Recent Contributions from Cory Bennett

A Retrospective: The Sun Names the Top-25 Senior Athletes

Cory Bennett — Sat, 03 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Each year, the Sun chooses the top athletes from each class. Below are the 25 best seniors as selected by the members of the Sun’s Sports Department. In addition, the Sun has named several honorable mentions. Among the staff's picks were Senior Topher Scott of the men's hockey team, John Glynn of the men's lacrosse team, Jenna Campagnolo of the women's softball team and Ryan Blessing of the football team. Jeomi Maduka of the women's basketball and track teams was named athlete of the year.

Red Wraps Up Share of Ivy Title

Cory Bennett — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Last Saturday, the men’s lacrosse team got off the bus at Schoellkopf Field after returning home from Princeton, N.J. Instead of the normal routine — tidying up their stuff and heading home — head coach Jeff Tambroni called the team into the locker room. After an 11-7 loss to Princeton, the squad’s season, the Ivy League title, an NCAA berth, hung in the balance.

“We sat in the locker room for about 20 minutes and just pretty much laid it on the line in terms of the direction of our program,” Tambroni said. “We were either going to start playing more passionately for each other or we were going to continue to plod along.”

Twenty-One Moments to Remember

Cory Bennett — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Birthdays are a time of reflection, usually of the internal variety. Then again, most people don’t have a bi-weekly column read by a few dozen people on a college campus. Even fewer of these people get to write a column published on their actual birthday. So, with that said, I present to you a brief history of my life up to today, my 21st birthday.

1 I’m born. My mother gives me two middle names, the second of which is Word. Hilarity ensues.

2 I cry very little, and am often happy, which explains why I am now often sad and cry a lot.

3 No one bothers to teach me how to throw a baseball, football, or shoot a basketball. I vow to have my kids training from the day they pop out of the womb.

Red Drops to Second With Loss

Cory Bennett — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

When Princeton men’s lacrosse head coach Bill Tierney declared the game the biggest win he had seen for his Tigers in a long time, you wouldn’t have expected it to be after a game against Cornell.

Going into last Saturday’s matchup with the No. 17/19 Tigers, the No. 3/4 Red had won 14 straight Ivy League contests, four in a row against Princeton and five straight Ivy titles overall. Maybe that’s why Princeton’s 11-7 win over Cornell was such a big win for its lacrosse program. It’s also a pretty hard loss to swallow for the Red.

Tennis Teams End Seasons Against Penn, Princeton

Cory Bennett — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

As the tennis season wraps up, the standings are far from set in the Ivy League for both the men’s and women’s teams. While neither team can win an Ivy League title, each can make moves in the standings with two wins.

With two games left in the season, the men’s tennis team is no longer in the running for the Ivy League title. In fact, at 1-4 in conference play (6-12 overall), the Red is tied for last place with Princeton. Before traveling to face the last-place Tigers, though, Cornell will welcome Penn to Ithaca this afternoon for a 2 p.m. tilt at the Reis Tennis Center.

Stretch armstrong: Junior Josh Goldstein and the men’s tennis team will try to battle out of last place this weekend.

Hurley Moves Into Main Attack Role

Cory Bennett — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

It’s Friday night, and the members of the men’s lacrosse team are holed up in their hotel rooms. It’s the life of a college athlete during the season — stuck on Friday night amidst miniature soaps and shampoos, Styrofoam cups in plastic wrapping and an ice bucket that no one ever fills.

Sophomore Ryan Hurley, then a freshman, is sharing the two-bed room with David Mitchell ’07. Not out of boredom, but out of routine, Mitchell grabbed his lacrosse stick.

“Being his roommate, I saw how he would get focused the night before,” Hurley said. “We would get our sticks ready and pass the ball around the night before — just kind of getting that mental focus and visualizing the game. That was a good experience for me.”

Ithaca’s Basement Tradition: Part III

Cory Bennett — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

He couldn’t have looked more out of place. Scraggly hair shooting out in every direction, sweat lingering on his forehead, a baggy sweatshirt, baggy sweatpants and the coup de grace — bloody cloth wrapped around each hand. Every few minutes, he reached his hand up to wipe some of the blood dripping from his swollen nose.

He looked around the room and immediately headed for the bar. He held his hands up when the bartender walked over and asked simply, without explanation, “Hey, do you have any scissors?”

To his polo-clad friends accompanying him, senior Andrew Killion looked like a boxer after a fight. To the staff and customers of the upscale Syracuse Italian restaurant, he probably looked like he had just lost a street fight.

Ithaca's Basement Tradition: Part II

Cory Bennett — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

A man strides through the door. His broad shoulders and pencil-thin waist seem out of place together — true of many good boxers. He has a bag of rice cakes slung over his shoulder and is hungrily munching down on one with his other hand.

“Gotta cut weight,” he says with a grin in response to a quizzical look.

The man is Willie Monroe Jr. He is the one professional boxer who trains at the Greater Ithaca Activities Center. He’s already finished his workouts — yes, more than one — for the day, but has still chosen to spend his afternoon hanging out in a room packed with grunts, sweat, odor and the thuds of punches hitting bags.

Women Split With Brown, Yale; Men Drop Games to Both

Cory Bennett — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Both the men’s and women’s tennis teams each played one close game and one lopsided affair this weekend. The women were able to pull out one of their matches however, beating Yale, but falling to Brown, while the men were not so lucky, losing to both Yale and Brown.

It was a weekend of important Ivy League play for both teams. The women (9-5, 2-3 Ivy) were facing two streaking teams in Brown and Yale. The Bulldogs had won five in a row leading up to its match with the Red, while the Green had lost three in a row coming into the weekend.

Ithaca's Basement Tradition

Cory Bennett — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The row of drab brick is interrupted by a door distinctive only for its color — yellow. It’s not a cool, pale, Easter yellow, but a bright, screaming, spray-paint yellow.

“[It’s] on Albany,” an email with directions said, “and there is a yellow door slightly cracked open which leads to the gym.”

I Want to Be a Journalist ... What Am I Thinking?

Cory Bennett — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Airplane pilot — commercial not fighter, NBA player, filmmaker, teacher, historian, ESPNews anchor, journalist.

What do all these things have in common? They are all things I once wanted to be when I grew up (the dead giveaway: the specification of commercial pilot — I was probably the only five-year-old that thought that a DC-10 was way cooler than an F-16).

Each one died out for some reason: my development of a fear of flying, the doctor telling me I wouldn’t hit 6-0, my realization that I wasn’t creative enough to make films, didn’t enjoy research or literature enough to be a teacher (I think I just wanted to be taken seriously by adults at an early age) and couldn’t read a teleprompter well enough to be an anchor.

Red Faces Challenges In Bid to Repeat History

Cory Bennett — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Nearly a year ago, the men’s lacrosse team stood tied with Syracuse at 15 apiece as the seconds ticked down. Head coach Jeff Tambroni called a timeout with just seconds on the clock. Junior co-captain Max Seibald, then a title-less sophomore, looked at his coach and simply asked for the ball. It wasn’t a Keyshawn Johnson “gimme-the-damn-ball” statement, it was merely Seibald exhibiting his developing leadership and confidence.

Sure enough, even though he had had a quite game in a match full of offensive fireworks and highlight-reel saves, Seibald beat his defender and netted the game-winner.

Four Years Later, Boairdi's Influence on M. Lax is Quite Different

Cory Bennett — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Inevitably, every experience becomes a memory. The pain, sadness and even inspiration of tragedy become part of history. For the last three full seasons, the death of George Boiardi ’04 — a former Cornell defender — has provided the men’s lacrosse team with an indelible experience, a pain channeled into inspiration that drives the squad.

This year, however, is the first season that not a single Red player got the chance to ever play alongside Boiardi, who was arguably “the most inspiring person that this program has had in a number of years, if ever,” according to head coach Jeff Tambroni.

Moyer Adopts Role of Main Defender

Cory Bennett — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0400

It’s fall 2005, and the men’s lacrosse team has just finished practice. Head coach Jeff Tambroni is addressing his squad before sending them home for the day. Tambroni, ever the coach who loves hard-working, scrappy players, points out to his team how hard one freshman worked during that day’s practice. That freshman was Matt Moyer.

“There were certain days that we as a coaching staff would point him out as being the symbolic leader of our team,” Tambroni said. “He would still come back the next day and feel like he needed to do it all over again.”

To Moyer, it probably just seemed natural to come out and work hard every day. But one can tell from the way he talks about it that Tambroni will never forget the first impression that Moyer made on him.

M. Lax Aims for Fifth Straight Ivy Title

Cory Bennett — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0400

In the corner of men’s lacrosse head coach Jeff Tambroni’s office sits a trophy that reads “2007 NCAA Lacrosse Semifinalist.” The trophy only tells part of the story, though. Only Duke’s last-second goal separated Cornell from a trip to the NCAA final against Johns Hopkins. That goal also put the end to the careers of five Cornell All-Americans. The Red lost its main goal-scorer, its offensive quarterback, its defensive stalwart and its four-year starting goalie. But like every year, the system remains the same as new faces fill in the roles.

Defense

M. Lax Takes Down Binghamton

Cory Bennett — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Hidden amongst a sleepy afternoon game that included only five second-half goals were several signs that the men’s lacrosse team is making progress achieving its potential that has showed through at times this season. Cornell’s 12-5 win over Binghamton saw some much-desired energy early on, a lockdown defense later and the continued emergence of some players looking to define their roles better.

M. Lax Ready to Take On Bearcats’ Defense

Cory Bennett — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Last year the men’s lacrosse team only failed to hit double digits on the scoreboard twice. Six games into this young season, the Red has already finished four games below the two-digit plateau. This afternoon it might be a struggle to hit double digits again as Cornell welcomes Binghamton, which boasts one of the best statistical defenses on the season.

Through their first three games, the Bearcats (2-2) only gave up four goals per contest, the best in the nation, and also ranked first in man-down defense. However, in its last contest, Binghamton’s defense proved penetrable as Syracuse netted 16 goals. The Orange, however, is ranked No. 2 in the country while Binghamton has floated just outside of the top-20 all season.

For Red, It’s Denver in Dallas

Cory Bennett — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Dallas. Cornell. Lacrosse.

Dallas is undoubtedly the word that jumps out as not fitting in on that list. But this week, all three will come together as the men’s lacrosse team heads to Dallas to take on Denver in a neutral site game at Highland Park High School. After returning to East Hill, the Red will kick of its Ivy season against Yale.

For Cornell, the Denver game has been a game several years in the works.

“The reality of the situation is we agreed to play them two years ago and then we got Duke on the schedule and asked if we could differ it a year if we could guarantee the Denver coach that we would play them this year,” said head coach Jeff Tambroni.

Passion Plays Into M. Lax Home Win

Cory Bennett — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0400

For the first time this year, the statistical dominance that was obvious almost every game last year for the men’s lacrosse team was present again in the Red’s 14-3 victory over Canisius yesterday afternoon. But what caused the statistical dominance wasn’t the traditional stat sheet fair.

“Overall as a team, we played with more passion, which is what we needed,” said senior John Espey, who led the Red in scoring with two goals and two assists.

Love and Basketball