OT: Lax

ugarte · March 03, 2003, 12:37:07 PM

I saw that we lost our opener against Georgetown on Saturday. ( http://cornellbigred.ocsn.com/sports/m-lacros/recaps/030103aaa.html ) 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?

Ben Doyle 03 · March 03, 2003, 02:15:38 PM

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 ::yark::! 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. ::screwy::

curoadkill · March 03, 2003, 02:36:55 PM

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.

Al DeFlorio · March 03, 2003, 07:07:48 PM

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

Hillel · March 04, 2003, 12:06:29 PM

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.

Al DeFlorio · March 04, 2003, 06:08:18 PM

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

Hillel · March 04, 2003, 06:14:45 PM

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.

Ben Doyle 03 · March 04, 2003, 06:34:52 PM

:-/ :-/ 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.

Greg Berge · March 04, 2003, 06:47:08 PM

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?

jeh25 · March 04, 2003, 09:22:40 PM

Greg wrote:

Quotehow 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.

jeh25 · March 04, 2003, 09:37:08 PM

Found the Duke v. Hofstra bit.

http://forums.laxpower.com/read.php?f=1&i=26497&t=26443

http://forums.laxpower.com/read.php?f=1&i=26875&t=26852

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

http://forums.laxpower.com/read.php?f=1&i=26700&t=26654

DeltaOne81 · March 04, 2003, 10:31:02 PM

[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.

jtwcornell91 · March 04, 2003, 11:12:31 PM

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.

Hillel · March 04, 2003, 11:41:56 PM

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.

kingpin248 · March 08, 2003, 01:41:46 PM

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 http://www.hofstra.edu/Athletics/index_Athletics.cfm

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

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