This past Saturday, while the rest of the student body was sleeping in, the Red (8-2, 2-1 Ivy) gave its all against the toughest opponent of the season, No. 3 Virginia (12-1). In front of a crowd of 225 hollering fans on the road, the Red held its own but fell, 3-0, to the ACC powerhouse Cavaliers. The Red fell to 1-2 all-time against the elite Virginia program.

After a record-setting start to the season with a blazing seven wins, the Red has hit a rough patch, losing its past two games, including one in overtime against Ivy League rival Yale.

On a day when neither team could get much going through the air, Harvard's ground game picked up the slack, rushing for 251 yards and all four touchdowns and giving up only 62 to a struggling Cornell running attack that has averaged just 57 yards over its last three games. The win boosted Harvard (3-1, 2-0 Ivy), the preseason favorite to win the Ivy League, to the top of the conference standings, while dropping Cornell (2-2, 1-1) into a fourth-place tie with Yale.

Cornell will be confronted with a difficult task this weekend as the schedule points south to Charlottesville, Va., for the field hockey team’s Fall Break destination. No. 3 Virginia, hailing from the formidable ACC, will host Cornell tomorrow at 1 p.m., for the first time since 2003.

Like the Red (8-1), the Cavaliers (11-1) were off to an undefeated start on the season until last weekend when No. 1 Maryland snapped their win-streak with a 3-1 decision.

The men's lacrosse team brought a disciplined, hard-nosed approach in the first 30 minutes of its semifinal matchup against the Cavaliers, and rode rookie attackman Rob Pannell to an 8-2 lead at halftime. The Ivy League Rookie of the Year has two goals and two assists in the first half. Junior attackman Ryan Hurley, who had shooting problems his past few games, has two goals and an assist and looks sharp around the cage.

Virginia goalie Adam Ghitelman, the hottest goalie in the tournament to date, had trouble stopping shots and Virginia's defenders have been caught "ball-watching," allowing Cornell's cutting offensive players to take advantage of poor off-ball coverage.

Follow the men's lacrosse team's game against Canisius today live at http://twitter.com/DailySunSports

Cornell gave top-ranked Virginia something to worry about, taking a 7-6 lead into the locker rooms on Sunday afternoon and allowing even the most pessimistic fans to hope. The good fortune did not last, however, and the Cavaliers surged back over the next two periods to hand the No. 4 Red its first loss of the season, 14-10.

With the loss, Cornell slips to 2-1 on the season. Virginia remains perfect, with a 7-0 record overall.

The No. 4 men’s lacrosse team is off to a quick 2-0 start to the 2009 season and will get the chance to make a loud statement on Sunday when it takes on No. 1 Virginia at Klockner Stadium in Charlottesville, Va. A team as deep and talented as the Red would be favored in most games, but against the Cavaliers, who are off to a perfect 6-0 start this season, Cornell would have to be considered the underdog. Underdog or not, head coach Jeff Tambroni has a plan for his team.

“We’re going to stay away from the underdog/favorite [mindset] and just focus on the little things that we can do against Virginia,” Tambroni said. “They have weaknesses, like every other team, and we’re going to make sure we try to exploit those.”

This weekend, the men’s and women’s polo teams will renew arguably their biggest rivalries as both teams will travel to Virginia.

After slipping by the Toronto Polo Club, 15-12, last weekend, the men’s team (11-3) must shift the relaxed mindset it had against Toronto, to one of grit and determination as it prepares for its biggest match of the season to date.

In the two squads’ first meeting of the season, back on Oct. 17, the Cavaliers took down the visiting Red, 23-5. In the second matchup, on Nov. 23, the Red narrowed the gap and lost, 27-17, at the Oxley Equestrian Center. Then, on Jan. 31, hoping to pull off an upset, the Red faltered against UVa again at home. Following a third chukker surge, Cornell lost, 23-12.