ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell and Syracuse men's lacrosse teams will bring a taste of Central New York to Long Island when the Big Red and the Orange meet  in a colorful top five battle on Saturday, April 12 at 4 p.m. at Mitchel Field in Uniondale, N.Y. The contest will be broadcast on Corrigan Sports Network.

• Cornell, ranked No. 1 in the latest national polls for the second consecutive week, brings a five-game win streak into the renewal of one of the oldest and longest rivalries in college lacrosse.
• The Big Red ranks No. 1 nationally in goals (15.9), assists (10.4), and points (26.3) per game, as well as in shooting percentage (.356) while scoring at least a dozen goals in every contest this season.
• Senior All-American and Tewaaraton Trophy candidate CJ Kirst  is making a push to become Division I lacrosse's all-time leading goal scorer with 214, just 10 behind Payton Cormier's record of 224 for Virginia from 2020-24.
• The nation's active leading scorer at 296 points, Kirst is on the verge of becoming the 24th player in Division I history to reach 300 for a career and he paces all of college lacrosse with his 66 points (49 goals, 17 assists) this season.
• Kirst's running mate Michael Long became the sixth player at Cornell to surpass 200 points, as well as just the fourth Big Red player to surpass both 100 career goals and 100 career assists.
• Junior Jack Cascadden has been outstanding at the faceoff X, winning 63 percent of his restarts in the past five contests (76-of-121).
• The defense has surrendered just 8.3 goals over its past three games and is allowing opponents to shoot just 25 percent overall this season.
• The Big Red has been jumping out on opponents all season, outscoring opponents 89-47 in the first half (an average score of 9-5).
• 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
#1/1 Cornell vs. #4/4 Syracuse
DATE & TIME: Saturday, April 12 at 4:00 p.m.
SITE: Mitchel Field - Syracuse, N.Y.
RECORDS: Cornell 9-1 (4-0 Ivy); Syracuse 9-2 (2-0 ACC)
SERIES RECORD: Syracuse leads 66-42-1
BROADCAST: Corrigan Sports Network
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
DIGITAL PROGRAM: CornellBigRed.com
GAME NOTES: CornellBigRed.com
EVENT INFORMATION

A WIN OVER SYRACUSE WOULD ...
• make Cornell 10-1 on the season with its sixth straight win.
• narrow Syracuse's edge in the all-time series to 66-43-1.
• close the Big Red's non-conference slate at 6-1.
• be the Big Red's third straight victory over SU, its longest win streak in the series since winning 12 in a row from 1966-79.
• push Buczek's career record to 44-15 (.746).
• be the 818th in program history (817-502-27, .617).

LAST TIME VS. SYRACUSE
• 35 goals. 61 points. Four quarters. Two overtimes. 
• CJ Kirst calling game after over an hour and seven minutes of game action. 
• Many are calling it the game of the year - and they might have been right.
• The Big Red weathered two different seven-goal deficits and until 10 seconds remained in the fourth quarter did not own a lead. 
• A response with one second left from Syracuse forced overtime, and when that wasn't enough to settle things, a second overtime came. 
• With 47 seconds remaining, Spencer Wirtheim found CJ Kirst wide open on the hashes after he drew the double team and the junior buried the goal and secured the victory, 18-17.
• Senior attack Michael Long led the way with a career-high nine points on five goals and four assists while also scooping four groundballs. 
• Kirst followed with six points on five goals and an assist.



LAST TIME OUT
• The top-ranked Cornell defense came up big when needed and the offense came through late to provide some separation as the Big Red topped Brown 13-9 at Stevenson-Pincine Field. 
• Senior Wyatt Knust made 12 saves and senior defenders Brendan Staub and Jayson Singer each caused a pair of turnovers to lead a defense that limited the Bears to just one goal over the game's final 23:25, allowing the visitors to rally for the victory. 
• On a day the vaunted Cornell offense struggled to get on track, senior CJ Kirst still managed to score four goals and assist on a fifth,  including posting the go-ahead score with 8:07 remaining. 
• Hugh Kelleher had two goals and two assists and Willem First scored twice and assisted on another as five different players had multi-point days. 
• Jack Cascadden won 15-of-22 faceoffs and scooped seven ground balls while scoring a goal in an unsettled situation. 
• Brown gave the Big Red all it could handle, with Brady O'Kane recording a hat trick and assisting on a goal for four points.

MILESTONE WATCH
• Senior CJ Kirst's 296 points are tied Mike French '76 for second on the school's career list. Rob Pannell '13 sits first with 354 points.
• Kirst is four points from becoming the 24th player in Division I history to reach the 300-point milestone.
• Kirst also has 56 career caused turnovers, two from reaching sixth on Cornell's all-time 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 four assists from joining the top five in school history, matching Mike French '76 with 105
• At 14th place in career goals with 102, Long is three from matching his Big Red head coach Connor Buczek '15 with 106 for 13th.
• Junior goalkeeper Wyatt Knust has 280 career saves and is 20 away from becoming the 15th Big Red goalkeeper with 300 career stops.
• With 17 career wins in goal, Knust is one away from reaching the top 12 at Cornell.
• Junior Jack Cascadden is 11th in career faceoff wins with 272, 23 from joining the top 10.

KIRST WATCH
• Cornell and the Ivy League's all-time goal scoring leader (214), senior CJ Kirst in nearing the top of the all-time NCAA career charts.
• Kirst is the nation's active leader in career goals (214) and points (296), well ahead of Princeton's Coulter Mackesy (154), and Mackesey (227) and Harvard's Sam King (227).
• The 10th player in Division I history to reach the 200-goal mark, he became the fastest player to reach that mark and his 58 games played are eight fewer than any of the other players on the list.
• He enters the weekend seven goals shy of reaching No. 2 all-time in Division I history (Mac O'Keefe of Penn State, 2017-21) and 10 from Payton Cormier's record of 224 for Virginia from 2020-24.
• Kirst's 3.69 goals per game is the fourth-best average in Division 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 296 is 24th all-time and 11 from reaching the top 20.
• Kirst's 4.90 goals per game leads all players in all NCAA Divisions, with Eli Spence of Division III Elmhurst (4.70) ranking second. 
• The senior is the nation's leading goal scorer in Division I at 4.90 goals per game with No. 2 being Army West Point's Jackson Eicher at 3.50 — nearly a goal and a half behind the Big Red captain.

NOTES TO KNOW
• Cornell has scored at least 12 goals in all 10 contests this season.
• Seniors CJ Kirst (first, 5.10) and Michael Long (ninth, 4.00) rank among the nation's top 10 active leaders in career points per game.
• Willem Firth ranks fifth in the nation with six extra-man scores.
• Since regaining his starting spot last April, senior Wyatt Knust has 201 saves (13.3 saves per game) with a 9.78 goals against average and a .585 save percentage in his past 16 contests.
• Junior Jack Cascadden has scored 12 career goals (with four assists) directly off face-offs in his career, including seven goals in his past nine games.
• Senior defender Jayson Singer has started 38 of the past 39 games for the Big Red.
• Cornell is 22-6 (.786) 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 306-168-7 (.643).
• The Big Red has three New York teams on its schedule during the 2025 season – Hobart (22-9), UAlbany (18-11) and Syracuse.
• Cornell is 18-2 over its past 20 contests against New York state teams dating back to 2018, including 4-1 vs. Syracuse, and owns a seven-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
• Cornell completes its regular season road schedule when it visits Harvard on Saturday, April 19 at 1 p.m. at Jordan Field.
• The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+.
• Cornell holds a 69-27 lead in the all-time series, including 24-15 in Cambridge, Mass.
• The Big Red has won five of the past six meetings between the teams, including last season's 15-8 triumph at Schoellkopf Field on the strength of nine different goal scorers.