ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's lacrosse team will attempt to qualify for its ninth appearance in the NCAA championship game when it meets a familiar foe in Penn State when the two teams meet in the first semifinal contest on Saturday, May 24 at 12 p.m. at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. The contest will be broadcast on ESPN2 with Anish Shroff, Quint Kessenich, Paul Carcaterra and Dana Boyle on the call.

• Cornell, the 2025 Ivy League regular season and tournament champion, enters the NCAA Semifinals with a 16-1 overall record in its ninth consecutive week atop the national polls and is riding a 12-game win streak.
• The Big Red clinched its 21st outright Ivy title thanks to its 18th unbeaten season in conference play in program history.
• The Big Red earned its 31st NCAA Tournament bid in school history after claiming its third Ivy Tournament title (2011, 2018), scoring at least 20 goals in wins over Yale (21-14) and No. 2 Princeton (20-15) to garner the auto bid.
• The 2025 season marks Cornell's 17th trip to the NCAA tournament since 2000, making it to the quarterfinal round 11 times, the semifinals six times and the national championship game twice in that span.
• The Big Red will be playing against a Nittany Lions team that handed the team its only loss of 2025 (13-12 in OT on March 8), the fifth straight opponent it will meet for a second time in the postseason.
• The Big Red led by four goals with under three minutes to play, but ended the game on a 5-0 run aided by a pair of penalties that allowed the Nittany Lions to score three man-up goals in a 95-second span to send the game to overtime and possess without a faceoff in the extra session.
• Cornell hasn't lost since that game and sports a 12-game win streak, tied for the eighth-longest in school history.
• The Nittany Lions are coached by former Big Red mentor Jeff Tambroni. Tambroni served as head coach for 10 seasons (2001-10) directing the program to a 109-40 record with eight Ivy League titles, three NCAA Final Four appearances (2007, 2009, 2010) and a national runner-up finish in 2009.
• Tambroni and his staff recruited Big Red head coach Connor Buczek '15, the nation's youngest Division I head coach who is making his second NCAA Final Four appearance with the Big Red, to Cornell. Tambroni departed Penn State before Buczek enrolled at Cornell.
• Buczek's 2025 Big Red team returned 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 — but did not get an invite to the NCAA Tournament as an at-large selection. 
• The National Coach of the Year candidate has a 50-15 career record with four consecutive Ivy titles in his four seasons directing his alma mater and is now in search of his second appearance in a national championship game. 
• The Big Red ranks No. 1 nationally in goals (16.2), assists (10.9), and points (27.1) per game, as well as in shooting percentage (.367), while scoring at least 10 goals in every contest this season.
• Senior All-American and Tewaaraton Trophy candidate CJ Kirst became Division I men's lacrosse's all-time leading goal scorer with two in the win over Dartmouth, surpassing Virginia's Payton Cormier (224 from 2020-24). He enters the NCAA Semifinals with 241 scores.
• The nation's active leading scorer at 338 points, the six-time Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week in 2025 paces all of college lacrosse with his 108 points (76 goals, 32 assists) this season.
• Kirst, who has already surpassed former teammate John Piatelli '22 for the school's single-season goal scoring record (66), is now chasing the Division I single-season record. Kirst's total is now up to 76, six behind Jon Reese of Yale in 1990 and Miles Thompson of UAlbany in 2014.
• Kirst's running mate Michael Long, Kirst's high school teammate at the Delbarton School, is just the sixth player at Cornell to surpass 200 career points, as well as the fourth Big Red player to surpass both 100 career goals (113) and 100 career assists (122). Arguably the most underrated player in the country enters the week with 235 points, sixth all-time at Cornell and eighth among all active Division I players
• Sophomore Ryan Goldstein is the third member of one of the nation's most connected attacks. He is second on the team and the Ivy League and fourth nationally in points per game (5.18) with 38 goals and 50 assists.
• The trio of Kirst-Long-Goldstein has combined for 143 goals and 120 assists (263 points), more than half of all Division I teams had for the entire season (37 of 74 teams). They are the highest scoring attack trio in a season in school history, ahead of the fabled Mike French-Eamon McEneaney-Jon Levine unit in both 1975 (144-118-262) and 1976 (133-117-250)
• The midfield has been led by senior Hugh Kelleher and sophomore Willem Firth, two offensive-minded players who have combined for 82 points.
• Junior Jack Cascadden has been outstanding at the faceoff X all season, winning 64 percent of his restarts in the past 12 contests (196-of-307) and scoring nine goals as well.
• An underrated Cornell defense has surrendered just 10.4 goals over its past 10 games (scoring 16.2 gpg over that span) and is allowing opponents to shoot just 27 percent overall this season.
• Sparked by All-America candidate Jayson Singer and all-league candidates Brendan Staub, Walker Wallace and Chris Davis, the Big Red defensive unit has been exceptional in front of goalkeeper Wyatt Knust. 

GAME INFORMATION
#7/7 (5) Richmond vs. #1/1 (1) Cornell
DATE & TIME: Saturday, May 24 at 12:00 p.m.
SITE: Gillette Stadium - Foxborough, Mass.
RECORDS: Penn State 12-4 (3-2 Big 10); Cornell 16-1 (6-0 Ivy)
SERIES RECORD: Penn State leads 25-23
BROADCAST: ESPN2 / ESPN+
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
DIGITAL PROGRAM: CornellBigRed.com
GAME NOTES: CornellBigRed.com

A WIN OVER PENN STATE WOULD ...
• advance the Big Red to the NCAA championship game for the ninth time in program history and the second time in four seasons under head coach Connor Buczek.
• make Cornell 17-1 on the season with its 13th straight victory, setting a single-season school record for wins.
• avenge its only loss of the regular season after Penn State earned a 13-12 overtime victory over the Big Red on March 8 at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca.
• improve Cornell's record in NCAA Tournament play to 39-27 (sixth-most wins in NCAA Tournament history).
• push head coach Connor Buczek's career record to 51-15 (.773).
• be the 825th in program history (824-502-27, .619).

LAST TIME VS. PENN STATE
• No. 9 Penn State scored four unanswered goals in the final 2:27 of regulation and capped it off with an overtime game winner to give the Nittany Lions a 13-12 victory over No. 3 Cornell at Schoellkopf Field. 
• Ethan Long's score less than a minute into overtime ended the game, but it was Penn State's ability to repeatedly score and get the ball back in the final minutes that allowed the visitors to rally. 
• Three of the scores came after an unreleasable penalty that allowed the Nittany Lions to even the score up when Jack Aimone punched a shot in on the extra man. 
• The nation's leading scorer, CJ Kirst, scored two goals and added an assist to pace five multi-point scorers for the Big Red, with Ryan Goldstein adding a hat trick and both Michael Long and Hugh Kelleher registering two goals and an assist. 
• Brendan Staub and Walker Schwartz each caused two turnovers. 
• Hunter Aquino scored a goal and assisted on four others, including the game-tying and game-winning goals. 
• Colby Baldwin won 15-of-25 faceoffs, including three of the final four to close regulation.

LAST TIME OUT
• In a game that saw the Big Red dominate off the ground, it was fitting that the Cornell men's lacrosse team earned its 15th appearance in the NCAA Final Four by running out the clock by mucking up a loose ball as the top-seed defeated Richmond, 13-12. 
• Senior Andrew Dalton finished off a hat trick with his game-winning goal with 5:28 remaining, but Richmond's final possessions ended in a shot clock violation, a caused turnover by senior CJ Kirst on a rideback and a fire drill ground ball with 10 seconds that the Big Red kept on the ground until the clock expired. 
• It may have been the biggest loose ball in a game where the top seed had a 51-27 edge over the Spiders.
• Kirst had two goals and two assists along with career highs of 10 ground balls and three caused turnovers. 
• Sophomore Ryan Goldstein had four goals and two assists with a pair of caused turnovers on the ride, with Dalton scoring three times and Michael Long assisting on four goals. 
• Junior Jack Cascadden won 17-of-25 faceoffs with defender Matt Dooley winning four ground balls and holding Richmond's Lucas Littlejohn without a goal.

MILESTONE WATCH
• Senior CJ Kirst's 338 points rank second on the school's career list — Rob Pannell '13 sits first with 354 points. He is five away from reaching the top 10 in NCAA history (Asher Nolting of High Point with 343 from 2018-22).
• With 108 points in 2025, Kirst surpassed the 49-year-old single-season school record of 105 by Mike French in 1976.
• He needs six goals to match the single-season goal scoring record in Division I of 82 (Jon Reese of Yale in 1990 and Miles Thompson of UAlbany in 2014). He ranks fourth with 76 scores.
• Kirst has 97 career assists and is three shy of becoming the seventh player at Cornell to hit 100.
• Kirst also has 63 career caused turnovers, matching Big Red defensive coordinator Jordan Stevens '15 and Gavin Adler '23, the USILA William C. Schmeisser Defensive Player of the Year in 2023 and first pick in the PLL Draft for fourth on the school's career list.
• Sophomore Willem Firth has nine man-up goals and is one from reaching fourth in a season.
• Junior Jack Cascadden needs to win one ground balls to reach the top 10 (Addison Sollog '02 with 223). He enters the weekend with 222.
• At fifth place with 392, Cascadden is four faceoff wins from reaching fourth (396 by Paul Rasimowicz from 2017-20) and 18 from reaching the top three (410 by Dom Massimillian from 2014-16) at Cornell for his career.
• Cascadden has won 145 ground balls and is five shy of Dom Massimilian's 2015 record total of 150.
• He has 260 faceoff wins to own the single-season record, besting the 249 by Massimillian that same year.
• A win over Penn State would give Wyatt Knust a single-season record 17 victories in goal for a Big Red squad.
• Cornell is 15 points from matching the 1976 team's record of 476 points in a season with its 275 goals and 186 assists (461 points).
• The Big Red's next goal would also match the 1976 team atop the school charts with 276, with two needed to break the 49-year-old mark.

NO. 1 SEED HISTORY
• This is the fifth time in NCAA Tournament history (beginning in 1971) that Cornell has been the No. 1 overall seed (1971, 1975, 1977, 1978, 2025).
• The Big Red was the No. 1 overall seed in the 1971 NCAA Tournament, the first-ever national championship — winning that title with a 12-6 victory over No. 3 Maryland in the final.
• Two of its three NCAA titles have come as the No. 1 seed (1971, 1977), with the third in 1976 coming after being the No. 2 seed,
• Cornell sports an 11-2 record as the No. 1 overall seed.

KIRST WATCH
• Senior CJ Kirst is Cornell (191, Mike French, 1974-76), the Ivy League (198, Matt Brandau of Yale, 2019-24) and NCAA Division I (224, Payton Cormier of Virginia, 2020-24) all-time leading goal scorer with 241 and counting.
• Kirst is the nation's active leader in career goals (241) and points (338), well ahead of Siena's Pratt Reynolds (170) and Princeton's Coulter Mackesy (248), respectively.
• The 10th player in Division I history to reach the 200-goal mark, he became the fastest player to reach that mark at 55 games, and his 65 games played is still one fewer than any of the other players on the list.
• Kirst's 3.71 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 338 puts him 13th in NCAA history and is two from reaching 12th (Maryland's Logan Wisnauskas, 2018-22). Entering the week, Kirst's 4.47 goals per game ranked second among all NCAA lacrosse players (Division I, II and III), with Joseph James of Division III Franciscan (4.73) narrowly ahead. 
• With 76 goals in 2025, Kirst stands atop the Cornell single-season list (surpassing former teammate John Piatelli '22 with 66 in 2022). That total is second in Ivy history, behind the NCAA record 82 by Jon Reese in 1990. 
• His 108 points make him the 26th player in NCAA men's Division I history to hit 100 in a season (fourth Cornellian and eighth Ivy player). 
• Kirst's 65 consecutive games with at least one point ranks as the second-longest streak in Ivy League history, behind only Big Red Hall of Famer Rob Pannell '13 with 72.
• He is the 40th player in Ivy League history to be named to the first-team at least three times (12th from Cornell and first since current Big Red head coach Connor Buczek '15).
• His nine scores in the regular season victory over Yale are tied for the most in a single-game this season in Division I and was one off a Cornell record.
• Kirst's 12 points (six goals, six assists) vs. Hobart are also tied for the most in a single-game this season in Division I (Lafayette's Riley Sullivan vs. Colgate).

NOTES TO KNOW
• Cornell has scored double figure goals in all 17 contests this season with four 20-goal games, including in three of its last six outings.
• The Big Red (6-0 in Ivy League) was one of just three unbeaten teams in conference play in Division I, joining Richmond (5-0 in Atlantic 10) and Towson (7-0 in Coastal Athletic Association).
• Cornell (6-0) was one of three Division I teams to go unbeaten on the road in 2025, joining Army West Point (6-0) and Ohio State (5-0).
• Entering the week, senior CJ Kirst (first, 5.20), sophomore Ryan Goldstein (third, 4.65) and senior Michael Long (10th, 4.05) all rank among the nation's top 10 active leaders in career points per game.
• Willem Firth ranks second in the nation with nine extra-man scores.
• Since regaining his starting spot last April, senior Wyatt Knust is averaging 12.6 saves per game and sports an 20-3 record in those 23 contests.
• Junior Jack Cascadden has scored 14 career goals (with four assists) directly off face-offs in his career, including nine goals this season.
• Senior defender Jayson Singer and senior midfielder Hugh Kelleher both entered the NCAA transfer portal in an attempt to play football after graduating from Cornell. Singer, the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year, has started 45 of the past 46 games for the Big Red on defense. Kelleher, the Ivy League Midfielder of the Year, has started all 65 contests of his career.
• Seniors CJ Kirst and Hugh Kelleher have both started all 65 career games they have played for the Big Red. Only Rob Pannell '13 (72 games) has opened more contests consecutively for Cornell in school history.
• Sophomore Ryan Goldstein's eight assists against Yale were one off a school record and are tied for the most by a Division I men's lacrosse player in a game this season (Ryan Bell of Providence vs. Holy Cross).
• The Big Red set an Ivy League record for fastest consecutive goals at five seconds in a 10-8 win over Dartmouth. Willem Firth scored on a feed from CJ Kirst with 15 seconds remaining in the third quarter to snap a 6-6 tie, then Jack Cascadden won the ensuing faceoff and immediately scored with 10 seconds left in the quarter.
• Cornell is 26-6 (.813) 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.

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.

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
• A win in the semifinals would advance Cornell into the national finals for the ninth time in program history while looking for its first NCAA title since 1977.
• The Big Red would play against the winner of the Syracuse-Maryland contest on Monday, May 26 at 1 p.m. at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.