2026 Men's Lacrosse

[Swampy]

Quote from: arugula on 3/3/2026, 3:00:39 PMQuote from: CU77 on 3/2/2026, 6:17:19 PMCoaches were already trying different combos of o mids during the Richmond game. This is not a coaching issue, this is a talent on the team issue. We've not seen effective o-mid replacements for last year's Kelleher, Dalton, Sheehan, Firth (who moved to attack). Yes, but.  They lost by a goal to an excellent team, a team which they beat twice last year by one goal.  No shame there.  Let's see a good bounce back.  We have a sufficiently difficult schedule both OOC and league that we can survive a few losses.  We also should note three things:
• • We were playing what's now the #2 team in the country. As an Ivy, we've had substantially less time to practice so far this season.
  • We lost one of the best classes in Cornell history from last year. Consequently, we are quite young as a team. Youth affects players individually and as a team. They have to learn to play together. This makes shorter practice even more significant.
  • Lacrosse is a sport that is taught and learned. Individual players can improve tremendously during a season or over a four-year career. The good news is Coach Buczek is proven to be one of the best, if not the best, young coaches in the world. We did lose coach Stevens, but we have an excellent replacement in  Coach Ciferri, who I believe is taking Coach Stevens' place. But he too must grow into the job.

[Swampy]

Latest NCAA top ten rankings USA Lacrosse magazine.

1. Notre Dame
2. Richmond
3. Princeton
4. Harvard
5. Duke
6. North Carolina
7. Ohio State
8. Cornell
9. Army
10.Syracuse

Coaches were already trying different combos of o mids during the Richmond game. This is not a coaching issue, this is a talent on the team issue. We've not seen effective o-mid replacements for last year's Kelleher, Dalton, Sheehan, Firth (who moved to attack).

Yes, but.  They lost by a goal to an excellent team, a team which they beat twice last year by one goal.  No shame there.  Let's see a good bounce back.  We have a sufficiently difficult schedule both OOC and league that we can survive a few losses. 

Also, consider this:

• We were playing what's now the #2 team in the country. As an Ivy, we've had substantially less time to practice so far this season.
• We lost one of the best classes in Cornell history from last year. Consequently, we are quite young as a team. Youth affects players individually and as a team. They have to learn to play together. This makes shorter practice even more significant.
• Lacrosse is a sport that is taught and learned. Individual players can improve tremendously during a season or over a four-year career. The good news is Coach Buczek is proven to be one of the best, if not the best, young coaches in the world. We did lose coach Stevens, but we have an excellent replacement in  Coach Ciferri, who I believe is taking Coach Stevens' place. But he too must grow into the job.

[mike1960]

Latest NCAA top ten rankings USA Lacrosse magazine.

1. Notre Dame
2. Richmond
3. Princeton
4. Harvard
5. Duke
6. North Carolina
7. Ohio State
8. Cornell
9. Army
10.Syracuse

Coaches were already trying different combos of o mids during the Richmond game. This is not a coaching issue, this is a talent on the team issue. We've not seen effective o-mid replacements for last year's Kelleher, Dalton, Sheehan, Firth (who moved to attack).

Yes, but.  They lost by a goal to an excellent team, a team which they beat twice last year by one goal.  No shame there.  Let's see a good bounce back.  We have a sufficiently difficult schedule both OOC and league that we can survive a few losses. 

Also, consider this:

• We were playing what's now the #2 team in the country. As an Ivy, we've had substantially less time to practice so far this season.
• We lost one of the best classes in Cornell history from last year. Consequently, we are quite young as a team. Youth affects players individually and as a team. They have to learn to play together. This makes shorter practice even more significant.
• Lacrosse is a sport that is taught and learned. Individual players can improve tremendously during a season or over a four-year career. The good news is Coach Buczek is proven to be one of the best, if not the best, young coaches in the world. We did lose coach Stevens, but we have an excellent replacement in  Coach Ciferri, who I believe is taking Coach Stevens' place. But he too must grow into the job.

I really like the defense Coach Ciferri has put on the field so far. The guys are playing together and playing hard through long offensive possessions. That's not easy. They've missed a couple of assignments, but giving up only 8 to the second ranked team is a good day's work. I'd hope to see Michael Marshall get in there a little bit more. He's got skills.

The PSU game will not be easy. Coach Tambroni always has ways to make life difficult for us.

A couple of more thoughts. If our shots were just a little more accurate, we would have had two or more goals in the Richmond game. We had 3 shots on goal the entire 4th quarter. We need to do a little better than that. Finally, Richmond beat us at ground balls. That's our game. We can't lose that stat.

[ugarte]

Richmond gave us fits last year. They're a little better, we're a little worse. Not a tragedy. Make the tournament, make a run. Is the Ivy strong enough for us to lose a couple along the way?

[BearLover]

Richmond gave us fits last year. They're a little better, we're a little worse.

We're a lot worse than last year's team. But last year's team was one of the best in the history of college lacrosse

[Al DeFlorio]

Richmond gave us fits last year. They're a little better, we're a little worse.

We're a lot worse than last year's team. But last year's team was one of the best in the history of college lacrosse

The O is worse.  The D might be better.

[BearLover]

Richmond gave us fits last year. They're a little better, we're a little worse.

We're a lot worse than last year's team. But last year's team was one of the best in the history of college lacrosse

The O is worse.  The D might be better.

That's like saying the Chicago Bulls' O got worse in 1999 even if their D might have gotten slightly better

[Al DeFlorio]

Richmond gave us fits last year. They're a little better, we're a little worse.

We're a lot worse than last year's team. But last year's team was one of the best in the history of college lacrosse

The O is worse.  The D might be better.

That's like saying the Chicago Bulls' O got worse in 1999 even if their D might have gotten slightly better

Woe is me, woe is me!  The needle is stuck again.