ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's lacrosse team, newly minted as a consensus No. 1 team in the most recent national polls, will put itself to the test against a pair of traditional powers when the Big Red hosts Ivy rival Penn on Saturday, March 29 at 12 p.m. before welcoming UAlbany to Schoellkopf Field in Tuesday, April 1 at 3 p.m. The contests will both be broadcast on ESPN+.

• Cornell vaulted into the top spot in the nation's rankings after dismantling preseason top 10 foe Yale on the road, 19-14, last Saturday behind 10-point efforts from CK Kirst (nine goals, one assist) and Ryan Goldstein (two goals, eight assists).
• Kirst's effort, that included six scores in the first quarter, earned him National Player of the Week honors and made him the Ivy League's all-time goal scoring leader by surpassing Yale's Matt Brandau (198) with 202.
• Kirst's nine goals and Goldstein's eight assists were both within one of the Cornell single-game school records.
• The nation's active leading scorer at 280 points, the four-time Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week paces Division I with his 50 points (37 goals, 13 assists) this year.
• Penn has had Cornell's number recently, sweeping a pair of contests from the Big Red last season and winning six of the past eight contests dating back to 2016 — those account for six of the team's 15 Ivy losses during that span. 
• Cornell and UAlbany have played some memorable contests, with four contests being decided by two or fewer goals with the Big Red entering the matchup with four consecutive wins in the series. 
• 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.

GAME INFORMATION
RV/RV Penn at #1/1 Cornell
DATE & TIME: Saturday, March 29 at 12:00 p.m.
SITE: Schoellkopf Field - Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Penn 4-5 (1-1 Ivy); Cornell 6-1 (2-0 Ivy)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads 67-29-1
BROADCAST: ESPN+
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
DIGITAL PROGRAM: CornellBigRed.com
GAME NOTES: CornellBigRed.com

UAlbany at #1/1 Cornell
DATE & TIME: Tuesday, April 1 at 3:00 p.m.
SITE: Schoellkopf Field - Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: UAlbany 2-7 (0-2 America East); Cornell 6-1 (2-0 Ivy)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads 6-4
BROADCAST: ESPN+
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
DIGITAL PROGRAM: CornellBigRed.com
GAME NOTES: CornellBigRed.com

A WIN OVER PENN WOULD ...
• make Cornell 7-1 on the season with its third straight win.
• get the Big Red off to a 3-0 Ivy start for the second time under head coach Connor Buczek '15 (2023).
• be its eighth straight home win in regular season Ivy play and make Buczek 10-1 in his career in those contests.
• snap a two-game skid against the Quakers.
• give the Big Red a 280-116-1 all-time mark in Ivy League play (.707).
• push Buczek's career record to 41-15 (.732).
• be the 815th in program history (814-502-27, .616).

LAST TIME VS. PENN
• The Big Red missed double-digit scoring for only the second time this season, dropping a 13-9 decision to the Quakers in the 2024 Ivy League Tournament semifinals at Schoellkopf Field.
• Senior Hugh Kelleher led the Big Red attack with three points on a goal and three assists. 
• Freshmen Ryan Goldstein and Luke Gilmartin each put up two goals. 
• Marc Psyllos rounded out Cornell's multipoint scorers with two assists. 
• Psyllos went 12-for-23 from the faceoff X and 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. 
• Chris Arceri went 9-for-15 at the faceoff.
• Penn goalkeeper Emmet Carroll was the star of the night with 19 saves and a .679 save percentage.

LAST TIME VS. UALBANY
• CJ Kirst notched a double hat trick as the third-ranked Big Red earned a 12-10 win over UAlbany at Bob Ford Field. 
• Kirst's first two goals bookended the first and second quarters, and he added a third straight with 11:33 remaining in the second. 
• Angelo Petrakis and Marc Psyllos split time at the face-off, combining to win 11-of-23. 
• Goalkeeper Chayse Ierlan made 10 saves in his first outing of 2023.
• Jack Pucci led the charge for the Great Danes by notching three points from one goal and two assists. 
• Silas Richmond and Graydon Hogg each added two goals for UAlbany. 
• The Great Danes had four athletes take face-offs, but Nick Karnes was the front runner, winning 8-of-13 chances. 
• Defender Jack Piseno had five caused turnover for the Danes.

MILESTONE WATCH
• Senior CJ Kirst's 280 points are 16 shy of matching Mike French '76 for second on the school's career list.
• With his next man-up goal, Kirst would reach 15th on the school's career list with 13 and is two away from jumping to 13th place.
• Senior Michael Long is three goals from becoming the 14th player to hit 100 for a career
• At seventh place in career assists with 93, Long is seven from becoming the sixth player with 100.
• If he hits both milestones, Long would join Mike French '76, Rob Pannell '13 and Jeff Teat '20 as the fourth player in school history to tally both 100 goals and assists in a career for the Big Red.
• Long is six points from reaching sixth in career points (John Piatelli '22) with his 190.
• Junior goalkeeper Wyatt Knust has 252 career saves, 18 away from jumping into 15th place at Cornell.
• His next win in goal would give him 15, moving him within one of jumping to 14 on the school's list.
• Junior Jack Cascadden is 12th in career faceoff wins with 226, five behind Tanner Campbell '99 for 11th.

KIRST WATCH
• Cornell and the Ivy League's all-time goal scoring leader (202), senior CJ Kirst in nearing the top of the all-time NCAA career charts.
• Kirst is the nation's active leader in career goals (202) and points (280), well ahead of Princeton's Coulter Mackesy (145) and Harvard's Sam King (217).
• The 10th player in Division I history to reach the 200-goal mark, his 55 games played are 11 fewer than any of the other players on the list.
• He enters the weekend two goals shy of reaching No. 8 all-time in Division I history, three from hitting No. 7, four from getting to No. 6 and five from hitting the top five. He is 22 away from Payton Cormier's record of 224 for Virginia from 2020-24.
• Kirst's 3.67 goals per game is the fourth-best average in school history — and second at Cornell behind Mike French's 4.06, which is No. 2 in NCAA history. NC State's Stan Cockerton scored 4.39 goals per game from 1977-80.
• His points total of 280 in seven from reaching the top 30 nationally and 15 from reaching the top 25.
• Kirst's 5.29 goals per game leads all players in all NCAA Divisions, with Joseph James of Division III Franciscan (5.00) ranking second. 
• The senior is the nation's leading goal scorer in Division I at 5.29 goals per game with No. 2 being Bucknell's Connor Davis at 3.75 — more than a goal and a half per game behind the Big Red captain.

NOTES TO KNOW
• Cornell has scored at least 12 goals in all seven contests this season.
• Seniors CJ Kirst (first, 5.09) and Michael Long (11th, 3.96) rank among the nation's top 12 active leaders in career points per game.
• Willem Firth ranks fifth in the nation with five extra-man scores.
• Since regaining his starting spot last April, senior Wyatt Knust has 185 saves (14.2 saves per game) with a 10.24 goals against average and a .591 save percentage in his past 13 contests.
• Junior Jack Cascadden has scored 10 career goals (with four assists) directly off face-offs in his career, including five goals in his past six games.
• Senior defender Jayson Singer has started 35 of the past 36 games for the Big Red.
• Cornell is 20-6 (.769) at home under head coach Connor Buczek.

PRESEASON HONORS
• 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 305-168-7 (.643).
• The Big Red has three New York teams on its schedule during the 2025 season – Hobart (22-9), UAlbany and Syracuse.
• Cornell is 17-2 over its past 19 contests against New York state teams dating back to 2018, including 4-1 vs. Syracuse, and owns a six-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.

NEXT UP
• The Big Red begins a pivotal three-game road swing when it visits Brown on Saturday, April 5 at 12 p.m. at Stevenson-Pincince Field.
• The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+.
• Cornell leads the all-time series 41-22 and has won two consecutive matchups, outscoring the Bears 30-17 in those games.
• The Big Red has a narrow 5-4 edge in the past nine matchups dating back to 2015.