Cornell lacrosse 2022

[scoop85]

Unfortunately, if Blake's injury was as bad as it looked, I think it's a pretty significant downgrade of the ultimate ceiling of this team. :-/

Quite right. We don't have the evident depth to overcome the loss of one of our top 2 middies. Just the worst thing in what has been an awfully rough day.

[mike1960]

Tough loss. But a loss can be useful to motivate guys to work harder and be better for the final stretch.

[scoop85]

Tough loss. But a loss can be useful to motivate guys to work harder and be better for the last stretch.

True, but if Blake is gone for a long time or the season, all that may not really matter.

[mike1960]

Tough loss. But a loss can be useful to motivate guys to work harder and be better for the last stretch.

True, but if Blake is gone for a long time or the season, all that may not really matter.

He couldn't put weight on it, so it doesn't look good. We'll see. But it's next man up. Wirtheim is playing well.

Few thought Cornell would be this good this year. Maybe they improve a little more going forward.

[scoop85]

Tough loss. But a loss can be useful to motivate guys to work harder and be better for the last stretch.

True, but if Blake is gone for a long time or the season, all that may not really matter.

He couldn't put weight on it, so it doesn't look good. We'll see. But it's next man up. Wirtheim is playing well.

Few thought Cornell would be this good this year. Maybe they improve a little more going forward.

Overall I'm thrilled with how the season has gone, and we've beaten some really good teams. But the injuries may be catching up with us, and we'll need some guys to step in and elevate their game.  And we need to do a better job on ground balls, which historically has been a strength.

[arugula]

The whole league is looking remarkably good, particularly when you consider how mostly bad Ivy hockey was this year. Optimistic outlook: First loss in three years.

[semsox]

A post on FanLax mentioned it looked like Blake collided with a Penn player and/or had his foot stepped on. Given he was putting no weight on his leg, it would seem best case scenario is a high ankle sprain, which would likely be several weeks. Hope we're all wrong and he's back in just a few weeks.

[CU77]

I ask again, why are we consistently terrible at the x.

Bad luck. Petrakis was very good at the start of the season, in the top 10 in opponent-adjusted ranking by lacrossereference.com. Then the PSU game happened with a quick whistle on FO violations, and he hasn't been the same since. Petrakis was a top FOGO in HS on LI. Senior Tim Graham, who was FOGO for the Australian national team and held his own at the world championships, is injured. That's the way it goes. It's not like the coaches forgot to recruit any FOGOs.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

FWIW, Yale beat Princeton.  So any given Sunday Saturday, right?

Also, I was watching some of the Syracuse-Duke game today.  The announcers said that the Ivies could send as many as five teams to the NCAA's.

[rss77]

With Blake and Lombardi out we need to see if some of the underclassman can step up.  There are about 50 on the roster-correct?  Was watching the Yale-Princeton game and noted that Shay, the Yale coach, was gradually putting some first year players out there,  Concerning faceoffs I believe the rules makers goal is to create 50/50 balls with more wing play but what we are seeing is that no matter how the f/o rules are tweaked some guys find a way to dominate.

[Swampy]

With Blake and Lombardi out we need to see if some of the underclassman can step up.  There are about 50 on the roster-correct?  Was watching the Yale-Princeton game and noted that Shay, the Yale coach, was gradually putting some first year players out there,  Concerning faceoffs I believe the rules makers goal is to create 50/50 balls with more wing play but what we are seeing is that no matter how the f/o rules are tweaked some guys find a way to dominate.

Unlike hockey, where GK is the most important position, modern lacrosse has two key specialist positions: GK & FOGO. Lots of hockey teams have dedicated goalie coaches; IMHO, a top lacrosse team needs two specialized coaches: goalie & FOGO. While any good coach who's played lacrosse can coach things like ground balls & clears, I think only former GKs & FOGOs can give the special insight these positions demand.

Who are Cornell's GK & FOGO coaches?

[billhoward]

No surprise, the first loss cost Cornell 3 spots in the D1 media poll for March 28. Maryland remains #1. Three of the four top 20 teams are also in the basketball final four: UNC, Duke, Villanova. (St. Peter's has no varsity lax team.)

Code Select Expand

Media poll 3/28/22
1.  Maryland
2.  Virginia +1 positions (didn't take them long to bounce back from their loss)
3.  Georgetown +2
4.  Penn +2
5.  Rutgers +2
6.  Princeton -4 (lost to Yale)
[b][color=#FF0000]7.  Cornell -3[/color][/b]
8.  Yale +6  
9.  North Carolina  --
10. Harvard +5  Gave BU its first loss, beat Dartmouth (1 win above .500), the one unranked Ivy team
16. Duke
19. Villanova
Also got votes: Brown et al
Also didn't get votes (so why was the Cornell game so close?): Penn State

Quint Kessenich also has Cornell 7th at https://laxallstars.com/quint-kessenichs-top-20-march-28-2022/ – I believe he's used "snow bank wins" before which contrasts to the Cornell teams in the era of just before and during the national championships era: an early loss then unbeaten or one more loss the rest of the way.

The Big Red dropped a league game to Penn this weekend and appear to be leaking oil with injuries and a lack of reinforcements. Big games are played with leaves on the trees. Snow bank wins mean very little in May. They tried to play catch up against the Quakers and came up short. Maryland is now the only undefeated team in men's D1 lacrosse. John Piatelli scored four times and CJ Kirst finished with five points. Gavin Adler, a senior defender from Hewlett, Long Island, continues to flash and play his way into the discussion for top defender honors. Adler, Virginia's Cole Kastner, and Georgetown's Will Bowen would be my tip trio right now.

Cornell faces Colgate on Tuesday night and are at Dartmouth on Saturday. Big Red still have future dates with top caliber squads Harvard, Syracuse, Army, Brown, and Princeton. Time to get healthy and find a second wind.

[Ken711]

No surprise, the first loss cost Cornell 3 spots in the D1 media poll for March 28. Maryland remains #1. Three of the four top 20 teams are also in the basketball final four: UNC, Duke, Villanova. (St. Peter's has no varsity lax team.)

Code Select Expand

Media poll 3/28/22
1.  Maryland
2.  Virginia +1 positions (didn't take them long to bounce back from their loss)
3.  Georgetown +2
4.  Penn +2
5.  Rutgers +2
6.  Princeton -4 (lost to Yale)
[b][color=#FF0000]7.  Cornell -3[/color][/b]
8.  Yale +6  
9.  North Carolina  --
10. Harvard +5  Gave BU its first loss, beat Dartmouth (1 win above .500), the one unranked Ivy team
16. Duke
19. Villanova
Also got votes: Brown et al
Also didn't get votes (so why was the Cornell game so close?): Penn State

5 Ivy schools in the top 10.

[billhoward]

5 Ivy schools in the top 10.

Becoming the quintessential Ivy League sport along with crew and (horse) polo.

Read The Atlantic's 2020 story on the mad race by upscale families to get their kid into a sport that gives the kid a leg up on admission to a high-end school. The story has been discredited by The Atlantic for a number of reasons including the author's too-close involvement in the story. But it's still up there on the site. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/squash-lacrosse-niche-sports-ivy-league-admissions/616474/

There's a breathtaking section where a group of Connecticut Gold Coast parents with kids playing HS lax talked, apparently seriously, of getting Stanford to start a varsity lacrosse program, they'd endow the sport and their kids would get into Stanford to be founding student-athletes.

One of the things that tripped up author Ruth S. Barrett was the story's assertion that at least one family had put up a back-yard "Olympic size" outdoor rink for the kids to pursue hockey, apparently the fact checkers not realizing that few homes in Fairfield County had room for a 200 x 85 surface and few neighbors would let a zoning variance like that go through.

[mike1960]

No surprise, the first loss cost Cornell 3 spots in the D1 media poll for March 28. Maryland remains #1. Three of the four top 20 teams are also in the basketball final four: UNC, Duke, Villanova. (St. Peter's has no varsity lax team.)

Code Select Expand

Media poll 3/28/22
1.  Maryland
2.  Virginia +1 positions (didn't take them long to bounce back from their loss)
3.  Georgetown +2
4.  Penn +2
5.  Rutgers +2
6.  Princeton -4 (lost to Yale)
[b][color=#FF0000]7.  Cornell -3[/color][/b]
8.  Yale +6  
9.  North Carolina  --
10. Harvard +5  Gave BU its first loss, beat Dartmouth (1 win above .500), the one unranked Ivy team
16. Duke
19. Villanova
Also got votes: Brown et al
Also didn't get votes (so why was the Cornell game so close?): Penn State

Cornell should be favored in the rest of the games this year until (and perhaps even then) the final game against Princeton. So we may not win them all, but we should have a decent record for a bid to the tournament.

Syracuse is the one I really want the team to win. It's a tough task: They play on a Monday with a rest of only two days after playing a very good Harvard team.