M. Lax Tries to Bounce Back

Don’t be fooled by the combination of colors that will be streaking across Schoellkopf Field tomorrow — it’s not a Christmas performance of The Nutcracker. Actually, it will be the men’s lacrosse team facing off against the Dartmouth Green. The Red’s third match-up this week will be the first of three straight Ivy League contests.
“One aspect is that we have time to think about the mistakes we made in the Syracuse game and how we are going to improve and apply that to the Dartmouth game,” said senior Danny Nathan. “We made some mistakes this week, and we can grow and we can learn from them.”
After a difficult, but eye-opening, loss to Syracuse on Tuesday night, the Red knows what it needs to do in order to win this weekend. Although the squad is not short on talented athletes this season, the men have struggled to play with spark and energy for an entire game. Against many of the teams it has faced, the Red managed to win despite this flaw.[img_assist|nid=29735|title=Fly me to the moon|desc=Senior co-captain John Glynn (20) races past a Syracuse defender in the Red’s 15-8 loss this past Tuesday.|link=node|align=left|width=|height=0]
Against a top-ranked team like Syracuse, however, it fell short of the mark. Tomorrow, the Red is intent on kicking this bad habit and coming away with a victory.
“We’re not where we need to be,” said junior Max Seibald. “We have a lot of potential, and we’re showing spurts of it. We show spurts that we can hang with anyone at any time, but we haven’t gotten to that point where we can do it for a full 60 minutes and that’s what we have to do to compete with the top teams in the nation.”
Dartmouth has been somewhat inconsistent this season, suffering two losses in Ivy League play to Brown and Penn. However, last season’s young and inexperienced team is starting to come into its own. Skilled sophomore Ari Sussman, who earned team and Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors last season, leads the Green offense.
Cornell expects to take on a more mature Dartmouth squad that is looking to prove itself in the Ivy League.
“They [Dartmouth] are a very talented team,” Nathan said. “They are extremely team-oriented and they are well-coached, so I know they will be a tough Ivy League opponent. We need to be prepared for their athleticism and their skills.”
With four games left in the regular season, tomorrow is a crucial chance for the Red to rebound from its loss to Syracuse and continue its winning streak in the Ivies. Playing unselfish lacrosse for a full 60 minutes is the goal this weekend — the Red knows if it can accomplish this task, they can defeat the Big Green.
“Now we have our backs against the wall a little bit.” Seibald said. “We had a tough loss, and we want to bounce back strong. We believe that when we are excited we are at our best and we don’t play selfish and we make plays. We just need to bring that excitement that we had to play against Dartmouth.”