Cornell lacrosse 2018

[CU77]

Cornell @ Lehigh is on the CBS Sports Network at 2:30 PM Saturday.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Cornell @ Lehigh is on the CBS Sports Network at 2:30 PM Saturday.

Figures.  First Cornell game on TV in a while and I'll be there in person.

[billhoward]

Gorgeous 80-degree day at Lehigh. Connor Bullen in goal. Cornell has trouble on faceoffs throughout the first period. Lehigh gets the first goal, tied through 2-2 then Cornell starts to pull away. Gets to 4-2 Cornell after the first.

Gets to 6-2 early in the second before there's a Cornell score that isn't assisted or scored by Jeff Teat. Teat is 1-4. It's as if Teat looks up, sees a cutter, bam - pass, shot, goal. Cornell doing a little better on faceoffs. Lehigh switches to a zone, cuts to 6-3 on on its second man-up goal; the Hawks are deadly there. Cornell kind of stutterd through its man-ups and didn't score. A couple turnovers hurt Cornell's offensive efficiencies, half ends 6-4 Cornell. So far Lehigh is 2x2 on man-up; Cornell 0x2. Cornell is 4x12 on faceoffs.

Third period Cornell does a little better on faceoffs (now 6x18) in part by scrums for control after the ball pops away from the circle. Cornell now has 2 man-up goals, one a breakaway pass to Teat (yeah, kind of odd getting a breakaway on your own man-up) that leaves Teat and the goalie alone at the circle. Teat wins (now 2G, 4A). But Cornell still hasn't pulled away.

Fourth quarter Cornell slows down, Lehigh continues its magic on FOs and EMOs. Lehigh's Lucas Spence gets an amazing behind the back goal with < a minute to cut to 12-10 but Lehigh fails on a close shot (after controlling another faceoff) and it ends 12-10.

Lehigh's 3x3 on EMO seems like the second best opponent single-measure advantage over Cornell this year after Albany's faceoff mastery. Lehigh was more than okay on faceoffs, too, 18x25. Cornell was 2x5 on EMO and also gave up a late man-short goal. Cornell did seem to do well on ground ball scrums. If I have my stats right, each half 6 Cornell goals and Teat has only 1 second-half point, meaning either Lehigh did a better job defending Teat or their concentrating on Teat left Donville, Petterson et al more open.

Maybe this was a letdown after taking down Syracuse. The week's two wins hopefully move Cornell from #11 (USILA) into the top 10. #4 Duke beat #10 Virginia 18-13 and Penn State upset #5 Johns Hopkins 14-12. I believe rest of the top 10 won Saturday, #3 Albany DNP, #1 Maryland hosts #7 Rutgers Sunday.

In the Ivies, #8 Yale clobbered Brown 27-15 and Princeton woke from its 2018 semi-slumber with a 24-13 thrashing of Dartmouth. (Could Princeton be peaking for our game 4/28, at Cornell?) Penn broke open a one-goal game to lead Harvard 10-7 with 2:00 to play (final 11-7; Harvard can't score at the end with a 2-man advantage).

Next week: Brown at Cornell, followed by Princeton, then the Ivy playoffs at Columbia. Cornell looks to be the 2-seed assuming we beat Brown or Princeton. Yale is unbeaten in Ivies, Cornell is 3-1.

Code Select Expand


Cornell  4  2  4  2  - 12
Lehigh   2  2  2  4  - 10

Teat       2  4  -  6
Donville   3  2  -  5
Petterson  4  0  -  4
Bullen     10GA, 10SV
Lehigh     12GA,  5SV (says the Lehigh stats)
Cor shots  23
Leh shots  32


[mike1960]

Jeff Teat is so creative and effective. Bullen doing a great job in goal. Faceoffs not great but not terrible. Man-up offense looks flat-footed.

[upprdeck]

If cornell could figure out the EM stuff they would be deadly.  strange for a team that passes so well and score so much to struggle when up a man.

[billhoward]

If cornell could figure out the EM stuff they would be deadly.  strange for a team that passes so well and score so much to struggle when up a man.

Almost as if Cornell should decline the man-up opportunity. Maybe Cornell looks so-so in relation to Lehigh, which is on fire on EMO.

[mike1960]

If cornell could figure out the EM stuff they would be deadly.  strange for a team that passes so well and score so much to struggle when up a man.

Almost as if Cornell should decline the man-up opportunity. Maybe Cornell looks so-so in relation to Lehigh, which is on fire on EMO.

That is Lehigh's strength. The D needs to avoid penalties this half. Our defense has played really well, energetic on the switches and opportunistic. Only a single lapse that resulted in a slam dunk in front of the goal. Raz needs to settle down when he wins the faceoff and has the ball in his cross. He has made two turnovers from anxious passes.

[mike1960]

You hang it, we'll bang it.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

At first, we looked unstoppable when we had the ball (crappy faceoffs notwithstanding).  That is, up until the mid-2nd.  Then Lehigh switched up their defense, and all of a sudden we looked sloppy as all hell, with lots of bad passes and turnovers.  

Our defense looked good but not great, Our offense looked ordinary in the 2nd half.  Frankly, Bullen saved our bacon on this one.  He made some great saves.

[JasonN95]

Penn St and Syracuse both win, hopefully raising the value of Cornell's wins over them as far as quality wins go. Colgate lost, making that loss worse. I thought Cornell looked a bit nonchalant at the end of the game with only a three goal lead (I recall Teat throwing the ball up with about a minute left --to me it seemed like he was acting as though the ball going back to Colgate was no big whoop.)  Maybe the stumbling to the win is some ammo for the coaches to sober up the team and not get too smitten with their own press.

[CU77]

I don't think they were overconfident, I think they were tired. It's been a long slog of 3 tough games in 8 days.

[CU77]

ILT possibilities, assuming Dartmouth doesn't manage to upset either Penn or Brown:

B>C Pr>H Pe>D B>D Pr>C Y>H:  Y,B,(C,Pe,Pr)
B>C Pr>H Pe>D B>D Pr>C H>Y:  Y,B,(C,Pe,Pr)
B>C Pr>H Pe>D B>D C>Pr Y>H:  Y,B,C,Pe
B>C Pr>H Pe>D B>D C>Pr H>Y:  Y,B,C,Pe

B>C H>Pr Pe>D B>D Pr>C Y>H:  Y,B,C,Pe
B>C H>Pr Pe>D B>D Pr>C H>Y:  Y,H,B,C
B>C H>Pr Pe>D B>D C>Pr Y>H:  Y,B,C,Pe
B>C H>Pr Pe>D B>D C>Pr H>Y:  Y,H,B,C

C>B Pr>H Pe>D B>D Pr>C Y>H:  Y,C,B,Pe
C>B Pr>H Pe>D B>D Pr>C H>Y:  Y,C,B,Pe
C>B Pr>H Pe>D B>D C>Pr Y>H:  Y,C,B,Pe
C>B Pr>H Pe>D B>D C>Pr H>Y:  Y,C,H,B

C>B H>Pr Pe>D B>D Pr>C Y>H:  Y,C,(B,H,Pe)
C>B H>Pr Pe>D B>D Pr>C H>Y:  Y,C,H,B
C>B H>Pr Pe>D B>D C>Pr Y>H:  Y,C,(B,H,Pe)
C>B H>Pr Pe>D B>D C>Pr H>Y:  Y,C,H,B

Summary: Yale has clinched the #1 seed. A Cornell win over Brown will clinch the #2 seed. There is still a chance of being left out entirely if Cornell loses both remaining Ivy games. (Three teams in parentheses means there is a tie that will be broken by random draw.)

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Penn St and Syracuse both win, hopefully raising the value of Cornell's wins over them as far as quality wins go. Colgate lost, making that loss worse. I thought Cornell looked a bit nonchalant at the end of the game with only a three goal lead (I recall Teat throwing the ball up with about a minute left --to me it seemed like he was acting as though the ball going back to Colgate was no big whoop.)  Maybe the stumbling to the win is some ammo for the coaches to sober up the team and not get too smitten with their own press.

He did, but there was 3 seconds left on the shot clock, and there was a delayed penalty on Lehigh.  So his tossing the ball in the air wasn't critical.  We were getting it back.  Either he wanted a rest for the offense, or they wanted a change they couldn't make on the fly because of the shot clock.

[billhoward]

Yale has the 1-seed because it only has one Ivy game left, not two, it's unbeaten, and it holds the RS tiebreaker vs. Cornell. Next week Yale hosts Albany.

[KenP]

Cornell is up three spots to #6:  http://www.insidelacrosse.com/league/di/polls/18