Yale Visits Ithaca for Men's Lacrosse Matinee

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS 
• Cornell takes on a Yale team ranking in the top 10 on Saturday, March 23 in Ithaca, N.Y. Faceoff is set for 12 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field, and the game will be streamed live on ESPN+.
• Cornell, which entered the preseason polls ranked seventh, finds itself at No. 11 and No. 12 in the major men's lacrosse polls (USILA Coaches Poll, Inside Lacrosse Media Poll).
• Cornell boasts Division I's fifth-best shot percentage, scoring on 36.3 percent of shots taken. Nonconference opponent Notre Dame leads the country and shoots just four percent more accurately than the Big Red.
• The Big Red also ranks sixth in scoring offense and seventh in points per game. Cornell averages 15.83 goals per game and 25.00 points per game so far this season.
• Yale enters the contest at 4-1, with the lone coming at the hands of Penn State in overtime. The Bulldogs are on a two-game win streak. The first win came in a road upset of then-#1 Denver, and the second came last week when Yale opened the Ivy season with a 17-15 win over Harvard.
• 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 first sweep of the Ivy weekly awards this season came this past weekend when Cornell's sophomore Matt Dooley and freshman Ryan Goldstein took home the honors for their performances at Princeton.
• 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 the series, 54-30-1
In Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell leads, 29-12
Current Streak: Yale, one game
Last Meeting: Yale won, 22-15 on May 5, 2023, in New York, N.Y.
Buczek vs. Yale: 2-2
Series Notes: 

• The Big Red has claimed a conference-best 31 regular-season championships, including 18 outright, while Yale has had recent success, winning outright titles in back-to-back years in 2016 and 2017, and claiming a share of the title in 2022. Since the 2000 season, either the Bulldogs or the Big Red have held a share or outright won the Ivy League regular season in all but six years.
• Cornell has won both of the last regular season meetings, but Yale holds the post-season edge. The Bulldogs bested the Big Red in all three of the most recent Ivy League semifinals (2019, 2022, 2023).
• A high-powered offensive matchup since 2019, no game has ended with either team scoring fewer than 10 goals.

A WIN OVER YALE WOULD ... 
• Improve Cornell's record to 5-2 on the season.
• Mark the third win over a ranked opponent this season.
• Move Cornell's lead in the series to 55-30-1.
• Mark the third consecutive regular-season win in the series for the Big Red.
• Be the 804th win in program history (803-497-27 in 128 seasons, .615).

LAST TIME OUT: Cornell 15, Princeton 14
GAME STORY I BOX SCORE l GALLERY l HIGHLIGHTS
• Plenty of firsts came for the Cornell men's lacrosse came out of Princeton, N.J. Sunday afternoon, perhaps none more significant than sophomore defenseman Matt Dooley's first-career goal with 1.6 seconds left in the game. No. 88 took a leading pass from Kyle Smith and buried the first shot of his career in the back of the goal, capping off a 15-14 Cornell win.
• The Big Red moved to 4-2 on the season and 1-0 in Ivy play, while Princeton dropped to 4-3 (0-1 Ivy).
• Freshman Ryan Goldstein led all attackers with five points in his first collegiate appearance, scoring a hat trick and adding two assists.
• Spencer Wirtheim followed with four assists and Hugh Kelleher matched Goldstein's goal total at three. Michael Long and AJ Nikolic came next with two goals apiece.
• CJ Kirst, Ryan Sheehan, and Willem Firth rounded out multi-point scorers, each notching a goal and an assist.
• Marc Psyllos went 14-of-28 at the faceoff X, scooping a team-high eight groundballs.
• Princeton's Chad Palumbo and Sean Cameron led the Tigers' attack with three goals and an assist each.
• Tucker Wade also clocked four points, all of which came off goals.
• Cornell's freshman goalkeeper Matthew Tully made his first career start, tallying 12 saves.
• The Big Red attack gave Princeton netminder Michael Gianforcaro his worst save percentage of the season (42.3 percent).

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