While the Red will not officially start its season until next spring, the men’s lacrosse team will have a taste of top-level competition when it competes in the Algonquin Cup on Sunday.
The tournament, hosted by Hofstra, has a number of college lacrosse powerhouses participating including national runner-up Duke, Hobart, Stony Brook and St. John’s. The Red will face the hosts in its first game and would take on St. John’s if it wins.
“This is taking the first big step in getting our guys’ feet wet for those who haven’t played for Cornell before, both freshman and other guys who haven’t played so much college lacrosse,” said Cornell head coach Jeff Tambroni.
Tambroni is especially looking forward to see how his relatively younger and inexperienced squad will fare in its first live action. Coming off a 2005 season in which the sole Ivy League champions lost to the Blue Devils in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament, there are several question marks on the team due to the departures of graduates such as attacking duo Sean Greenhalgh ’05 and Kevin Nee ’05, midfielder Justin Redd ’05 and defensemen Kyle Georgalas ’05 and Casey Stevenson ’05.
“[The tournament] gives us an opportunity for us to find out what we’re all about,” Tambroni said. “This year more than ever, we’re excited to find out who we are and where we are with this young group of freshmen and transfers that we have on the team.”
Tambroni, who indicated that under NCAA rules that the team can only participate in one fall tournament each year, also said that the competition will help his coaching staff plan for the spring and give his guys the opportunity to show what they can do.
“This will be a wonderful format for us to play some of college lacrosse’s best teams and you have to find out where you are and how much work you need to put in the offseason,” Tambroni said. “To come up with a lineup in the springtime which is going to be successful, then you might as well play against the teams you want to measure yourself up against.” This is the third-ever Algonquin Cup, with Army winning last year and Notre Dame taking the title in the competition’s first season of existence.
Archived article by Brian Tsao
Sun Assistant Sports Editor