The Cornell men’s lacrosse team travelled down to West Palm Beach, Fla. this past weekend to play its annual match against Hobart. The Red came away with 10-8 victory in front of 2,000 fans to extend its winning streak against the Statesmen to 12 straight games.
Freshman attack Colton Rupp had two of the Red’s 10 goals in the match.
“Since we’re a very young team, it was great getting the win,” Rupp said. “It was a great confidence booster for us definitely to get the first win.”
Seventeen of the team’s 45 members are freshmen. With such a young team, it is essential that the team’s upperclassmen be active in helping these freshmen transition to college lacrosse.
Rupp views senior midfielder John Edmonds as one of these mentors.
“It’s nice playing with senior John Edmonds,” he said. “He’s really shown us the way, and all the seniors have shown us what college lacrosse is like and how hard we work here, and it’s just been a great opportunity and really exciting so far.”
Edmonds, who had two goals and two assists in the game, emphasized the great progress the freshmen — most notably Rupp and freshman attack Ryan Bray — have already had this season.
“I think they’ve really done a great job adapting to the change of college lacrosse,” he said. “They’ve picked it up extremely quick, and they continue every day to get better and better, which is extremely impressive.”
Edmonds also mentioned that the team’s greatest strength in the game was defense.
“I think what went well against Hobart was our defense,” he said. “I thought [senior goalie] Brennan Donville played an outstanding game.”
Donville collected eight saves in the win, his second straight game notching at least that many.
The match marked the first time Hobart and Cornell had played each other in Florida in the 137-year history of the rivalry, which is the oldest rivalry in collegiate lacrosse.
“It was a good bonding experience for the team, playing together and hanging out in the hotel,” Rupp said. “We ended up getting the win which made the trip that much better.”
Edmonds agreed, speaking highly of the opportunity to get to play in the Sunshine State.
“There is a growing fan base of lacrosse, and I think the environment … was really cool,” he said. “I think we were all definitely excited to play there and really satisfied with the turnout and fans and the play of both teams.”
The Red (1-1) now focuses its attention on No. 16 Albany — who the Red play this Saturday in Albany, N.Y.
When asked about the team’s season goals at this point, Rupp emphasized that the team does not like to look at the season as a whole.
“Our team goals are obviously to win every game, so I think we’re just going to take it game by game and try to win every game, week by week and keep working our hardest at practice,” he said. “I think good things will come.”