After a hard-fought battle against Harvard on April 28, men’s lacrosse earned the right to host the Ivy League Tournament on Saturday and Sunday. But Cornell also bought itself a rematch with No. 11 Harvard (9-5, 3-3 Ivy), a team looking for revenge.
It is never easy to play teams more than once per season, but Cornell found success with it last season, winning all five of its playoff rematches. However, it is much different playing the same team just six days later, with no new film to look at.
“It's more of a guessing game than you would think,” said head coach Connor Buczek ’15 MBA ’17. “It's a different type of prep where you're spending a lot of time really tearing apart one film.”
In a lot of ways, the two games felt alike, with high stakes and grey weather. However, this game was a high-scoring whirlwind compared to the slugfest that was won by Cornell on ground balls last week.
No. 6 Cornell (11-3, 5-1 Ivy), blew out Harvard by a score of 17-8 in the first game of the Ivy League Tournament on Saturday.
“We built it from that first whistle. That's a great team, and they fought back at points,” Buczek said. “I felt better than we did last week. We were able to keep that team at bay in terms of their offense and able to create some opportunity for us on the offensive end.”
Harvard opened with a man-up goal that was quickly answered by five straight goals from Cornell. The run included highlights of a beautiful jumpshot from junior attackman Willem Firth and a stepdown pole goal from senior defender Brendan Staub.
Harvard got one back before the end of the quarter but was immediately answered by a high bouncer from senior faceoff Jack Cascadden off of the ensuing faceoff. Cornell took a commanding 6-2 lead into the second quarter, thanks to Cascadden who won seven of eight faceoffs, momentum he would carry throughout the whole game.
Harvard started chipping away at the lead, scoring 30 seconds into the quarter and again five minutes later. But Cornell responded with a pass from junior attackman Ryan Goldstein, finding its way through traffic to the wide open Firth, who scored.
Cascadden won the ensuing faceoff, creating a transition chance that freshman attackman Rowyn Nurry cashed in through the legs of the Harvard goalie. After three straight Harvard turnovers, Firth added with a tight-angle, weak-handed shot.
Another turnover from Harvard gave Cornell a chance with 13 seconds to go and Firth beat the buzzer. Cornell went into the half with a dominant 10-4 lead.
The Red took down the Crimson with a commanding effort.
The second half would not go much better for Harvard.
Cascadden won the faceoff and senior midfielder Ryan Waldman shot around his defender for a goal. Then, junior midfielder AJ Nikolic scored his first goal since returning from injury, putting Cornell ahead by eight.
“For us to have [Waldman] back in the lineup is a really cool spark for us,” Buczek said. “Certainly a guy that's working himself back into comfortability out there, but I think we start to see him find his stride.”
Harvard squeaked one back on a high bouncer and scored again in transition. Senior midfielder Brian Luzzi brought the momentum back to Cornell, putting his defender through the spin cycle and scoring top shelf. Nikolic scored again and the Red led 14-6 going into the final frame.
With Harvard getting dominated on faceoffs, stifled on offense and overpowered on defense, the game was all but over when Cornell extended the run to five.
Cornell rotated in its depth down the stretch, and the game ended with a score of 17-8.
“This group's really shown they can play any style of game,” Buczek said “I think today being a rather complete game is an exciting jumping off point, you want to be peaking in May.”
Cascadden was phenomenal for Cornell, winning 18 of 24 faceoffs for 75%, scoring and laying a man out. Cascadden winning extra possessions has been key for the Red all year, and was the reason that this game was a blowout rather than a nailbiter.
“Kudos to Jack [Cascadden] for winning the lion's share of the face-offs and creating opportunity for us,” Buczek said.
A lot of faceoffs see the game as a chess match, but Cascadden simply goes out and tries to win it clean every time.
“I like winning faceoffs,” Cascadden said.
As usual, Firth led the way on offense with six goals and eight points. Goldstein collected six points of his own.
“[Firth] sets the tone for what we do on offense,” Buczek said. “Poised in his shot selection and disciplined, he's a great shooter.”
The Red defense was tremendous. The short stick defensive midfielders have been fantastic for Cornell all year, and the poles also completely shut down Harvard’s best attackmen. Junior goalkeeper Matt Tully backed it up with 11 saves on 18 shots for a 61% save percentage.
With the win, Cornell advances to the Ivy League Championship game at 1 p.m. on Sunday at Schoellkopf Field. Cornell will face No. 2 Princeton (12-2, 5-1 Ivy), who took down No. 9 Yale (9-5, 4-2 Ivy) on the other side of the Ivy League tournament bracket.
A victory over Princeton would secure the Ivy League Men’s Lacrosse Tournament championship for the Red.
Coverage will be available on ESPNU.
