OT: Lax

I saw that we lost our opener against Georgetown on Saturday. ( [cornellbigred.ocsn.com] ) I also noticed, much to my surprise, that Greenhalgh didn't figure in the scoring. Is he hurt or was he just marked very well?

BRA - Our boys held their own in the first half but did not deserve to be on the same field in the second. At the half we were up 3-2 (I think) and being out shot 2:1 (29-14). It also wasn't helping that we couldn't win a face off as Georgetown was up in that department as well (5-2). Things only got worse, much worse and the game ended with G'town taking the shot total 45-21 and face offs 18-5, scoring 11 second half goals to our 3. Greenhalgh was dressed as were almost all others that could have been but the system was ugly, very ugly ! Stand around (1-4-1 and 1-3-2) one-on-one crap with no off-ball movement at all. G'town was very quick to adjust and the slides came early and often. We made no such adjustment and therefore lost by a ton.

BTW, the UVA v. Syracuse game was a much better played game. The UVA defense shut down MIke Powell holding him to just two assists on the day. You would think that a team that wins eight national championships could find a goalie. . .Jay Pfeifer is the worst D1 lax goalie I've seen in a long time.

In other lax news, the ninth ranked women soundly defeated sixth ranked Notre Dame yesterday 13-5. The weather seemed to be bothering the Irish all game long and by the second half it was all Red. Cornell outscored ND 7-1 in the second, allowing a goal with 4 seconds to go.

The women have now won 13 in a row at home.

The consistent word on the laxpower forum is that our offense lacks any imagination.

I'm not that worried about the offense. It'll never be explosive, but I think it will come around. Many new faces (Pittard, Boulukos, D'Arrigo); some people exploring different positions (Collins?); some injury rust (Nee, Greenhalgh, Rosenberger); some expected sophomore turbidity (Greenhalgh, Redd).

What worries me is the face-off situation. Cornell may never see as formidable a presence at the X as they saw in Georgetown's Andy Corno (at least until they play Hobart and encounter Booth). But I'm not convinced that any of the guys on Tambroni's four-headed FO Committee -- soph Nelson, jr Riordan, fr D'Arrigo, and Fairfield transfer Rausch -- have what it takes for Cornell to survive against any decent team, especially this early in the season. This is a serious problem for an offense that, for now, needs every precious possession.

The Colgate game is scheduled for 4:00 today at Schoellkopf. Last year Cornell escaped Hamilton with a one-goal win. Colgate may not as dangerous as last year -- they lost their leading scorer when Parker transferred to apparent juggernaut Maryland -- but they are NOT the patsie of the old days. They may compete for the Patriot title with Hobart, Army, and others, and they could easily abort Cornell's season in the first trimester. It's an early gut check. Greenhalgh emerged in last year's Colgate game after "Georgetown Debacle, Episode One." We'll see if history repeats itself. Gulp.

Scoring the last four goals of the game, Cornell squeaks by Colgate, 8-7--at home.

Final score on Tuesday afternoon at Schoellkopf: Cornell 8 - Colgate 7.

A frightening game, as reported by Barry Leonard and company. Cornell didn't take the lead until about two minutes remained in the game. Colgate--one of the most improved DI programs in recent years--comes out aggressively builds a 3-0 lead by the end of the first quarter. Lots of unassisted goals, DeBlois torched on one assertive one-on-one move. Cornell apparently lethargic, unorganized, shell-schocked. Momentum begins to change in second quarter. Cornell hits three posts, but fails to close gap. Greenhalgh finally gets off the schneid, but it's 5-2 'Gate at the half. Second half looks better, and Cornell's shot margin quickly mounts to 2:1. Freshman D'Arrigo consistently winning faceoffs. After Cornell creeps within one, Colgate again takes a three-goal lead early in the fourth. Deflation. Then Junior Andrew Collins, the game's hero (was he involved in every goal?) starts a four-goal run that ends with his own game-winner after he snags the goalie's clearing attempt. Cornell runs out the clock, and it's the second one-goal victory over 'Gate in a row. Phew.

Still very, very ugly!

Positives: We finally won some face offs!

Negatives: B. Ross and our lack of offense. . . They are actually painful to watch and I'm not kidding. I don't know if Coach T thinks his last name has changed to Tierney b/c this team sure ain't no Princeton (but they're definitely trying to play like they are). If the Red are planning to win a game against a top ten team they'd better bet their act together.

The lax NCAA tourny was expanded too, right?

How many conferences have auto-bids, and how similar is the lax selection to the hockey system?

Greg wrote:

how similar is the lax selection to the hockey system?

Buncha guy sit in a smokey room, pick some teams, and then posthoc justify it using inconsistant application of poorly defined criteria. Be particularly afraid of the mysterious "quality win factor"

Last year I documented on laxpower.com how it was impossible for the committee to have selected the field using their predefined criteria. Just spent 20 minutes looking in the archive. If I find it, I'll post it.

BTW, at laxpower, I'm LynahFan, Al is gobigred, and jtw91cornell is JTW.

Found the Duke v. Hofstra bit.

[forums.laxpower.com]

[forums.laxpower.com]

And here is my Yale v. Hofstra comparison using NCAA selection criteria.

[forums.laxpower.com]

[Q]Buncha guy sit in a smokey room, pick some teams, and then posthoc justify it using inconsistant application of poorly defined criteria. Be particularly afraid of the mysterious "quality win factor"

Last year I documented on laxpower.com how it was impossible for the committee to have selected the field using their predefined criteria. Just spent 20 minutes looking in the archive. If I find it, I'll post it.[/Q]
This is why we should be incredibly suspicious of anything that's not completely and openly defined by the NCAA on hockey selection, and determinable ahead of time.

To split totally irrelevant hairs, it was possible to fit the committee's choice of Duke over Hofstra into their ill-defined criteria; it depends whether you consider 1-3/2-4/4-6 vs the top 5/10/15 to be better than 0-2/2-2/3-3. But then as LaxSwami pointed out, you would then have to ask why Yale didn't get chosen over Georgetown.

John H sez: "BTW, at laxpower, I'm LynahFan."

Mr. W sez: Oh, so YOU'RE the one who ate WNY Lax for breakfast last year.

Hofstra with a 2-0 lead, four minutes in today...it sounds like they're dominating possession early. Cornell with one shot off the post.

you can listen with a link from [www.hofstra.edu]

(there is no standard radio broadcast from Cornell's side)



Post Edited (03-08-03 13:44)

Hofstra's now up 7-0. It's sounding pretty ugly.

It's now 8-1

Hofstra continues to dominate, retaking a seven-goal lead. 12:56 to go.



Post Edited (03-08-03 15:10)

Make that an eight goal leadwith under ten to play. . .12-4

BTW, to answer Greg's questions - yes, the NCAA men's lax tournament is 16 teams this year. Seven conferences receive AQ's - America East, Colonial Athletic Association, ECAC, Great Western, Ivy, MAAC, and Patriot League.

It's finally over. The Big Red was sloppy all day. It seemed like every few minutes I heard the words "another Cornell turnover."

Hofstra is certainly a very good team, but this doesn't bode well for the rest of Cornell's season.

Losing the goalie to illness really hurt, but I don't think there's any excuse for the inability to score. Much of the offense is back and Nee is back from a season missed due to injury.

But how many faceoffs can we be winning without Sollog?

John E Hayes '98 '00 wrote:

> But how many faceoffs can we be winning without Sollog?
I don't think Sollog's departure was a surprise. Hofstra won 12 of 22 face-offs yesterday. Can't blame the loss on that.

Believe it or not, the face-off situation now appears healthier than I would've predicted now that they seem to have settled on freshman midfielder Joe D'Arrigo (the man who is currently leading the nation in the little-appreciated stat of "most ways last name is creatively butchered by radio and PA announcers" most of the time.

I haven't seen Cornell play yet--for now the only things I trust are first-hand reports from knowledgeable people like Ben (who has played the game). But given what I've heard from those who've seen this team play more than once, Cornell's struggles run deeper than the expected problems in goal and at the X. The problems seem to be profound, systemic, and perhaps terminal: Total disorganization on both sides of the stripe, stunningly sluggish starts, turnovers galore.

Maybe a lack of team speed may have been exposed. There have been injuries. And sure, the tragic situation with Miller was a major distraction. But NONE of these issues excuse the total meltdowns we've seen so far. If the situation continues into league competition--the Ivy opener is at Yale on Saturday the 22nd--then I think it's fair to be concerned about leadership at all levels.

We beat Canisius, and we are off the schneid.

[cornellbigred.ocsn.com]

Unfortunately, Cornell beating Canisius in lacrosse is like North Dakota beating them in hockey--cupcakes both, and neither much of a meal.

Penn State--which has beaten Yale, 17-15, and lost at Georgetown, 11-9--will be a better test of Cornell's competitiveness come Saturday.

From www.insidelacrosse.com:

[Q]
Penn State led the nation in man-down defense (87.7%) last year. The Lions return every defensive starter in addition
to a deep veteran midfield. Once again, this is a team that nobody will enjoy playing and could be grabbing one of the
16 slots in the NCAA Tournament. If so, they will be a formidable first-round opponent. [/Q]

The Nittany Lions are currently ranked #14 with a record of 1-2. Beating Fairfield 18-6 and losing to #9 Notre Dame 10-9 and #5 Georgetown 11-9.

Cornell Wins v. (unranked) Colgate & Canisius:

CU Offense AVG/GM: 13.5
CU Defense AVG/GM: 6.5
Face off winning %: 0.733
Shots: 49
Ground Balls: 40

Cornell Losses v. #5 Georgetown & #12 Hofstra:
CU Offense AVG/GM: 5.5
CU Defense AVG/GM: 13.0
Face off winning %: 0.300
Shots: 27
Ground Balls: 33


With our lack of offensive production against teams actually play defense, our boys might be in for another long day on the turf.
Question of the week: Which team shows up on Saturday???

Penn State beat Yale yesterday, 17-15.

Cornell overcame a 7-5 third-period deficit to beat Penn State 9-8 this afternoon. 18 saves for Brandon Ross.

Brandon was VERY solid in net today. Great job. The team seems to be finding their game lately. Next game against Yale should be quite a test.

With the Syracuse game in the Dome this year, our only ticket to the NCAAs might be the Ivy championship.

Edit: Speaking of the elusive Ivy championship, Princeton beat Hofstra today, 18-5.



Post Edited (03-15-03 17:00)

Winning the Ivy is going to be a taller task than in years past. Not only would we have to beat a very strong Princeton (unlikely) but we would also have to beat a Brown squad that will likely give us a very strong game (can't look past the boys from Yale either). I see the league coming down to Princeton, Brown, and the RED (assuming they keep their act together). Still a lot of room for improvement but a good win for the boys. Bring on the Bulldogs!

UMass 18, Brown 6 today. I don't think Gessner--our OT nemesis--is playing for Brown this year.

Harvard lost 10-7 to Fairfield, but Penn beat Army, 13-8.

Al DeFlorio wrote:

UMass 18, Brown 6 today. I don't think Gessner--our OT nemesis--is playing for Brown this year.

I thought Gessner was not playing lax this spring so he could focus on getting ready for NFL camp.

Someone on laxpower posted a 16-8 score, Cornell over Yale.

Edit: Princeton 11-10 over Syracuse; Penn 8-6 over Harvard; Loyola blasted Brown.



Post Edited (03-22-03 17:47)

It looks to me that Yale is still struggling in goal, with a combined eight saves from two goalies against sixteen goals on Saturday. Their projected starter was injured in that horrific SUV-vs.-truck crash on I-95, so they started the season in the same boat as Cornell--with the top goalie sidelined.