Yale Opens Ivy Campaign at Cornell
BATTLE OF RANKED TEAMS IN IVY OPENER
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The Yale men’s lacrosse team, 4-0 and ranked 17th in the new insideLacrosse.com poll, opens Ivy League play at No. 10 Cornell. This Saturday’s 1 p.m. face-off at Schoellkopf Field can be seen live on cornellbigred.com.
BLUE AND RED
The Big Red has taken 10 straight and leads the series 42-23-1.
Yale’s last win was 7-6 in 1999 at home; the last Bulldog win
at Ithaca was an 11-10 OT decision in 1996.
LAST MEETING
No. 3/4 Cornell broke open a tight contest with a 10-1 run over the third and fourth quarters to pull for a 15-8 victory over Yale at Reese Stadium last April. Yale was led by Matt and Brendan Gibson with two goals apiece, while Brian Douglass registered a goal and an assist. Jonathan Falcone made 14 saves before Andrew Brown came on in relief. On the other side, John Glynn had four points and won 13-of-19 face-offs. Kyle Harer made 10 saves and allowed six goals before giving way to Jake Myers, who allowed two man-up goals. Cornell held the edge in shots (53-33), ground balls (47-31) and face-offs (18-of-27).
BULLDOGS BITE HAWKS
Brutal weather and a long road trip didn’t prevent Yale from taking an 8-6 win over Lehigh last Saturday at Frank Banko ’41 Field. Gregory Mahony had four goals as the Bulldogs held off a late comeback. The Elis, playing for the first time ever at Lehigh, had the advantage in shots (31-17) and ground balls (33-30). Max Rodman, the senior midfielder who has been outstanding in his first season as the primary Yale faceoff man, won 11 of 18 battles and set the tone that helped his team remain undefeated. Brendan Gibson and Brian Douglass had the other Yale goals, while Jonathan Falcone had six saves.
ELI OFFENSE
Junior A Brian Douglass leads the team with 10 goals and is second in the country with a .625 shot percentage. Sophomore A Matt Gibson, who ranks 14th in Division I with 4.25 points per game, has a team-high eight assists and 17 points. His .533 shot percentage is 10th.
BETWEEN THE PIPES
Junior goalie Johnathan Falcone has a 7.28 goals against average (6th in Division I) with a .534 save percentage (23rd). He has every decision but Andrew Brown and Peter Spaulding have also seen time in net.
FACE-OFF
Senior M Max Rodman has won 56 of 86 (65%) of his face-offs this season and ranks fourth in the country. Cornell’s Austin Boykin is fifth, which sets up an interesting battle this Saturday. Rodman has taken all but eight of Yale’s face-offs.
GROUND BALLS
Junior LSM Patrick Coleman leads the Blue with 14 pick-ups. Sophomore M Michael Pratt and Rodman are one off Coleman’s pace.
2010 HONORS
Yale sophomore Matt Gibson was named March 8 co-Ivy League Player of the Week after a 10-point weekend in a pair of victories. Gibson, who shared the honor with Cornell senior Ryan Hurley, led the Elis to a 13-12 win over No. 12 UMass last Friday with five goals and two assists. He notched the winner with 34 seconds left. His five goals and seven points were both career-highs. Two days later in Virginia, Gibson handed out three assists as Yale beat Presbyterian College.
BIG RED
Cornell opened the season with four straight wins against
non-ranked teams before falling at home to top-ranked Virginia last
Saturday, 12-4. This Saturday’s game is the fourth straight
home contest for the Red, averaging close to 1,000 fans at
Schoellkopf Field this season. Rob Pannell (9-10-19) leads Cornell
in points, Ryan Hurley has a team-best 14 goals. AJ Fiore has all
the decisions in goal and brings a .547 save percentage (8.59 GAA)
into this game.
IVY POWER
Ivy League teams have won 24 of 31 non-league games this season.
Yale is the only unbeaten remaining after North Carolina knocked
off Princeton on Tuesday. Five Ivy League teams are among the 20 in
the latest insideLacrosse.com national rankings: Princeton is No.
5, Cornell 10th, Harvard 14th, Yale 17th and
Brown 20th. The Ivy League, which will have its first-ever
post-season tournament in May, currently has one more than the
ACC.
BULLDOG MENTOR
Yale head coach Andy Shay is in his seventh season and brings a 38-45 overall record into Saturday’s contest. Shay, a two-time captain at LeMoyne College, was part of two UMass NCAA Quarterfinals teams as an assistant coach before coming to Yale.
REESE RENOVATIONS
The renovation of Reese Stadium, scheduled for completion this
summer, will provide a state-of –the-art facility for both
Yale lacrosse and soccer teams. The renovations include increased
stadium seating, an entry plaza, team rooms and a press box. Recent
improvements included a FieldTurf surface and improved lighting.
Reese Stadium, formerly known as the Yale Soccer-Lacrosse Stadium,
is named after former lacrosse players Jason Reese '87 and Jon
Reese '90.
BULLDOG BITES
Yale is sixth in scoring among Division I teams and
14th in defense… Sophomore Mark Dobrosky’s
brother, Dave, is a senior on the Harvard lax team… The
Bulldogs are one of six undefeated Division I teams (two are
meeting Tuesday)… Sophomore M Colin Still has two brothers
who played college lacrosse (Georgetown, Dickinson).
OH CANADA
The first two Bulldogs recruited from Canada exclusively for
lacrosse are newcomers Kirby Zdrill and Deron Dempster.
ROSTER SPREAD
The Yale roster includes players from 17 states and two
provinces. The most are from New York (9), New Jersey (5) and
Pennsylvania (4). None of the 11 members of the class of 2013 hail
from the same state or province.
NEILA
The Elis, ranked first in the NEILA poll for the second straight week, are ahead of Harvard, UMass, Brown, Fairfield, Bryant, Quinnipiac and Dartmouth.
BULLDOG BONES
preview filed by Steve Conn, Yale Sports Publicity Director
Michael Pratt image by Sam Rubin '95
