ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's lacrosse team opens a promising 2025 campaign when it visits Lehigh on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 11 a.m. at the Ulrich Sports Complex. The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+.

• Head coach Connor Buczek's Big Red team returns eight starters and 22 letter winners from last season's 9-5 squad that won the Ivy League regular season title — its third straight and 32nd overall in program history.
• The Big Red, ranked third in both national polls entering week, will be tested right away against the defending Patriot League champion Mountain Hawks, who are off to an 0-2 start.
• Cornell has won 10 consecutive contests against Lehigh and five straight season openers entering the matchup.
• The Big Red offense was electric in 2024, ranking second in assists (9.5) and third in both goals (15.1) and points (44.3).
• Leading the way are preseason Tewaaraton Trophy Watch List members in seniors Hugh Kelleher, CJ Kirst and Michael Long.
• The trio is among the most accomplished in college lacrosse, combining for 318 goals and 168 assists for 486 career points. 
• Midfielders Kelleher and sophomore Willem Firth are among the nation's top players at the position and ranked third and fourth on the team in scoring a year ago.
• Senior All-American Jayson Singer and goalkeeper Wyatt Knust lead a defense ready to re-establish itself among the premier groups in the country.
• The face-off unit will be led by junior Jack Cascadden, who missed nearly the entire 2024 season after a dominant effort against Lehigh in the season opener, going 21-of-28.



GAME INFORMATION
#3/3 Cornell at Lehigh
DATE & TIME: Saturday, February 15 at 11 a.m.
SITE: Ulrich Sports Complex – Bethlehem, Pa.
RECORDS: Cornell 0-0 (0-0 Ivy); Lehigh 0-2 (0-0 Patriot)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads 11-9-3
BROADCAST: ESPN+
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
DIGITAL PROGRAM: CornellBigRed.com
GAME NOTES: CornellBigRed.com

THE SERIES
Overall: Cornell leads 11-9-3
In Bethlehem, Pa.: Cornell leads 5-0-2    
On neutral fields: None
Streak: Cornell, 10
Last 5: Cornell leads 5-0
Last 10: Cornell leads 10-0
Last meeting: Cornell 17, Lehigh 13 (2/17/24 at Cornell)
Last Lehigh win: Lehigh 5, Cornell 4 (4/12/1916 at Cornell)
First meeting: Lehigh 5, Cornell 0 (5/4/1893 at Cornell)
 


A WIN OVER LEHIGH WOULD ...
• extend its win streak in season openers to six games.
• mark the fourth consecutive season that the Big Red beat Lehigh. 
• extend its lead in the all-time series against the Mountain Hawks to 12-9-3.
• boost its win streak to 11 over the Mountain Hawks. 
• give the Big Red four straight wins over Patriot League foes.
• push head coach Connor Buczek's career record to 35-14 (.714).
• make the Big Red 8-1 in the month of February under Buczek.
• be the 809th in program history (808-501-27, .615).

VS. THE PATRIOT LEAGUE
• Cornell sports a 77-56-4 (.577) all-time record against current members of the Patriot League.
• The Big Red sports an active four-game win streak, with two of those victories coming against the Mountain Hawks.
• Cornell's last loss to a Patriot League foe came on April 16, 2022 when it dropped a 17-10 contest to Army West Point at Schoellkopf Field.
• The Big Red has never faced Boston University, Holy Cross or Lafayette.
• This is the only regular season contest scheduled against a Patriot League foe in 2025.

LAST TIME VS. LEHIGH
• The offense was rolling through the snow squalls for the Big Red as it beat Lehigh, 17-13, on Schoellkopf Field in the season opener. 
• The Cornell attack was led by Michael Long's seven points, including a hat trick, in his debut after missing the 2023 season. 
• Freshman Willem Firth followed, netting a team-best four goals on just five shots in his collegiate debut. 
• CJ Kirst tallied a hat trick and added an assist for four points and also caused three turnovers and scooped four ground balls. 
Junior Danny Caddigan netted a career-high three goals and added an assist for four points. 
• Sophomore Jack Cascadden went 21-for-28 in faceoffs, scooping a game-best 11 groundballs. 
• In his first career start, Wyatt Knust made 14 saves.
• Lehigh was led by captain Scott Cole, who had a game-high six goals and an assist for seven points. 
• Nick Pecora had 11 saves in the outing.
 
LAST TIME OUT
• The Big Red missed double-digit scoring for only the second time this season, dropping a 13-9 decision to the Quakers for the home team's second loss to Penn this season. 
• Senior Hugh Kelleher led the Big Red attack with three points on a goal and three assists. 
• Ryan Goldstein and Luke Gilmartin each put up two goals. 
• Marc Psyllos rounded out Cornell's multipoint scorers with two assists. while going 12-for-23 from the faceoff X. 
• Wyatt Knust made 11 stops in the game.
• Ben Smith was the lone player to grab a hat trick in the contest, tallying three points for the Quakers. 
• Leo Hoffman posted two goals and an assist for three points as well. 
• Penn goalkeeper Emmet Carroll made 19 saves for a .679 save percentage.
• James Shipley, Conell Kumar, and Davis Provost put up two goals apiece for the Quakers. 
• Tynan Walsh added two apples, and Luke DiNola completed the list of multi-point scorers with a goal and an assist. 
 
MILESTONE WATCH
• Senior CJ Kirst enters his senior season with 165 career goals, 26 shy of reaching Mike French '76 (191), a record that has stood for 48 years.
• Kirst is five assists shy of joining the top 10 all-time in assists (65(, with Matt Donovan '15 next on the list. 
• With his next man-up goal, Kirst would reach 18th on the school's career list with 12. He is two from 15th and three from 13th.
• Senior Michael Long is seven goals short of surpassing former Tewaaraton Trophy winner Max Seibald '09 for 20th on the school's career list.
• At eighth place in career assists, Long is five from matching Anthony Pavone '95 for seventh with 89.
• Long is four points from reaching the top 10 in career points (Clarke Petterson '19 with 172).
• Junior goalkeeper Wyatt Knust has 159 career saves, 10 shy of reaching the top 20 all-time at Cornell.
• His next win in goal would give him nine and move him into 20th on the school's list.
• Senior Hugh Kelleher's next earned ground ball will be his 50th.

SEASON OPENERS
• Cornell brings a 68-54-15 (.551) all-time record in season openers into the 2025 campaign.
• The Big Red has won five consecutive openers, scoring an average of 16.6 goals in those wins.
• This will be the second consecutive season that Cornell will face Lehigh in the opener, knocking off the Mountain Hawks 17-13 to begin 2024 behind three goals and four assists from Michael Long.
• Cornell's last season-opening loss came against fellow Patriot League foe Colgate 14-11 on Feb. 17, 2018 despite four goals and three assists from Jeff Teat.

PRESEASON OPENERS
• Senior attackman CJ Kirst is the USA Lacrosse Division I Men's Preseason Player of the Year and Attackman of the Year.
• Kirst, senior midfielder Hugh Kelleher and senior attackmen Michael Long have been selected to the 2025 Tewaaraton Trophy Watch List.
• Kirst was also chosen as a USA Lacrosse, USILA and Inside Lacrosse Division I Men's Preseason All-America first team selection. 
• Kirst was chosen as college lacrosse's top player by Inside Lacrosse in its IL Top 50, while Long was slotted No. 19.
• Long was a third-team All-America choice by both USILA and Inside Lacrosse.
• Sophomore midfielder Willem Firth, senior defender Jayson Singer and senior goalkeeper Wyatt Knust were honorable mention selections by USILA, while Inside Lacrosse honored Firth, senior midfielder Hugh Kelleher and senior short-stick midfielder Chris Davis.

THE HARD HAT
• Charlie Box was selected to carry the Hard Hat for the 2025 season. 
• Sixth-year senior Michael Long (2023) and fifth-year senior CJ Kirst (2024) have also carried the Hard Hat during their careers.
• 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 YORK STATE OF MIND
• Cornell has traditionally been very successful against collegiate teams from New York state, posting an all-time record of 304-168-7 (.642).
• The Big Red has three New York teams on its schedule during the 2025 season – Hobart, UAlbany and Syracuse.
• Cornell is 16-2 over its past 18 contests against New York state teams dating back to 2018, including 4-1 vs. Syracuse, and owns a five-game win streak against teams from the Empire State.

PROFESSIONAL NOTES
• Jeff Teat '21 broke the single-season Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) scoring record with 64 points (28 goals, 36 assists), shattering the previous mark of 44 by Lyle Thompson (2022) and matched by Marcus Holman (2023).
• Professional lacrosse's all-time single-season leading point scorer is Rob Pannell '13. The former Big Red player set the record in the 2018 season of the Major League Lacrosse (MLL), putting away 43 goals and 35 assists for 78 points.
• Chayse Ierlan '23 became the fourth Big Red player taken in the PLL Draft after the goalkeeper was chosen No. 29 overall by the California Redwoods last May. He joins Gavin Adler '24, Jeff Teat '21 and Clarke Petterson '19. Teat was the No. 1 overall pick in 2021 and Adler went No. 1 in 2023.
• Since 2002, Cornell has had 38 players chosen in the MLL/PLL Draft.

HALLS OF FAME
• One of the most successful lacrosse coaches of all time, Nevin D. "Ned" Harkness was announced as one of four coaches making up the 2024 class of inductees to the Intercollegiate Men's Lacrosse Coaches Association (IMLAC) Hall of Fame. 
• Another Cornell name to be inducted into this class is Big Red alumnus Howie Borkan '81, who is the "Bob Russell Contributors Award" recipient.
• Additionally, Texas A&M coach Tony Scazzero '75, who was the longest tenured coach in the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association before retiring last spring, was inducted into the MCLA Hall of Fame.
• Jason Noble '13 was inducted into the Cornell Athletics Hall of Fame this past fall. 
• The three-time All-America selection (first-team in 2013, second-team in 2012, honorable mention in 2011) was also a two-time first-team All-Ivy pick and anchored of one of the nation's top defenses. 
• He later was named the 2017 NLL Defensive Player of the Year in leading the Georgia Swarm to the league title.

IVY PRESEASON POLL
• The Big Red was chosen first in the Ivy League Preseason Media Poll announced in February.
• Cornell finished first with nine of the 14 first-place votes and a total of 90 points, just ahead of Princeton (87 points, four first-place votes).
• Yale (71 points, one first-place vote) and Penn (57 points) rounded out the top four.
• Harvard (45), Brown (27) and Dartmouth (15) were chosen 5th-7th.

UP NEXT
• The Big Red opens its home season when it welcomes Denver to Schoellkopf Field on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 11 a.m.
• The contest will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
• Cornell leads the the all-time series 2-1, though this will be the first-ever meeting in Ithaca.
• The Pioneers rallied in the fourth quarter to pick up a 17-16 victory last February.
• Cornell earned wins in 2008 and 2012 at neutral sites, with the 2012 coming in OT.