ELynah Forum

Cornell won, 3-2.
Cornell picked to finish tied for last in Ivies with Yale in preseason poll.

Cornell is surprisingly picked to tie with Princeton for fifth place in the Ivy League preseason poll, with Brown just one point behind. There's a huge gap between the top half and the bottom half of the league. Yale is the heavy favorite to win the title.
I can't remember the last time Cornell was picked this high.

Harvard gets lots of positive press in this article in The Athletic.
My favorite part of it, though, was this reader comment:
"On May 7, longtime Crimson coach Ted Donato announced that he would step away at the conclusion of the academic calendar, leaving behind a winning NCAA legacy and a wide NHL footprint."
What does this mean — leaving behind a wide NHL footprint?
By the way, coach has won 53 percent of his games and no NCAA titles. Is "legendary" the word we want in the headline? Or is that just default now for sportswriters? Whatever for clicks?

I didn't think this warranted a new thread, but it's worth noting that a donor has given Richmond $10 million to build a dedicated lacrosse facility. That program has already become an established national power. This promises to keep it up there.

After the semifinals, some Syracuse fans were complaining in a Facebook thread about all of the rich prep school kids on Princeton's roster, while noting that their players mostly came from public schools. Out of curiosity, I took at look at the Princeton roster and counted 35 of their 51 players as coming from private schools. That's nearly 70 percent.
If someone wants to  do a similar survey of the Syracuse roster, go for it!
In any case, does it matter?

Yale's new coach sounds confident of ending team's streak of losing seasons.
"This team is going to be good," Hamilton said. "I believe that, and they believe that. It is going to be hard work, and it is going to be a lot of work. It is going to be holding players accountable when it is uncomfortable, but the talent is there. Our staff certainly believes that.
"I don't think it is going to be long. It is going to be a lot of hard work, but Yale hockey will be back on the map soon."

Not that it's any consolation, but we weren't the only home team to lose a first-round game. Richmond lost to Duke, and Virginia lost to Georgetown. Syracuse nearly lost to Yale.

Hopkins shut us down even though it was missing one of its top defenders, who was in crutches on sidelines.
Cornell had chances to blow the game open in first half when we were winning every faceoff. But too many turnovers and poor offensive possessions. It's not like we ran into a hot goalie.

Quote from: stereax on May 07, 2026, 05:46:55 PM

Quote from: stereax on May 07, 2026, 05:46:16 PMAre my eyes deceiving me or does this read that Donato got canned?

Holy shit

Apparently losing to Cornell four times in one season was too much to bear.

It's hard to believe we haven't played Hopkins in 39 years.
In the 1970s, this was one of the big rivalries in men's lacrosse, as documented so ably in Christian Swezey's book, "We Showed Baltimore."
At one point during the '70s, we beat Hopkins five straight times, including in the 1977 championship game. Hopkins avenged that loss and ended our record 42-game win streak by beating us in the 1978 title game. Hopkins also beat us by a heartbreaking one goal in the 1987 championship game at Rutgers, which I attended in person and was the last time we played them.
The Cornell-Hopkins rivalry drew some huge crowds in the '70s, both in Ithaca and in Baltimore.
The series itself dates all the way back to 1894, and Hopkins leads the all-time series, 16-6, with one tie.
While this may not be the most favorable first-round matchup we could have drawn, it's nice to see another chapter being added to this once-storied rivalry.

Quote from: mike1960 on May 03, 2026, 05:17:41 PMI missed the game because of a family obligation. Looks like a good one to miss. How did they score 19 on our defense?

Quite easily.

No one beats Princeton nine times in a row! Or do they?

Cornell does well in the Ivy awards. Firth and Cascadden named Player of the Year at their respective positions, while the coaching staff wins that award.
Firth, Cascadden and Staub  unanimous All-Ivy First Team, while Goldstein, Tully, Rahill and Dooley earn second-team honors.

Quote from: rss77 on April 28, 2026, 06:52:31 PMAny one have a report on the Spring game played this past Friday?

Cornell won.

Quote from: jjanow99 on April 19, 2026, 09:02:03 PM

Quote from: billhoward on April 19, 2026, 08:09:31 PMMay 19, 1976, NCAA Quarterfinals
Cornell 14, Washington & Lee 0
Goaltender, Dan Mackesey '76

This was the first of Cornell's back to back championships. The title game is notable because the match versus Maryland ended a 12-12 tie, Cornell won 16-13 in overtime, and Maryland scored the first goal. At the time, the NCAA realized any one lacrosse goal can be fluky, so play 5 minutes.

Dan Mackesey Ithaca High '72

Mackesey was also the starting goalie for the men's soccer team. Those were the days when it was more common for star athletes to play two sports. Brock Tredway, for example, was a star hockey player for Cornell in the late '70s who also was on the soccer team.