Last year, the Red saw its postseason cut short in the first game of the Ivy League Tournament. This year, it enters the semifinal not only as first in the Ivy League, but first in the country.
With its victory over Dartmouth last weekend, the Red earned the status of first seed and host of the conference tournament. Play kicks off Friday, when Cornell faces No. 4 Yale in the first semifinal, a match which will be followed by the second semifinal between No. 2 Princeton and No. 3 Harvard.
“Every team’s different year after year, but within the league, I think all these teams are pretty well understood,” said head coach Connor Buczek ’15 MBA ’17. “You spend all year trying to figure out how you’re going to beat the teams in your conference, because that opens the door to get to the [National Collegiate Athletics Association] postseason.”
The first meeting between Cornell and Yale on March 22 was a high-scoring affair, with the Red running away with the game from the first quarter. The Bulldogs struggled to reign in senior attackman CJ Kirst, who netted nine goals to lead the 19-14 win for the Red. Kirst’s explosion was supplemented by eight assists from sophomore attackman Ryan Goldstein.
In contrast, the Red closed its regular season with one of its narrowest victories of the year, a 10-8 Senior Day win over Dartmouth. The Big Green managed to hold Kirst to just two goals, which was enough for the attackman to officially take ownership of the NCAA record for most career goals.
“You take wins in any form that they come to you,” Buczek said. “But [the game against Dartmouth] was certainly an opportunity for us to reflect and look at the things we’re not doing as well as we want to. To be a low-scoring game, to have to win it in different ways and not feel like we were running away with it, was a good learning experience.”
Cornell had six players receive All-Ivy first-team honors, along with three second-team picks and two honorable mentions. The Red also took home the Attackman, Midfielder and Defensive Player of the Year awards for Kirst, senior Hugh Kelleher and senior Jayson Singer, respectively.
The Red will have high expectations to live up to, but with a regular season portfolio so strong, Cornell’s chances of making the NCAA tournament are high even without an automatic bid. Not all teams are so lucky.
Beginning the postseason at the lowest ranking in the conference semifinals, Yale, according to Buczek, will have “nothing to lose and everything to gain.”
“It’s not possible to manufacture desperation, but you can certainly manufacture desire,” Buczek said. “We have to make sure that we match and exceed that intensity that [Yale is] bringing here on Friday.”
The Red will take on the Bulldogs at Schoellkopf Field, with faceoff scheduled for 4 p.m. on Friday. If Cornell passes the semifinal round, it will face the winner of the Harvard/Princeton semifinal at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
All tournament coverage will be streamed through ESPN+.
Alexis Rogers is the sports editor on the 143rd editorial board. She is in the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts & Sciences, and she can be reached at arogers@cornellsun.com.
