Men's Lacrosse Hosts Dartmouth In Saturday Matinee

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS 
• Cornell fights for the top spot in the Ivy League when it hosts Dartmouth.
• The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
• The Big Red has outscored opponents 101-68 across the first six games of the season.
• Dartmouth has taken the league by surprise this year, climbing to a second place ranking in conference. The Big Green, originally slated to finish last in the Ivy Preseason Poll, has one loss on the season to a #13 North Carolina.
• Dartmouth took a 20-16 win over common opponent Hobart on March 7th, and earned its first conference win last weekend over Harvard after outscoring the Crimson 4-0 in the fourth, forcing a sudden victory overtime that saw a Dartmouth goal with 1:35 remaining.
• Cornell held the 5th place position in both the USILA Coaches Poll and Inside Lacrosse Media Poll this week.
• Cornell ranks ninth nationally in scoring defense, allowing 9.71 goals per game. The Big Red also ranks sixth in groundballs per game, averaging 37.43, and 13th nationally in caused turnovers per game (9.43). Dartmouth has one of the best faceoff units in the country, ranking third in faceoff winning percentage at .635.
• Cornell returns the Ivy League Rookie of the Year in CJ Kirst, who notched 55 goals and 79 points for the Big Red last year. Kirst has 41 points in seven games played. He leads the nation in goals per game (4.86) and in points per game (5.86). Following his 11-point performance at Hobart and five-point day at #9/#8 Ohio State, Kirst was named the Ivy League Player on the Week (March 5). He earned a nod on the USILA National Team of the Week following his seven-goal outing versus #16 Penn last week.
• Gavin Adler is a three-time National Team of the Week honoree, most recently following the Cornell win over Yale where he tallied eight groundballs and a caused turnover. He aided in holding one of the nation's leading attackman, Matt Brandau, to just one goal, nearly ending a 129-game goal-streak, the longest in the country.
• The Big Red boasts four preseason All-Americans entering 2023.

THE SERIES 
Overall: Cornell leads, 55-15
In Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell leads, 29-6
Current Streak: Cornell, 10 games
Last Meeting: Cornell, 8-7 on April 2, 2022, in Hanover, N.H.
Buczek vs. Dartmouth: 1-0
Series Notes: 

• Penn is the second youngest Ivy League opponent for the Big Red behind Brown. The first meeting in the series vs. the Big Green was an 8-7 Cornell win in 1946.
• Cornell's 10-game win streak is part of an overall 22-1 run since the 1998 season.
• The lone Big Green win in that run came in the 2010 season at a neutral site game in Foxboro, Mass. Dartmouth won, 8-6.
• Cornell averages 13.51 goals when facing the Big Green. The Big Red averages 14.43 goals per game so far this season.
  
  A WIN OVER DARTMOUTH WOULD ... 
  • be the first time that the Big Red open the conference slate with three wins since 2015. Cornell beat Yale, Penn, and Dartmouth to open that season.
  • be the second win over an opponent who is receiving votes in both polls this season. 
  • extend the Cornell win streak to 11 games.
  • extend its lead in the all-time series against the Big Green to 56-15.
  • be the 795th win in program history (794-492-27 in 126 seasons, .603).

LAST TIME OUT: Cornell 18, Pennsylvania 12
GAME STORY I BOX SCORE I GALLERY
• The Big Red moved to 2-0 in the Ivy League, scoring 15+ goals for the fourth time this season, in the 18-12 win over Penn.
• Cornell had its best day at the faceoff “X” this season, winning 24-of-34 battles as a unit. Freshman Jack Cascadden and senior Angelo Petrakis each went 12-for-16..
• CJ Kirst matched his career-high single-game goal number with seven in the contest.
• Billy Coyle had six points on three goals and three assists.
• Sam Handley had a hat trick and an assist to notch four points.
• Penn had six multi-point scorers.
• Chayse Ierlan had 12 saves for the Big Red in the contest.

Photos by Dave Burbank, Madison Epperson, Eldon Lindsay, and Darl Zehr.