ITHACA, N.Y. - The Cornell men's soccer team will lean on culture and ride the momentum of last year's historic season to reach new heights in East Hill. The Big Red is coming off of a season where it finished second in the Ivy League and won its first NCAA Tournament game since 1977 when it took down the sixth-ranked Maryland Terrapins at Berman Field. Although Cornell would fall in the next match to eventual 2022 NCAA National Champion Syracuse in a tightly-contested battle, the season laid the groundwork for Coach John Smith's culture, and embodied a step in the right direction for the program.

Cornell enters the season ranked 20th in the nation, but will not use that as an excuse to be complacent. Big Red senior defender Kisa Kiingi mentioned, "It's [the United Soccer Coaches Ranking] a good representation of the work we have put in, but its definitely not anything we are satisfied with... we just want to keep improving and getting better."

The 2023 slate will offer no shortage of high-level competition, with the Big Red opening up with back-to-back ranked opponents, facing the defending national champion Orange, and sharing a league with number 25-ranked Penn. The Big Red plans to embrace the competition as it gets set to make a run for the top spot on the Ivy ladder.

Junior forward Danny Lokko described the effect of the culture when he said, "we have the passion to win, and I think that emulates from the coaches right down to the players."

The Big Red will bring back a strong amount of production with five out of the top seven point-scorers from 2022 returning to the pitch. Notably, sophomore goalkeeper Ryan Friedberg returns after he was named the Ivy League's Rookie of the Year last year, posting a 13-3-1 record with a 1.01 goals-against average and a .685 save percentage. Friedberg's 13 wins are the most by a freshman on record in Cornell program history and his win total is the third-most by a Big Red goalkeeper. Connor Drought also returns, a first-team Ivy Leaguer last year, after finishing the season with 14 points (three goals, eight assists). His eight helpers were tied with Brandon Morales for the team lead. The eight assists were the most by a Cornell defender in program history, and tied for the fourth-most by a Big Red player in program history (Adamo Notarantonio - 1995, Adam Skumawitz - 2000, Nico Nissl - 2012, and Morales - 2022). Kiingi, Lokko, Matthew Goncalves, Alioune Ka, and Drought combined for 54 of 120 points scored last season, and will all return to represent the Cornellian red and white this year.

The season opener is set for Friday, September 1st in a top 20 matchup, as the the Big Red will travel to Virtue Field to take on No. 12 Vermont. That contest will be followed up with a trip to Tucker Field as the 22nd-ranked New Hampshire Wildcats will play host to the Cornellians. Game action will be broadcast on ESPN+.