Cornell lacrosse 2022

[Ken711]

Cornell picked to finish third in preseason Ivy poll. Yale received 13 of 14 first-place votes (we received the other). Penn also picked ahead of us.

Times have changed, it used to be Princeton or Cornell alternating the top spot in the pre-season Ivy poll.

[mike1960]

Interesting book coming, especially for us old guys who watched it happen:

https://cornellbigred.com/news/2021/6/4/50-years-ago-cornell-mens-lacrosse-changed-the-game.aspx

The closer game, arguably the de faco title game, was not the Cornell-Maryland final but the semifinal the week before at Army (now: Army West Point). Richard Nixon was on campus in the morning, unrelated to the game, but it was the same press pass that got sportswriters into the mainstream press room. Thanks for the lunch.

The conspiracy theorists had it that Cornell was paired against Army to avoid there not be zero southern schools in the finals. (Maryland-Navy was the other semifinal.) Or it could just be it was cheaper on NCAA travel budgets.  

Back and forth, Cornell eked out a 17-16 semifinal win. Two of the game's best attackmen, Cornell's Al Rimmer vs. Army's Tom Cafaro. Seems like only yesterday. Cornell played with its backup goalie, Bob Buhmann (RIP), who if I recall was named honoraable mention All-America and injured Bob Rule was first team. Yes, it's long ago and I also realize how little I'd care about some old fart Cornellian telling me about the glories of 1921 Cornell football.

The year before, Cornell went unbeaten and in the final poll, finished fourth behind teams with at least one loss. Southern teams.

Great memories! Keep them coming!

[Al DeFlorio]

Interesting book coming, especially for us old guys who watched it happen:

https://cornellbigred.com/news/2021/6/4/50-years-ago-cornell-mens-lacrosse-changed-the-game.aspx

The closer game, arguably the de faco title game, was not the Cornell-Maryland final but the semifinal the week before at Army (now: Army West Point). Richard Nixon was on campus in the morning, unrelated to the game, but it was the same press pass that got sportswriters into the mainstream press room. Thanks for the lunch.

The conspiracy theorists had it that Cornell was paired against Army to avoid there not be zero southern schools in the finals. (Maryland-Navy was the other semifinal.) Or it could just be it was cheaper on NCAA travel budgets.  

Back and forth, Cornell eked out a 17-16 semifinal win. Two of the game's best attackmen, Cornell's Al Rimmer vs. Army's Tom Cafaro. Seems like only yesterday. Cornell played with its backup goalie, Bob Buhmann (RIP), who if I recall was named honoraable mention All-America and injured Bob Rule was first team. Yes, it's long ago and I also realize how little I'd care about some old fart Cornellian telling me about the glories of 1921 Cornell football.

The year before, Cornell went unbeaten and in the final poll, finished fourth behind teams with at least one loss. Southern teams.

I could be wrong, but I recall the tournament brackets were done that way to ensure a northern team would be in the finals, and it wouldn't be an all-south final.  After all, lacrosse was a Maryland-centric game.  Talk at the time was that the "south" semifinal was really going to be the effective championship game.  Surprise!

[Al DeFlorio]

Interesting book coming, especially for us old guys who watched it happen:

https://cornellbigred.com/news/2021/6/4/50-years-ago-cornell-mens-lacrosse-changed-the-game.aspx

The closer game, arguably the de faco title game, was not the Cornell-Maryland final but the semifinal the week before at Army (now: Army West Point). Richard Nixon was on campus in the morning, unrelated to the game, but it was the same press pass that got sportswriters into the mainstream press room. Thanks for the lunch.

The conspiracy theorists had it that Cornell was paired against Army to avoid there not be zero southern schools in the finals. (Maryland-Navy was the other semifinal.) Or it could just be it was cheaper on NCAA travel budgets.  

Back and forth, Cornell eked out a 17-16 semifinal win. Two of the game's best attackmen, Cornell's Al Rimmer vs. Army's Tom Cafaro. Seems like only yesterday. Cornell played with its backup goalie, Bob Buhmann (RIP), who if I recall was named honoraable mention All-America and injured Bob Rule was first team. Yes, it's long ago and I also realize how little I'd care about some old fart Cornellian telling me about the glories of 1921 Cornell football.

The year before, Cornell went unbeaten and in the final poll, finished fourth behind teams with at least one loss. Southern teams.

Great memories! Keep them coming!

OK.  Here's a pretty good memory.  Was at the Dome for this one: https://youtu.be/H8ZJzIZ342Q

[billhoward]

I was there for all the games. The Army game at Army was fabulous. I feel like I'm doing a good deed, passing along Cornell sports history before we're all gone.

In my undergrad years, I remember somebody telling me about the 1960s football exploits of Gary Wood and Pete Gogolak and thinking, God, don't bore me with old-timey stuff. Now I'm trying to tell people about truly old stuff. But that 1967-1977 era was amazing.

[billhoward]

I could be wrong, but I recall the tournament brackets were done that way to ensure a northern team would be in the finals, and it wouldn't be an all-south final.  After all, lacrosse was a Maryland-centric game.  Talk at the time was that the "south" semifinal was really going to be the effective championship game.  Surprise!

Al! You're too kind to the lacrosse monarchists of the era. I think they knew that even though Cornell in 1970 was ranked fourth -- by the lax insiders and their ilk -- behind three once-beaten Secession-state teams, they might have suspected there was a chance the top teams would come out of the North a year later. So it's least as probable that the seeding into North and South, plus Air Force tossed in as cannon fodder, would ensure a traditional lax school - read, South - would be at Hofstra on the championship weekend.

Cornell, the best team, also played the two closest games: winning 10-8 over Brown then 17-16 over Army. To me, the top 2 teams were Cornell and Army, and Brown had it been sent down South, would have been in the final four also. Trying to remember if Dom Starsia, ex Virginia coach, played D for Brown that 1971 seasons or he was still a freshman.

[Al DeFlorio]

I could be wrong, but I recall the tournament brackets were done that way to ensure a northern team would be in the finals, and it wouldn't be an all-south final.  After all, lacrosse was a Maryland-centric game.  Talk at the time was that the "south" semifinal was really going to be the effective championship game.  Surprise!

Al! You're too kind to the lacrosse monarchists of the era. I think they knew that even though Cornell in 1970 was ranked fourth -- by the lax insiders and their ilk -- behind three once-beaten Secession-state teams, they might have suspected there was a chance the top teams would come out of the North a year later. So it's least as probable that the seeding into North and South, plus Air Force tossed in as cannon fodder, would ensure a traditional lax school - read, South - would be at Hofstra on the championship weekend.

Cornell, the best team, also played the two closest games: winning 10-8 over Brown then 17-16 over Army. To me, the top 2 teams were Cornell and Army, and Brown had it been sent down South, would have been in the final four also. Trying to remember if Dom Starsia, ex Virginia coach, played D for Brown that 1971 seasons or he was still a freshman.

Cornell may have finished as the "best team," but they were seeded third of the four "north" teams and had to beat Btown at Brown and then Army at West Point to get to the championship game.

[billhoward]

Al, I have photos from the Brown-Cornell game at Cornell in 1971. It could be the regular season game but I'm pretty sure it was the NCAA tournament game. We beat Brown handily in the RS, we only lost the first game of the year, so I thought we were seeded high enough that we didn't have to go on the road for the first tournament game. But, you know, it's been a long time.

I know we played Army at Army because Richard Nixon was on campus a couple hours before Army-Cornell and I have photos of him. You know Nixon would not have set foot on the Cornell campus during the Vietnam war. So I think I've got that game-site right.

[TimV]

Trying to remember if Dom Starsia, ex Virginia coach, played D for Brown that 1971 seasons or he was still a freshman.

He was still a freshman and therefore ineligible for the varsity. Had he played, maybe we don't get ten goals.

[billhoward]

Trying to remember if Dom Starsia, ex Virginia coach, played D for Brown that 1971 seasons or he was still a freshman.

He was still a freshman and therefore ineligible for the varsity. Had he played, maybe we don't get ten goals.

Cornell would have its Class of 1974 players on the field spring of 1971 as well.

Spring ahead three years: Imagine if in 1974 if Eamon McEneaney '77 had been eligible to play with A Mike French '76 in spring 1974 along with D Dave Devine *and* transfer Jim Trenz from Penn State who was first team AA in 1974 (47G-41A--91 points). Cornell beat Virginia in the first round 15-8 then went to Maryland and lost 19-10.

McEneaney played in a HS tournament at Schoellkopf his HS senior year (1973) and nobody else was near him in ability. He was ready for college D1 right then and there. So, the Ivies lost a lot of opportunities in the 1970s, Brown, Cornell and the others. Harvard still would have sucked, but all four classes would have been involved.

[TimV]

Great point.

[billhoward]

Great point.

And with that, I'll try to think about 2022 not five decades earlier, even if that was the decade that gave us our three national championships. We owned Syracuse then. One game was 21-3. Also the era of freshman or JV teams; Syracuse's was the Tangerines.

[mike1960]

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/terry-s-top-20-why-maryland-is-no-1/58927

8. Cornell

I'm higher on the Ivy League teams than most others, and that's due to a combination of what I saw live and on film in the fall (the Ivy League teams were very good against a range of competition, from Cornell's performance vs. Maryland, Yale's vs. Syracuse and Ohio State, Penn's vs. Navy, Princeton's vs. Towson) and my opinion that the effects of not having played since March 2020 won't be was negative as others think. Perhaps that'll prove to be a bad opinion.

That said, having Penn and Cornell ranked beside each other seems justified on the basis of their scrimmage showings vs. Drexel the last two weeks. In Sam Handley, the Quakers have a player who might be the best in the country; it sounds like he'll run at attack with Dylan Gergar and Cam Rubin. The close defense will be very inexperienced. Cornell's attack of John Piatelli, Michael Long and CJ Kirst will be daunting, and it sounds like middie Hugh Kelleher could be a breakout star this season.

Penn opens with Georgetown on Saturday, and Cornell hosts UAlbany at 1 p.m.

[billhoward]

Cornell opens the season hosting Albany Saturday (Feb. 19), Cornell lax schedule says 2 p.m. I called the Cornell ticket office about admissions limits at Schoellkopf (50% rule?), Covid policy, etcetera: it's free for the first two games (Albany then Hobart Tuesday, March 1, 5 pm), just walk in. LGR!

[upprdeck]

good thing the game isnt right now.. cant see 20 ft outside here.