[Off-topic] Lacrosse

[zg88]

OK... this is my 2nd attempt at posting this...  My 1st was thwarted by a computer crash brought on by my trying to post while listening to the live internet feed of the exciting Princeton-Yale game (more on that below).

Congratulations to the Big Red for winning their 6th game in a row to go 6-1 on the season (2-0 Ivy -- 1st place).

#12 Cornell beat #15 Pennsylvania (in Philly), 7-4, as the Big Red defensive machine continues its dominance -- this time, with the help of a big-time performance by All-American goalie Justin Cynar.  Five of the Cornell goals were scored by freshmen, including 4 by Sean Greenhalgh (giving him 17 on the season!).

Here's the full story:

 http://cornellbigred.fansonly.com/sports/m-lacros/recaps/033002aaa.html


Elsewhere in the Ivies:

Unranked Brown took #1 Syracuse to overtime (in Providence) before falling, 14-13.  Wow.  Look out for the Bruins -- they are, no doubt, the best unranked team in the land!

Going on right now:  #16 Yale is at #8 Princeton for a game that is important not only for this season's Ivy race and the NCAA autobid, but also for Cornell's place in history.

The last time Princeton lost an Ivy game was in '95 -- that incredible Big Red upset of the then-defending-national-champion Tigers.  (And thank God for that monumental upset, because...)  Since then, Princeton has won 37 consecutive Ivy match-ups;  they only need two more to tie Cornell's Ivy-league-record 39 wins in a row ('73-'79).  So, GO YALE!!!

For those who are despairing over the "inevitable" Princeton victory:  At the half, it was Yale 7, Princeton 3!!!  The last I heard (before two consecutive computer crashes (courtesy of RealPlayer??)), it was Yale 10, Princeton 6 (in the 3rd?).

I will now try again to listen to the end of the game (assuming it's still on...).

[zg88]

THE STREAK IS OVER!!!

#16 Yale just beat #8 Princeton, 15-13!

Cornell's record is safe.  Thank you, Yale!

[rhovorka]

Alright!  Great news for CU's Ivy title chances as well!

I rank that '95 Princeton win as one of my top sports memories from the hill.

[jeh25]

Fuckin A!

We now have a shot at the Ivy autobid. Let's go red!

[ugarte]

YES! Congrats Elis - for the loss against us and the win over Princeton.  We can take this league.  But we'd better not take Brown lightly now (or anyone else for that matter).

[zg88]

Cornell may just be the "defense capital of the world" (well, the "ice/lax" world, anyway -- is there any other??).

HOCKEY:  Although Michigan St. did manage to beat us in a squeaker for "best team defense" (1.78 - 1.80 -- D'OH!), we were on top for a brief time towards the end.

And now...

LACROSSE:  (Although we're only at the mid-point of the season...)  With Maryland's loss and Cornell's win over Penn., the Big Red is now #1 in team defense (6.14 -- tied, oddly, with the team we just beat).

(Note:  4 of the top 7 defenses in the nation are Ivies -- and Princeton ain't one of 'em!)

Winter or spring, Cornell is the home of the BIG RED WALL...  B-]

[Al DeFlorio]

Saturday, April 6, 1pm.

Harvard lost 7-5 at Penn last Saturday and was beaten at #9 Duke today, 10-7.

[zg88]

To put some perspective on Yale's 15 goals vs. Princeton today:

Before this game, Princeton had not allowed more than 10 goals by an Ivy team since 1990!

[Al DeFlorio]

Princeton's two goalies stopped only seven of Yale's 22 shots on goal. ::uhoh::

Penn is at Princeton Tuesday afternoon and Yale hosts Brown Wednesday evening.

[zg88]

Yes, the Tigers seem to have a slight sieve problem...  :-))  (I guess Coach Tierney has run out of sons?)

I think a pissed-off Princeton should handle Penn;  Yale-Brown promises to be quite a battle.


OK... here are some assorted questions for anyone to answer (not as exciting as discussing championship belts, but...):  ;-)

1.)  What happened to last year's top Big Red attackman, Michael Egan?  I was expecting him to return this year as a junior to be a major offensive contributor.  (As a freshman, two years ago, he scored the game-tying and game-winning goals against #1 Syracuse in that shocking, 13-12 upset at Schoellkopf.)  If he's left the team, then that's a tremendous loss.  It's not like we're overloaded at that position...  ::help::

2.)  What's wrong with senior attackman Scott Lee?  He had 18 pts. last year and has only 2 so far this year.  The opportunity to play is certainly there:  our attack has one hot freshman (Greenhalgh, 18 pts.) and one good sophomore ("man-up specialist"(?) Spoonhower, 8 pts.) -- and that's about it!  I hope he'll be able to contribute down the stretch...

3.)  While lax.com has an easy-to-use and seemingly reliable stat-page...

   http://www.lax.com/stats/1

...and they also have a handy-dandy stat-page for teams (here's ours)...

   http://www.lax.com/team_stats/1010/02

...I'd like to be able to find a more comprehensive source of stats (like, for example, face-off percentage leaders -- I suspect we may be near the top of that list!).  In the past, I've relied on the NCAA's stat-page, which was very comprehensive and was an excellent resource (incredible, eh?).  Alas, this year they seem to have screwed everything up.  You have to fill out a stoopid "request form" to get info., and all I get in return is an error window -- now that is more like the NCAA that we know & hate!  :-P

Here's the page.  Can anyone make it work?  I give up...

http://goomer.ncaa.org:8080/stats/reports?sportCode=MLA&rpt=wkly

4.)  And, finally, if yer still with me...  Why the hell do we have FIVE goalies on our roster this year?!?!  (I know Cynar might appreciate a little back-up, but... jeez!)  ::uhoh::

That's all...  :-)

[DeltaOne81]

Speaking of the Big Red D-machine, I couldn't help but notice...

Of the top 4 offensive teams in college hockey, 3 are in the Frozen Four
Of the top 4 defensive teams in college hockey, none are... in fact, you have to go to 9 before you get two.

Don't get me wrong, I've always been a defense-first kinda fan, so I love Schafer's style, and I do believe that defense wins championships... but not this year, I guess

[GoBigRed \'03]

zg88:
egan quit.  the team is seeing very solid offensive performances from freshman justin redd, sophomore andrew collins, junior jp schalk, and senior billy fort, in addition to the stellar play of greenhalgh and the solid performance of spoonhower.  ian rosenberger is also a fairly consistent contributor on the offensive end.

why do they have 5 goalies?  who knows.

[Greg Berge]

Of the top 4 offensive teams in college hockey, 3 are in the Frozen Four
Of the top 4 defensive teams in college hockey, none are... in fact, you have to go to 9 before you get two.

Don't get me wrong, I've always been a defense-first kinda fan, so I love Schafer's style, and I do believe that defense wins championships... but not this year, I guess

Just talking out of my ass here (where's Melissa when I need her), but perhaps what wins championships is being exceptional in whatever facet of the game is currently weak, nationally.  When defenses tend to be strong and offense is a rare commodity, the few teams with great offenses get more from their excellence than the teams with great defenses.

If there's anything to the theory, you'd expect great defensive teams to populate the frozen four ranks during high scoring periods, like the mid to late 70's.  While one case hardly forms an adequate support, Cornell's greatest offensive teams skated during this period, and despite otherworldly GFA's, they never even won an ECAC title let alone a F4 berth.

[FRED"83]

HE WAS 2-TIME HS AA AND WAS EXPECTED TO BREAK INTO LINEUP.

[DeltaOne81]

Just talking out of my ass here (where's Melissa when I need her), but perhaps what wins championships is being exceptional in whatever facet of the game is currently weak, nationally. When defenses tend to be strong and offense is a rare commodity, the few teams with great offenses get more from their excellence than the teams with great defenses.

A very reasonable theory. Mine was more along the lines of maybe there are not "truly great" defenses this year. Don't get me wrong, we were damn good, but you could easily argue we were a step or two short of what it takes to win a title... given up 4 goals in a clutch game is not a performance of a nationally dominant defense. Given one more year of experience of most of our prime D-Men and a hopefully vaguely similar performance from LeNeveu, next year we may just take that step.

-Fred, DeltaOne81 '03