Cornell vs Virginia

scoop85 · May 23, 2009, 05:35:47 PM

[quote scoop85]Best recipe for a Cornell win: Virginia is the most skilled team in the game today, but after seeing parts of their two losses to Duke earlier this year, they seemed to deflate quickly when Duke got up by a few goals. If we can get off to a fast start like the past two games, we can use our physicality and hope to control the FO's and ground balls.[/quote]

Well, faceoffs were fairly neutral (Glynn kept getting pushed from behind with no calls), and we did pretty well on ground balls. The big thing to me was how, as in the Duke games, Virginia simply had no swagger when falling behind. I guess all those blue chippers Starsia collects simply don't know how to handle adversity :-P

David Harding · May 23, 2009, 05:45:07 PM

Demoralizing goalkeeping! Save percentages according to GameTracker
Myers 7/13 = 54%
Ghitelman 5/20 = 25%

TimV · May 23, 2009, 05:48:21 PM

[quote scoop85] I guess all those blue chippers Starsia collects simply don't know how to handle adversity :-P[/quote]

Scoop, that may be the best analysis of the day.

Dave- Not "All you're (Ghittleman's) fault." Many point-blank shots from in close and defensive mistakes. Great game by Red, any chance we can do it twice?

jtwcornell91 · May 23, 2009, 06:37:54 PM

About the only thing that went wrong was a few too many offsides.

Couldn't believe how long UVa took to get agressive on D. We absolutely destroyed them with those long posessions, and they overcompensated with the three 1-minute penalties with a couple of minutes to go (and still couldn't get a whistle).

Josh '99 · May 23, 2009, 09:06:34 PM

I am sunburned but otherwise quite happy. Great game by the boys. See you folks on Monday!

French Rage · May 23, 2009, 09:36:49 PM

[quote billhoward]Weekly pick 'em of a dozen Inside Lacrosse experts is unanimous on outcome of Cornell-Virginia game. http://blogs.insidelacrosse.com/2009/05/22/warrior-may-madness-inside-lacrosse-staff-pick-em-ncaa-championship-weekend-edition/[/quote]

Everyone got at least one wrong.

RichH · May 23, 2009, 10:26:38 PM

[quote me]While I don't give us a great chance tomorrow, I still give us a chance.[/quote]

Hee. Heheheheheheeeeee! :-D ::crazy:: **]

I don't think anybody expected what we saw today. The stat sheet just tells a different story than the game played out. Pretty much equal in faceoffs & ground balls, the game was just an absolutely *surgical* effort by the Big Red. Time of possession told the real story. All the parts were working together. When the opponent thought they knew what to cover, we showed them another facet. And the discipline. Just a superb day all around.

One of the biggest moments of "oh my god, this is actually happening" was when there was a whistle for a turnover about a second before the ball went into the net. The UVA section didn't realize it didn't count and got up and got loud as we were given the ball and marched down to score. Instead of cutting the lead to 5, UVA found themselves down 7.

Suddenly, *we* were the cool kids that everyone wanted to hang out with on hospitality row. I think the only way to describe the mood at the post-game tailgate was just that everyone was in a state of elated shock.

Holy shit. We're playing for the National Championship on Monday. ::panic::
LET'S GO RED!

Liz98 · May 23, 2009, 11:19:44 PM

I had to follow via blog due to a prior commitment; if you haven't seen it yet you might enjoy http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=4201121

I like the quote about the band after the 2nd goal:
"The Big Red's band really is a nice touch for celebrating.

Oh, and there it goes again with "Give My Regards To Davy" (that's Cornell's fight song, to the tune of "Give My Regards To Broadway") as Jonathan Thomson scored for the Big Red to make it 2-0 with 10 minutes, 38 seconds to go in the quarter."

David Harding · May 23, 2009, 11:24:04 PM

[quote TimV][quote scoop85] I guess all those blue chippers Starsia collects simply don't know how to handle adversity :-P[/quote]

Scoop, that may be the best analysis of the day.

Dave- Not "All your (Ghitelman's) fault." Many point-blank shots from in close and defensive mistakes. Great game by Red, any chance we can do it twice?[/quote]I agree. Shot quality counts. Flip the save percentages with the same SOG and it's a 10-9 game. But I would also claim that Myers had a couple of fine saves. If Ghitelman had been able to come up with a couple of heroic saves early, UVA would not have had the wind let out of their cocky sails and would have been more dangerous. That's why I used the word demoralizing.

imafrshmn · May 23, 2009, 11:46:33 PM

NY Times article

Quote from: Pete Thamel, NY TimesIf there was a soundtrack for Starsia's nightmare afternoon, it would be that of the Cornell band playing the university's fight song, "Give My Regards to Davy."

kingpin248 · May 24, 2009, 12:19:52 AM

Another quote about the band, from the Inside Lacrosse blog:

"[EDITORIAL NOTE: Enjoying the heck out of the Cornell band. Makes this feel less "stadium rockin" and much more collegiate. Not that I don't love an AC/DC riff every so often.]"

billhoward · May 24, 2009, 01:13:21 AM

After so many years of almosts both in lacrosse and hockey, it feels so good to be in the title game, not just the final four or in the NCAAs at all.

Rob Pannell went 3-3 and Jake Myers was super-sharp. Collectively, Cornell outhustled Virginia by an amazing margin. The player of the game may be the coaching staff. They got Cornell properly prepared to win a seemingly unwinnable game and Cornell did it handily.

Did anybody really think it was over until midway through the fourth? Virginia probably had a sneaking suspicion at halftime, but we showed two years ago against Duke that no lead is safe. And that gave the game a sense of closeness even with 5- and 6-goal leads in the second half.

Pannell was so impressive with his ball handling last week against Princeton. Virginia had him backed into the corner, he absorbed slashes to the arm, initially no flag, so he appeared to lift his arm to give Virginia a better target, drew another slash, and finally it was so obvious first one flag flew and then a second.

After that, Dom Starsia's timeout to settle Virginia with two minutes left kept our game from degrading to the level Duke took the first game. For that he deserves credit.

Second weekend in a row with rain predicted and it turned out to be perfect weather. A bit cool and that, as the announcers noted a couple times, favored Cornell. That must be it: It wasn't the coaches, Pannell, Rocco Romero, Matt Moyer, or Myers that was the margin of victory. It was temps in the sixties that Virginia couldn't handle.

If the coaches prepared Cornell to perfection vs. Virginia, can they do it a second time for Monday?

We'll be back Monday. It's great to see Richie Moran was there and cheerleading Cornell on to add to the three titles he won. If only George Boiardi, Eamon McEneaney, and Jay Gallagher could be in Foxborough, too.

RichH · May 24, 2009, 02:54:23 AM

[quote billhoward]It's great to see Richie Moran was there and cheerleading Cornell on to add to the three titles he won. If only George Boiardi, Eamon McEneaney, and Jay Gallagher could be in Foxborough, too.[/quote]

Look around the stands. They're there with us.