:
• Cornell has enjoyed a true home field advantage since beginning play on Schoellkopf Field in 1972, going 241-84 for a .742 winning percentage, with 12 undefeated seasons.
• Cornell has been even more impressive since 2000, going 103-29 overall (.780) with perfect slates in 2015 (6-0), 2011 (8-0), 2009 (6-0), 2007 (7-0) and 2005 (6-0).
 
FASTEST TO 100:
• With 100 points in 18 career games, Jeff Teat scored 100 career points faster than any other four-year player in Cornell or Ivy League history.
• In NCAA history, the 18 games matches Tim Nelson (NC State/SU), who also did it in 18 games from 1982-83.
• Rob Pannell tallied his 100th career point in his 25th career game with the Big Red during his sophomore season in 2010.
• Michael French '76 (16 games) and Eamon McEneaney '77 (19 games) registered their 100th career point in fewer games than Pannell, but due to NCAA rules that prohibited freshmen from playing varsity sports, both accomplished the feat in their junior season.
• Teat was the 42nd player in Cornell history to amass 100 career points.
 
MILLIMAN TABBED TO ASSIST TEAM USA: Head Coach Peter Milliman was named an assistant coach for the 2019 U.S. men's national indoor team. The team will be led by Regy Thorpe (Syracuse University), who will guide the team in pursuit of a gold medal at the 2019 Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Indoor Lacrosse Championship (WILC), Sept. 19-28, 2019, in Langley, British Columbia, Canada.
 
RECAPPING 2018: The 2018 squad exceeded all expectations, evidenced by the team's appearance in the NCAA quarterfinals, where it fell to defending national champion Maryland. After back-to-back losing seasons in 2016 and 2017, the Big Red started the 2018 season well outside the top 20 and were picked to finish fifth in the Ivy League. Throughout the season, Cornell continually improved and returned to the USILA Coaches' Poll on March 26 (No. 14) ending a 29-week unranked drought, the longest stretch in school history. The team went on to finish second in the conference with a mark of 4-2 before winning the program's first Ivy League Tournament title since the 2011 campaign.
 
UP NEXT: The Big Red wraps up the Crown Lacrosse Classic when it takes on No. 1 at the Sportsplex at Matthews at 1 p.m. on Sunday, March 10.