ITHACA, N.Y. -- Senior
CJ Kirst set the NCAA Division I men's lacrosse goal scoring record and made the game's pivotal play in the second half to lift No. 1 Cornell to a narrow 10-8 win over Dartmouth on Senior Day at Schoellkopf Field. The Big Red clinched the outright Ivy League title for the third consecutive season in improving to 12-1 (6-0 Ivy), while the Big Green's season came to a close with an 8-5 (2-4 Ivy) mark.
Kirst's first goal of the game came 58 seconds in, fittingly on a pass from high school teammate
Michael Long, to set the record of 225 - one more than Virginia's Payton Cormier from 2020-24. He ended the day with 226, registering two goals and an assist.
It wasn't the record-breaking goal that was the highlight play of the day, but rather his 57th career caused turnover on the ride. With the game tied 6-6 in the closing seconds of the third quarter, Kirst turned the ball after stepping in the crease. Dartmouth immediately attempted to clear, but Kirst got back into the play and intercepted a pass near midfield and quickly whipped it over to
Willem Firth, whose deep shot with the goalkeeper out of his spot gave the Big Red the go-ahead goal with 15 seconds left.
Jack Cascadden won the ensuing faceoff and scored five seconds later, putting the home team up a pair of goals entering the fourth and Dartmouth never recovered.
Sophomore
Ryan Goldstein had two goals and three assists to pace the offense, while
Walker Wallace caused three turnovers. Cascadden was 12-of-18 on faceoffs with nine ground balls wins, while
Michael Melkonian was 4-for-4 with three ground balls.
TJ Lamb scored his first career goal and
Andrew Dalton scored a pair.
Gallery: (4-26-2025) MLAX vs Dartmouth 4/26/25
Mason Morel kept the Big Green close with 14 saves, including several point-blank stops on the doorstep. Only Alex Jessey, with a goal and an assist, had multiple points for Dartmouth and five of its eight goals came of the unassisted variety. Joe Azelby won five ground balls and Spencer Eagan kept Dartmouth within striking distance in the faceoff battle early before the Big Red took control in the second half, winning 8-of-9.
The win clinched Cornell's third straight outright Ivy title, the first time a team has done so in the Ancient Eight since Princeton won six consecutive from1996-2001. It also sealed the 21st outright title in school history.
NEXT UP
• The Big Red will host the 2025 Ivy League Tournament at Schoellkopf Field with the semifinals set to go down on Friday, May 2 at 4 and 6:30 p.m.
• Cornell will face No. 4 seed Yale in the first semifinal at 4 p.m..
• All three games will be televised on ESPNU.
• Along with the Big Red and Yale, No. 2 Princeton will square off with No. 10 Harvard in a battle for the championship.
