Top-10 Road Matchup On Deck for Men's Lacrosse

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS 
• Cornell hits the road for the first time in the 2024 season on Saturday, Feb. 24 when the team travels to Denver, Colo. to take on a top-10 ranked Denver team that is on a 3-0 start to the season. Faceoff is set to 12 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET) at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium. The game will be broadcast live on DenverPioneers.com.
• Cornell, which entered the preseason polls ranked seventh, finds itself at #6 in the USILA poll, and #8 in the Inside Lacrosse poll.
• Cornell boasts Division I's No. 1 opponent clear percentage after its ride held Lehigh to just 15 successful clears on 21 attempts for 71.4 percent.
• The Big Red also ranks atop Division I in groundballs per game, scooping 46 against Lehigh. The Big Red's average is nearly three ahead of Duke, which ranks No. 2 with 43.67.
• Denver enters the contest ranked #7 in the USILA Coaches poll and #5 in the Inside Lacrosse Media poll. The Pioneers are 3-0 on the year, including starting the year with a win over a top-10 ranked Johns Hopkins in overtime.
• Cornell concluded the 2023 season ranked seventh nationally in scoring offense, tallying 14.80 goals per game. The Big Red also ranked sixth in groundballs per game, averaging 36.67, and 14th nationally in caused turnovers per game (9.40). Cornell had the nation's 10th-best scoring margin, outscoring opponents by an average of 3.53 goals per game.
• The Big Red boasts four preseason All-Americans; CJ Kirst, Jack Follows, Hugh Kelleher, and Christopher Davis.
• Cornell returns the 2022 Ivy League Rookie of the Year and 2023 Ivy Player of the Year, CJ Kirst. The now-senior notched 65 goals and 84 points for the Big Red last year. The goal total was good for the most by a junior in Big Red history.

THE SERIES 
Overall: Cornell leads, 2-0
In Denver, Colo.: Never competed
Current Streak: Cornell, two games
Last Meeting: Cornell won, 9-8 (OT) on Mar. 30, 2012, in Hempstead, N.Y.
Buczek vs. Denver: Never faced while coaching (1-0 as a player)
Series Notes: 

• Cornell and the Pioneers have only faced off twice in history, despite Denver being a part of Division I lacrosse since 1999.
• The last time the two opponents faced, Head Coach Connor Buczek and Associate Head Coach Jordan Stevens were on the field. The duo were just freshmen at the time, and both made an appearance in the contest. The game marked Steven's sixth career start.
• The Big Red and Pioneers have never faced off at a home site, only ever meeting in neutral territory.

A WIN OVER DENVER WOULD ... 
• Mark the fifth consecutive year the Big Red opened the season with a 2-0 start.
• Be the first win over a top-10 ranked opponent since defeating #6/#7 Army West Point on April 15, 2023.
• Set up a battle between Hobart and Cornell on Tuesday, Feb. 27 for the sole right to the NCAA's sixth-most all-time wins (802).
• Keep Cornell perfect all-time against Denver, 3-0.
• Be the 801st win in program history (800-495-27 in 128 seasons, .614).

LAST TIME OUT: Cornell 17, Lehigh 13
GAME STORY I BOX SCORE I GALLERY I HIGHLIGHTS
• The offense was rolling through the snow squalls for the Big Red on Saturday afternoon, when Cornell beat Lehigh, 17-13, on Schoellkopf Field in the season opener
• The win gave the Big Red its fifth-consecutive season-opening victory.
• The Cornell attack was led by Michael Long, a senior who missed over half of last season due to injury, who tallied seven points, including a hat trick, in the debut of his final season.
• Freshman Willem Firth followed, netting a team-best four goals on just five shots in his collegiate debut.
• Firth's four goals marked the most in a Big Red athlete's collegiate debut since CJ Kirst scored four against UAlbany on Feb. 19, 2022.
• 2023 Tewaaraton finalist CJ Kirst tallied a hat trick and added an assist for four points. The senior also caused three turnovers and scooped four groundballs.
• Junior Danny Caddigan netted a career-high three goals and added an assist for four points.
• Lehigh was led by captain Scott Cole, who had a game-high six goals and an assist for seven points. Andrew Kelly tallied a goal and an assist for two points, while Grant Rodny and Dakota Eierman each notched two goals to round out the multi-point scorers for the Mountain Hawks.
• Jack Cascadden went 21-of-28 at the faceoff X on Saturday. He scooped 11 groundballs, too. Both mark career highs for the sophomore. The 21 wins are tied for the third-most in a single game in Cornell history.
• Wyatt Knust made a career-high 14 saves in his first collegiate start. He posted a .519 save percentage.

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