Today a pair of central New York teams will make their second attempts at getting in the win column this season when the men’s lacrosse squad (0-1, 0-0 Ivy) visits Colgate (0-1, 0-0 Patriot). Game time is 4:00 at Tyler’s Field.
Last year’s match between Cornell and the Raiders was the Red’s home opener, after being postponed due to snow. The game resulted in a 18-7 Cornell win, highlighted by a 10-0 first quarter. Senior attacker Scott Lee and Drew Schardt ’01 each tallied four goals in the match.
“Last year’s game may be a revenge factor in their minds,” head coach Jeff Tambroni said.
The Red is coming off a disappointing 8-5 loss against Georgetown to open the season. Although Cornell played the Hoyas closely well into the third quarter, a 4-0 Georgetown run put the Red in a deep hole which it was unable to climb out of.
“It was very disappointing because of all the hard work we put in,” senior captain Josh Heller stated. “We didn’t show what we were capable of.”
Senior preseason All-American goaltender Justin Cynar kept Cornell in the game with a 13-save effort. Eleven of those stops came in the first half.
“[We were] probably not in the game without Justin Cynar,” Tambroni said. “It was a typical game for him.”
Senior Galen Beers and freshman Sean Greenhalgh each scored a pair of goals in the game, which was held at Johns Hopkins. Freshman Justin Redd added the fifth goal.
On the other sideline, Colgate is coming off an 11-4 loss at the hands of Dartmouth. Four different players had their names on the scoresheet for the Raiders, including senior captain Ian Franke. His classmate Chris Hettler made 10 saves on the day.
First-year coach Jim Nagle is on the sidelines for Colgate, and although he shows a good deal of promise in leading the Raiders, the squad is still inexperienced.
“They’re in a rebuilding stage. They have a brand new coach, and he’ll do a good job with them,” said Tambroni, who is in his second year at the helm of the Red.
Nagle, who previously piloted Oneonta, replaced Dan Whelan, who led the Raiders for six years.
The match against Nagle’s club will be a good early-season indicator of where Cornell stands as it continues a five-game non-conference stretch of games.
“It’s a good early season test to see if we can get out of a hole,” noted Tambroni. “We need to try to get back to playing Cornell lacrosse.”
“Colgate always plays us well,” remarked Heller. “They come out and play hard.”
Archived article by Alex Fineman