[OT] Lacrosse preview

I'm guessing Cornell's scheduled scrimmage with Johns Hopkins this morning at Homewood was cancelled. Intense rain and snow meltoff have brought flash flood warnings throughout the Chesapeake watershed.

Too bad. That means there's been little prep time, as usual, before next weekend's tough non-conference opener against Georgetown (although at least this time the opponent will be rusty too, what with all the snow down here, and the fact that GU's scheduled opener with Maryland was also a casualty). This is the last year of a funky two-game, neutral-site series against the Hoyas. This time the "neutral" site is the Carrier Dome, which is hosting a great lax doubleheader on Saturday afternoon/evening, March 1. First you get the Virginia-Syracuse game at 3:00, then you get Cornell-Georgetown at approximately 6:00. Yeah, the CU-GU game conflicts with the hockey game at Yale at 7:00, but since the hockey game is being telecast on NESN and YES, I say arrange for it to get taped, and drive to the Dome. A rare chance to watch UVa and Johnny Christmas up north may be worth it alone.

There are plenty of reasons to feel OK about the 2003 CU lax team. Two excellent close defenders are back (World Games MVP McClay and the underappreciated DeBlois). Wunderkinds Greenhalgh (crease attack) and Redd (dodging offensive middie) are also back. Midfield, both offensive and defensive, is deeper and bigger than in years, thanks to a good recruiting class (check out Boulukos from LI and D'Arrigo from CNY). There are a coupla interesting transfers, particularly Junior attackman Dave Pittard, a Naval Academy refugee from Skaneatelas with size and good feeding instincts. And the coaching staff got a boost when Tambroni's bud from West Genny, former Hofstra defensive assistant Bill Wilson, joined the staff.

Princeton is still, by far, the best team in the Ivy League. First place is out of the question, IMO. But thanks to an expanded, 16-team NCAA tourney field, the odds facing second-place finishers are more forgiving (even with the addition of more conference AQs). Cornell's schedule was upgraded when UMBC was replaced with Hofstra. And some League opponents suffered offseason setbacks, including Brown (an epidemic of bizarre early departures including brilliant middie and NFL prospect Gessner), Penn (yet another coaching change and a great goalie lost for academic reasons), and Yale (former CU assistant Waldvogel ...uh... "departed" and a tragic injury to starting goalie).

But there's a cloud hanging over Cornell too ... the whole school, not just the lacrosse team. As many of you may already know, sophomore goalie Kyle Miller, a talented Canadian on track to start next week, was recently diagnosed with bone cancer. There was an article about this in the Ithaca Journal, but I can't find the link. This is still raw--it only happened weeks ago, I think. It's a cruel thing. I find this kind of news much harder to get process now that I have a child.

For the last 30+ years, when February winds down, I usually find myself playing ridiculously childish and superstitious games in my head to pass the time, imagining Cornell advancing to Final Fours in hockey and lax (admit it, you do it too). I'm not doing that as much as usual. I keep thinking about that boy, and hoping that his suffering during treatment will be minimal. Here's to getting back to school soon, KM.

Oops. It turns out that they DID play that Hopkins-Cornell scrimmage in Baltimore. We wuz spanked, according to a poster on the laxpower forum. A ten-goal deficit at halftime, it is reported. Oh well, at least they got their feet wet. Very wet.