[Lax] Cornell at Princeton

[jason]

Anyone know how to find the field where the game will be? I've been to Princeton a couple of times for hockey, but otherwise don't know the area or the campus (and my recollection was that you had to somewhat know where the rink was to have any chance of finding it so I fear the same is true for their lacrosse field).

[jason]

Ok, I think I answered my own question. I found a good map of the campus at their website in pdf format: http://www.princeton.edu/pr/facts/map+key.pdf
The Class of 1952 Stadium is at the corner of Washington Rd and Faculty Rd.

BTW, I'm assuming that I can just walk up and buy a ticket without any problem. No?

[Chris 02]

4-2 Tigers currently

[Al DeFlorio]

Greenhalgh makes it 4-3.

Cornell needs to be more aggressive on offense.  Right now they're playing Princeton's deliberate style.

[Chris 02]

4-3 at the half

[zg88]

Princeton owned the 3rd -- they lead Cornell 9-3.  Nasty.

[zg88]

Cornell scores on 3 of 4 shots to narrow the gap -- Princeton leads, 10-6 (middle of 4th).

(Big Red has scored last 3 after 6-goal Tiger run.)

[zg88]

FINAL:  Princeton 12 - Cornell 7.  :-(

(Tough to win when you get out-ground-balled by a 2-to-1 ratio!)

(Pointless lament:  Take away the 5-0 Princeton 3rd quarter, and it's a 7-7 tie... sigh...)

[rhovorka]

I think it was all my fault, as I tuned in at the 2nd half faceoff.  Frustration abound, as this was not a good game to lose.

[ugarte]

I'm disappointed, but not distressed.   Cornell punched their ticket to the postseason last week.  A win and a solo Ivy championship would have been great, but Cornell is still likely to be Ivy co-champs.  (Knock on wood)

Princeton needed this game to save their season, and it sounds like they played like it.  We'll get them back in the postseason.

[Al DeFlorio]

Losing 15 of 22 faceoffs didn't help the cause either.

[zg88]

I had heard, a while back (a few weeks ago??), that Sollog (our face-off guy) was battling a "sore back".  I wonder if he's still being hampered by that...  With Cornell entering the game #5 in f-o's, and Princeton not even in the top 20, you have to wonder what happened.  Sollog's performance is going to be vital down the stretch (duh).

Of course, if you pair the f-o stat (15-7, Princeton) with the ground-ball stat (31-19, Princeton), then you get the picture that the Tigers just WANTED it more (maybe bacause they NEEDED it more!  (...but not by much...)).

I had feared (as I'm sure many of us did) that the Tigers would realize that shutting down Greenhalgh would disrupt our offense.  Well, guess what?!  With our freshman sensation in a virtual lock-down, the others needed to step up.  We've depended so much on Sean lately that, with him unavailable, our feeders (Schalk, Fort, Collins (heh-heh:  "Fort Collins"  ::nut:: ) were forced to try to find new targets -- to no avail.

Telling stat:  only 2 assists for Cornell in the game.  With non-snipers (i.e., not Sean) taking the shots, our overall shot selection was less than brilliant.  Princeton's goalie ain't THAT good.  It was nice to see, err--hear, Lee in the game.  It's too bad that he wasn't able to provide some magical spark, but it's not fair to expect him to save the day (we never did establish if it was a BIG toe or not, did we??).

On the other side of the coin, our defense was so focused on shutting down Princeton's feared offensive unit that it allowed their middies to get into the action -- and so they did (scoring 6 of the Tigers' 12).  Furthermore, defensive miscommunications (apparently often involving double-team efforts) led to the availability of Tiger targets on the crease.  And Princeton DID capitalize, making Cynar look bad.

Since I was not there, I will not pick on Justin.  But, my gut tells me he did not have the kind of BIG GAME performance that we desperately needed.  I'll leave it to an eyewitness to evaluate his performance.  (Note:  shots were even, 32-32).

Game story at C.U. athletics:

http://cornellbigred.fansonly.com/sports/m-lacros/recaps/042002aaa.html


I wish I could share b.r.a.'s confidence about Cornell's presence in the post-season (I'd feel a little better if we'd lost in OT, and not by 5).  If the Ivy schedule plays out like it "should", with Cornell and Princeton both winning out (and each finishing 5-1), then Princeton gets the auto-bid.  There is incredibly intense competition for the paltry handful of at-large bids, and even with Cornell finishing at 11-2, it's no sure thing...

The tourney outlook is discussed ad nauseum at LaxPower, so I won't try to muddle through it here.  Instead, check out this thread (@LaxPower):

http://forums.laxpower.com/read.php?f=1&i=22911&t=22911


Shake it off, Red, and POUND BROWN NEXT WEEK!!!  (Uhhh... so to speak...)
:-P

[zg88]

Brown beats Dartmouth, 11-8, to remain in the hunt for an Ivy title.

That game was eerily similar to the C.U.-Princeton game.  Check it out:

The game got off to a slow start, with Dartmouth (Cornell) scoring first.  A 2nd-Q surge by Brown (Princeton) gave them a 4-3 lead at the half.  Brown (Princeton) dominated the 3rd-Q by a 5-0 margin, giving them a 9-3 lead going into the final Q.  A Dartmouth (Cornell) rally gave some hope (big difference being that Dartmouth's rally brought them to within 2 -- Cornell only got within 4), but that hope was dashed by a pair of late Brown (Princeton) goals.  The final, inconsequential, goal was scored by Dartmouth (Cornell) in the final minute.

Shots were exactly even (Brown/Dartmouth AND Princeton/Cornell), but face-offs and ground-balls were dominated by Brown (Princeton).

Weird.  (Or am I weird??)  ::nut::

[Al DeFlorio]

I don't see us as a lock for a bid at all.  

We've got to win out, and that will not be easy.  Brown can still get the Ivy autobid by beating Cornell and Princeton.  While it may be too much to expect that they win both, the problem is that they play Cornell first (next Saturday), so it will be a make-or-break game for them--just as it was for Princeton yesterday.  And I still have nightmares from last year's blown 6-2 halftime lead at Brown.

Not time for chicken-counting just yet, IMHO.

[kingpin248]

Two important results went against Cornell's chances for an at-large bid this weekend:

(1) Georgetown lost to UMass.  The Minutemen have clinched the ECAC autobid.  That throws another viable team into the at-large mix.

(2) Fairfield beat Notre Dame today.  They clinch the GWLL title and autobid.  However, another team from the GWLL will go, because of the "regional representation" rule in selection, that says there has to be a team from the Western Region, which is comprised only of the five GWLL schools besides Fairfield.  Hopefully, the committee will get rid of this rule before next year's tournament.

Bottom line: Cornell is by no means a lock to go.  A loss in either of these final two games could do in their chances for postseason play.

(I did indeed mean "at large-bid" above, and thus corrected myself.)