Cornell lacrosse 2025

[billhoward]

Cornell as of 4/21 (and 11-1) remains #1 in both media and USILA/Coaches https://usila.org/news/2025/4/21/mens-lacrosse-usila-2025-mens-coaches-division-i-poll-week-11.aspx polls. Now 5 weeks at the top.

Syracuse - Richmond - Harvard hover around 10-12 in the polls and that has an impact on whether at season's end we get credit for beating top 10 or top 15 teams.

Cornell is also #1 in the https://laxallstars.com/quint-kessenichs-top-20-april-21-2025/ Quint Kessenich ratings:

5) Penn State
Penn State has had an incredibly successful 2024-25 athletics year, with the wrestling team and women's volleyball both capturing NCAA titles. The men's hockey team made the Frozen Four, and the football team was a playoff semifinalist after beating SMU and Boise State in the first two rounds. Success on campus is palpable.
4) Notre Dame
The Irish (7-3) [at North Carolina] turned a 4-0 deficit into a 12-6 win on Tobacco Road, alerting the nation that Notre Dame may be on an upward swing.
3) Princeton
The Tigers (10-2) were down three at halftime to Penn, but went on a 5-0 run to defeat the Quakers 12-8. Penn shot 1-for-14 in the second half and committed 11 turnovers.
2) Maryland
I was not overly impressed with 'Be the Best' (10-2) on Friday night as they disposed of Johns Hopkins 11-8 in front of a raucous crowd. The TV product, shot from the sixth floor roof, was unwatchable. The Terps weren't bad—just not exceptional. They were solid.
1) Cornell
The Big Red (11-1) torched Harvard, scoring 20 goals in Cambridge and clinching the host spot in the Ivy League tournament. CJ Kirst tied Payton Cormier for the most career goals all-time at 224. Cornell used a 5-1 first quarter and a 5-1 run in the fourth to ice the Crimson. They were plus-15 in face-offs and shot 20-for-41. Willem Firth scored four times and Ryan Goldstein had six points. Jack Cascadden had 14 ground balls and went 23-for-29 at the face-off dot. Big Green at Big Red on Saturday—a tricky game for the color blind. [<-- that was a weird attempt at humor] The Cornell offense ranks #1 in scoring.

Of note, and not to our advantage: https://lacrossereference.com/stats/strength-of-schedule-d1-men/ has Cornell as the #15 team in strength of schedule. The top five as of April 20 are Syracuse, Penn, NC, Maryland, Hopkins. Princeton is 10, Yale 11, Brown 12, Richmond 16, Harvard 18, Lehigh 22, Hobart 38. Worse: Fourth-ranked Army is #37 on SOS.

Larken Kemp in https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/the-kemp-report-sudden-death-dodgeball/65099 has the teams in these brackets going into the weekend of April 28:

AAA: Elite Tier (Final Four or Bust)
1. Cornell LGR

AA: Contenders Tier (realistic path to Final Four)
2. Maryland Terrapins
3. Princeton Tigers
4. Ohio State Buckeyes
5. Go Army, beat Navy
6. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
7. North Carolina Tar Heels
A: Dangerous Floaters (not a team you want in Quarters)
8. Penn State Nittany Lions
9. Duke Blue Devils
10. Syracuse Orange

Everyone else.

[CU77]

Larken Kemp in https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/the-kemp-report-sudden-death-dodgeball/65099 has the teams in these brackets going into the weekend of April 28:

Gotta love the man's prose style. He opens with "Hours from Ulaanbaatar, at the edge of the Mongolian steppe, where the horizon stretches unbroken and silence rides the wind, the Mongol Derby begins." Lacrosse is not mentioned until paragraph five.

He was also great fun to watch as a player, a two-way LSM at Brown on their one-foot-away-from-winning-it-all 2016 team.

[Swampy]

Cornell as of 4/21 (and 11-1) remains #1 in both media and USILA/Coaches https://usila.org/news/2025/4/21/mens-lacrosse-usila-2025-mens-coaches-division-i-poll-week-11.aspx polls. Now 5 weeks at the top.

The longest stretch of any team this year.

Syracuse - Richmond - Harvard hover around 10-12 in the polls and that has an impact on whether at season's end we get credit for beating top 10 or top 15 teams.

I believe the NC$$ does not use the polls to seed teams. They use RPI instead. According to Lacrosse Reference, Cornell currently ranks #5 in NC$$ RPI. S, R, & H currently rank 19, 25, & 6 respectively.

Cornell is also #1 in the https://laxallstars.com/quint-kessenichs-top-20-april-21-2025/ Quint Kessenich ratings:

5) Penn State
Penn State has had an incredibly successful 2024-25 athletics year, with the wrestling team and women's volleyball both capturing NCAA titles. The men's hockey team made the Frozen Four, and the football team was a playoff semifinalist after beating SMU and Boise State in the first two rounds. Success on campus is palpable.
4) Notre Dame
The Irish (7-3) [at North Carolina] turned a 4-0 deficit into a 12-6 win on Tobacco Road, alerting the nation that Notre Dame may be on an upward swing.
3) Princeton
The Tigers (10-2) were down three at halftime to Penn, but went on a 5-0 run to defeat the Quakers 12-8. Penn shot 1-for-14 in the second half and committed 11 turnovers.
2) Maryland
I was not overly impressed with 'Be the Best' (10-2) on Friday night as they disposed of Johns Hopkins 11-8 in front of a raucous crowd. The TV product, shot from the sixth floor roof, was unwatchable. The Terps weren't bad—just not exceptional. They were solid.
1) Cornell
The Big Red (11-1) torched Harvard, scoring 20 goals in Cambridge and clinching the host spot in the Ivy League tournament. CJ Kirst tied Payton Cormier for the most career goals all-time at 224. Cornell used a 5-1 first quarter and a 5-1 run in the fourth to ice the Crimson. They were plus-15 in face-offs and shot 20-for-41. Willem Firth scored four times and Ryan Goldstein had six points. Jack Cascadden had 14 ground balls and went 23-for-29 at the face-off dot. Big Green at Big Red on Saturday—a tricky game for the color blind. [<-- that was a weird attempt at humor] The Cornell offense ranks #1 in scoring.

Of note, and not to our advantage: https://lacrossereference.com/stats/strength-of-schedule-d1-men/ has Cornell as the #15 team in strength of schedule. The top five as of April 20 are Syracuse, Penn, NC, Maryland, Hopkins. Princeton is 10, Yale 11, Brown 12, Richmond 16, Harvard 18, Lehigh 22, Hobart 38. Worse: Fourth-ranked Army is #37 on SOS.

Again, these are Lacrosse Reference's versions of the metrics. While perhaps better conceptually, they're not what the NC$$ uses to seed teams. LR has another metric, LAX-ELO, for comparing relative strength of teams. Cornell currently ranks #3, behind just Army & Notre Dame, with MD #4, Princeton #8, Richmond #10,  'Cuse #12, Yale #17, & Harvard #23.

Larken Kemp in https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/the-kemp-report-sudden-death-dodgeball/65099 has the teams in these brackets going into the weekend of April 28:

AAA: Elite Tier (Final Four or Bust)
1. Cornell LGR

AA: Contenders Tier (realistic path to Final Four)
2. Maryland Terrapins
3. Princeton Tigers
4. Ohio State Buckeyes
5. Go Army, beat Navy
6. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
7. North Carolina Tar Heels
A: Dangerous Floaters (not a team you want in Quarters)
8. Penn State Nittany Lions
9. Duke Blue Devils
10. Syracuse Orange

Everyone else.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Larken Kemp in https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/the-kemp-report-sudden-death-dodgeball/65099 has the teams in these brackets going into the weekend of April 28:

Gotta love the man's prose style. He opens with "Hours from Ulaanbaatar, at the edge of the Mongolian steppe, where the horizon stretches unbroken and silence rides the wind, the Mongol Derby begins." Lacrosse is not mentioned until paragraph five.

He was also great fun to watch as a player, a two-way LSM at Brown on their one-foot-away-from-winning-it-all 2016 team.

I've been 1000 km from Ulaanbaatar in the Mongolian steppe.  It's as impressive and isolated as he describes it.

Fortunately I was in an SUV not on a horse.

[CU77]

Payton Cormier congratulates CJ on breaking his NCAA career scoring record:

https://x.com/Inside_Lacrosse/status/1916165380516573209

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Payton Cormier congratulates CJ on breaking his NCAA career scoring record:

https://x.com/Inside_Lacrosse/status/1916165380516573209

Classy.

[Trotsky]

Larken Kemp in https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/the-kemp-report-sudden-death-dodgeball/65099 has the teams in these brackets going into the weekend of April 28:

Gotta love the man's prose style. He opens with "Hours from Ulaanbaatar, at the edge of the Mongolian steppe, where the horizon stretches unbroken and silence rides the wind, the Mongol Derby begins." Lacrosse is not mentioned until paragraph five.

He was also great fun to watch as a player, a two-way LSM at Brown on their one-foot-away-from-winning-it-all 2016 team.

I've been 1000 km from Ulaanbaatar in the Mongolian steppe.  It's as impressive and isolated as he describes it.

Fortunately I was in an SUV not on a horse.

But did you sleep in a yurt?

All Bonni wants from life is to sleep in a yurt.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Larken Kemp in https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/the-kemp-report-sudden-death-dodgeball/65099 has the teams in these brackets going into the weekend of April 28:

Gotta love the man's prose style. He opens with "Hours from Ulaanbaatar, at the edge of the Mongolian steppe, where the horizon stretches unbroken and silence rides the wind, the Mongol Derby begins." Lacrosse is not mentioned until paragraph five.

He was also great fun to watch as a player, a two-way LSM at Brown on their one-foot-away-from-winning-it-all 2016 team.

I've been 1000 km from Ulaanbaatar in the Mongolian steppe.  It's as impressive and isolated as he describes it.

Fortunately I was in an SUV not on a horse.

But did you sleep in a yurt?

All Bonni wants from life is to sleep in a yurt.

"Yurt" is actually a Russian word.  The Mongolian word is "ger".  And the Mongolians despise the Russians.

But yes, we spent several nights in ger camps. Some were in permanent campgrounds with fixed bathrooms and shower blocks.  And electricity for lights, tablets, cell phones, etc.  Some camps are more impermanent with temporary latrines and shower tents (and a library tent!).  Some gers had wood-fired stoves.  Others used horse or camel dung.  The staff would come in a couple times a night to tend the fire for you.  The fixed gers typically held four beds, but I always had my own ger.  They all were huge, comfortable, and toasty-warm when needed.

OTOH, at the more distant sites from UB, we stayed in giant conical tents branded "tenteepees".  Tall enough to stand in and to fit a good sized cot/bed or two if needed.  They were easier for the support crew to put up and break down quickly.  No heat, but plenty of yak-hair blankets to crawl under.

But FTR, I've also stayed in a yurt...in Kazakhstan.

[Chris H82]

Larken Kemp in https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/the-kemp-report-sudden-death-dodgeball/65099 has the teams in these brackets going into the weekend of April 28:

Gotta love the man's prose style. He opens with "Hours from Ulaanbaatar, at the edge of the Mongolian steppe, where the horizon stretches unbroken and silence rides the wind, the Mongol Derby begins." Lacrosse is not mentioned until paragraph five.

He was also great fun to watch as a player, a two-way LSM at Brown on their one-foot-away-from-winning-it-all 2016 team.

I've been 1000 km from Ulaanbaatar in the Mongolian steppe.  It's as impressive and isolated as he describes it.

Fortunately I was in an SUV not on a horse.

But did you sleep in a yurt?

All Bonni wants from life is to sleep in a yurt.

A little closer to home, several state parks in the "other" Washington have yurts that can be rented.  Here's an example: https://parks.wa.gov/find-parks/state-parks/cape-disappointment-state-park/cape-disappointment-yurts#:~:text=Cape%20Disappointment%20Yurts%20%7C%20Washington%20State%20Parks

(Doing my best to support the proud eLynah tradition of thread drift....)

[Trotsky]

Larken Kemp in https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/the-kemp-report-sudden-death-dodgeball/65099 has the teams in these brackets going into the weekend of April 28:

Gotta love the man's prose style. He opens with "Hours from Ulaanbaatar, at the edge of the Mongolian steppe, where the horizon stretches unbroken and silence rides the wind, the Mongol Derby begins." Lacrosse is not mentioned until paragraph five.

He was also great fun to watch as a player, a two-way LSM at Brown on their one-foot-away-from-winning-it-all 2016 team.

I've been 1000 km from Ulaanbaatar in the Mongolian steppe.  It's as impressive and isolated as he describes it.

Fortunately I was in an SUV not on a horse.

But did you sleep in a yurt?

All Bonni wants from life is to sleep in a yurt.

"Yurt" is actually a Russian word.  The Mongolian word is "ger".

I must tell her this.  She will be ashamed.

I should have known. The ger is the Mongol special building in one of the versions of Civ.

[billhoward]

Media poll 4/28, after end of the Cornell regular season:
[list=1]

• Cornell (all 24 first place vores)
• Princeton
• Maryland
• Army
• Ohio State

Also 10 Richmond, 11 Harvard, 12 Syracuse, Must suck for Hopkins fans being in the section "also receiving votes."

Coaches' poll via https://usila.org/
[list=1]

• Cornell (26 firsts)
• Princeton
• Maryland (1 first)
• Army
• TOSU

NCAA Lacrosse RPI after 4/27 games
[list=1]

• Maryland
• Princeton
• Cornell
• Penn State
• North Carolina
• ND
• Duke
• TOSYU
• Richmond
• Harvard
• Syracuse
• Army
• BU
• Michigan
• Virginia

Lax All-Stars https://laxallstars.com/quint-kessenichs-top-20-april-28-2025/

Here's the final Top 20 of 2025. Don't get my poll confused with bracketology. They are different exercises. It's my opinion. Feels like the Big Ten can't score, and the Ivy League is light on defense. ACC teams lack consistency. Who can play both offense and defense at a high level? Who can play complimentary [complementary?—ed]lacrosse? We find out in May.

This is a huge week. Ten AQs are earned across the D1 landscape. Champ Week is an extension of the 18-team NCAA bracket. Seventy-four D1 teams get paired [sic] down to 18 by May 4. Let's celebrate these moments and put these programs on a pedestal. The NCAA tournament selection show is on Sunday, May 4 (ESPN+) at 9:30 p.m.
1. Cornell. "The Big Red (12-1) got a record-setting day from CJ Kirst and strong outings from their specialists — goalie Wyatt Knust and FOGO Jack Cascadden — in a bland home win over Dartmouth. The Big Red host Yale on Friday in the Ivy semis (ESPN+). I'm not sure how Yale will defend CJ Kirst and company."
2. Maryland.
3. Princeton.
4. Notre Dame. "The Irish (7-3) repeated scoreless streaks have to be a concern. They had a drought of 29:00 minutes against UNC, only scored one goal over 32:00 on April 12 versus Virginia, and went without a goal for 40:00 in the Dome. It happened again on Saturday against Penn, trailing 6-1 through the first 28:00 minutes before unleashing a quarter of excellence on their way to a closer-than-expected home win on Senior Day. 10-8 final highlighted by Devon McClane and Chris Kavanagh. But these types of dry spells forecast doom.
5. Penn State. "The Nittany Lions (10-3) held off a late run by Johns Hopkins, advancing 13-12 to the league semis and likely locking up a home game in the NCAA tournament. Their RPI is currently #4. Kyle Lehman scored four times, while Luke Walstrum had four assists. JHU took seven of eight faceoffs in the fourth quarter while closing ground late. Meanwhile, Hopkins started (6-2) and then lost all six Big Ten games. Dreadful. The last time JHU did not play a lacrosse game in May was 2020 with the Covid shutdown, and prior to that in 1945 during WWII."

For NCAA tournament seeding, my understanding is the NCAA looks at these factors, per https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/il-s-third-2025-bracketology-presented-by-get-reps-reacting-to-the-committee/65115, and here is where Cornell stands as of before our final (Dartmouth) RS game:

2. Cornell (11-1) [Cornell projected as 2-seed behind Maryland]
[factors in ranking teams for seedng] RPI: 3
SOS: 13
Top 5 Wins: Princeton
Top 6-10 Wins: Syracuse, Harvard
Top 11-20 Wins: Richmond, Yale
Non Top-20 Losses: None

Cornell is on the cusp of as many as 3 top 6-10 rating wins vs. top 11-20 wins depending on where Richmond, Harvard and Syracuse shake out. Assuming we advance to a Cornell-Princeton ILT final, we could pick up another top-five win.

Foy also noted that the more you try to read into the NCAA's criteria, and which criteria they value most ... the harder it is to get the rankings/seedings right come tournament time:

For more than a decade, I've referred to the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Selection Criteria as "subjectively objective." I refer to it that way because the process utilizes objective criteria but without a stated method of ordering that criteria, which allows each individual year's Committee to interpret the criteria differently. As a result, the exercise of projecting the eventual Tournament bracket lacks what it needs most: any indication of how this year's Committee will deviate from prior Committees in interpreting the criteria.

In the late 2010s, in an effort to help form fan expectations heading into Selection Sunday, the Committee released two Top 10 Rankings during ESPN game broadcasts. Ideally, this could be the skeleton key mentioned above. What can be gleaned from the Committee's Top 10 that could make projecting the bracket better?

On May 5, 2022, for the Fourth Bracketology update of that year, I quoted IL's Patrick McEwen — who had used early AI tools to compare the NCAA Selection Criteria data inputs to the NCAA Tournament fields that the Committees eventually created over the preceding decade or more, then made them forward-looking to predict the bracket based on current-year data. He said: "I studied it extensively the first two years and found the Committee's Top 10 data did not improve my machine-learning projections and, in fact, made them slightly worse."
....
Ranking Cornell ahead of Princeton and Maryland suggests the Committee is downgrading the value of strength of schedule and volume of Top 5 Wins; the Tigers and Terps ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in SOS, and both had two Top 5 Wins to Cornell's one. And by ranking the Big Red ahead of Penn State, who also had a superior RPI and SOS, one can infer the Committee is deemphasizing head-to-head wins, as the Nittany Lions beat Cornell on March 8.

As a result, it would seem the Committee is valuing record, specifically few losses, most highly as the Big Red's one loss is the lone aspect of their résumé that is superior to Princeton's and Maryland's.

But if that were the case, it would suggest bumping up Army, the only other one-loss team in Division I. Instead, the Committee ranked the Black Knights two spots below their RPI ranking, behind a team they beat (North Carolina) and two spots lower than I did.

At that brings us to the rub: how to utilize the Committee's Top 10 in order to improve this Bracketology exercise. When it lacks its own decipherable internal logic, it makes it very hard to deviate from what had been my standard method of doing this projection that I've adopted over the years.

Foy's bracket has it 1 Maryland, 2 Cornell, 3 Princeton, 4 Penn State. A lot can / will happen this week. In the BigTen, the top seed is TOSU, they play Rutgers Thursday, likely not guaranteed Ohio State win, then Maryland plays Penn State, then finals Saturday. Two chances for Maryland to fall; their RS losses are to arguably worse Michigan 3OT and Rutgers 8-6. I would like to see a bracket that has Cornell and Princeton meeting on Memorial Day. There have been two Ivies in the NCAA quarterfinals before but never an Ivy vs Ivy championship game.

If the NCAA commitee wants to crunch more numbers, it might also devalue OT wins or losses, and also perhaps one-goal wins or losses. Perhaps also margin-of-victory up to, say 5 (?) or 7 (?) goals.

[Swampy]

Since this was debated by others awhile back, I went on insidelacrosse.com to see how our recruiting is looking.

For 2025's entering class, we are holding our own. Our recruiting is around that of the other Ivies. The ACC is dominating, however, with Duke, UVA, UNC, and Notre Dame way ahead of the Ivies.

For 2026's entering class, which was the point of concern when this topic previously came up, we appear to be sorely lacking. Harvard is doing very well with this class, including two 5* recruits. I know it was mentioned previously that perhaps these rankings will be further updated and that could change things.

I would expect us to be doing better in recruiting given our recent success and all the #1 picks we've had the last few years (Teat, Adler, Kirst). What do you think explains why our recruiting has not caught up to our success? Lack of facilities (indoor practice facility might help)? Or is it as simple as lack of scholarships (despite generous financial aid)?

Perhaps it's our location in upstate New York.::help::

[chimpfood]

Kirst Ivy attack man of the year, kelleher Ivy midfielder of the year (surprising to me) and singer ivy defenseman of the year (surprised he won but very deserved)

[jjanow99]

Kirst Ivy attack man of the year, kelleher Ivy midfielder of the year (surprising to me) and singer ivy defenseman of the year (surprised he won but very deserved)

Keller is surprising to me too. In Ivy League games , Kelleher had 14 points , Firth 24.

[CU77]

ATTACKMAN OF THE YEAR
CJ Kirst, Cornell (Sr, A)*

MIDFIELDER OF THE YEAR
Hugh Kelleher, Cornell (Sr, M)

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Jayson Singer, Cornell (Sr, D)

GOALTENDER OF THE YEAR
Ryan Croddick, Princeton (Jr, G)

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Peter Buonnano, Princeton (Fr, A) *

CO-COACHING STAFF OF THE YEAR
Dartmouth

CO-COACHING STAFF OF THE YEAR
Princeton

ALL-IVY FIRST TEAM^
CJ Kirst, Cornell (Sr, A)*
Coulter Mackesy, Princeton (Sr, A)*
Sam King, Harvard (Sr, A)
Hugh Kelleher, Cornell (Sr, M)
Willem Firth, Cornell (So, M)
Logan Ip, Harvard (Jr, M)
Tucker Wade, Princeton (So, M)
Jayson Singer, Cornell (Sr, D)
Brendan Lavelle, Penn (Sr, D)
Colin Mulshine, Princeton (Sr, D)
Ryan Croddick, Princeton (Jr, G)
Jack Cascadden, Cornell (Jr, FO)*
Walker Wallace, Cornell (Sr, LSM)
Cooper Mueller, Princeton (Jr, SSDM)

ALL-IVY SECOND TEAM^
Ryan Goldstein, Cornell (So, A)
Michael Long, Cornell (Sr, A)
Thomas Power, Dartmouth (Jr, A)
Jack Speidell, Harvard (So, A)
Nate Kabiri, Princeton (So, A)
Leo Johnson, Yale (Sr, A)
Chad Palumbo, Princeton (Jr, M)
Max Krevsky, Yale (Sr, M)
Aidan McLane, Brown (Sr, M)
Griffin Scane, Penn (Jr, M)
Charlie Cave, Brown (Jr, D)
Michael Bath, Princeton (Sr, D)
Martin Nelson, Harvard (Sr, D)
Jack Stuzin, Yale (Sr, D)
Mason Morel, Dartmouth (Sr, G)
Spencer Reagan, Dartmouth (Fr, FO)
Ryan McLaughlin, Penn (Jr, LSM)
Chris Davis, Cornell (Sr, SSDM)

HONORABLE MENTION
Emmett Paradine, Dartmouth (Jr, M)
Thomas Goguen, Dartmouth (Jr, D)
Brendan Staub, Cornell (Jr, D)
Patrick Pisano, Yale (Jr, D)
Wyatt Knust, Cornell (Sr, G)
Emmet Carroll, Penn (Sr, G)
Machado Rodriguez, Yale (Sr, FO)
Ray Dearth, Harvard (Sr, SSDM)
Jackson Green, Princeton (So, SSDM)
Owen Guest, Harvard (Jr, SSDM)

*unanimous selection
^team expanded due to ties in voting

https://ivyleague.com/news/2025/4/30/ivy-league-mens-lacrosse-all-ivy-major-awards-announced.aspx