This summer, sophomore midfielder Luke Robinson realized his lifelong dream by representing Team Canada as he helped lead the team to the men’s lacrosse U20 world championship.
In Canada, the lacrosse experience is not what an American might expect, with just a few months of field lacrosse per year, and a whole lot of box lacrosse.
Box lacrosse takes place in an ice hockey rink with the ice removed. There are six players per team (compared to the 10 for field lacrosse) and no long poles. The goalies wear pads similar to hockey goalies and are much less mobile than field lacrosse goalies.
“You don’t get a lot of that field experience that I feel like the Americans get. … They drill box [lacrosse] in you pretty hard,” Robinson said.
Because of this, Canadians in lacrosse often have a reputation of being shifty, two handed ball movers, similar to the style of play that Canadian attackman Jeff Teat ’21 brought to Cornell. Despite all of his box experience, Robinson breaks this stereotype with his “speedy, dominant left hand” playstyle.
Even though the Canadian lacrosse experience is different than in America, the lacrosse community remains a small world. Robinson looked up to Cornell lacrosse alum and Canadian Dan Lintner ’14, who strung his first ever lacrosse stick.
Of course, Robinson would end up attending Lintner’s alma mater.
“I think it's kind of funny how it worked out that way,” Robinson said.
Lintner scored 88 goals in his four years playing for the Red. Afterwards, Lintner went on to have a very successful professional career, with the Canadian playing box lacrosse in the National Lacrosse League. Former teammate of Lintner and Cornell head coach Connor Buczek ’15 MBA ’17 said “[Dan Lintner is] just a great competitor, great player and a guy that we’re fortunate to call a part of the Big Red family.”
Although he had long hoped to play for team Canada, Robinson could not think about it until he was officially on the team. “Once I was fortunate enough to get the call to make the team that’s probably the point [that I realized it was possible],” Robinson said.
Robinson first attended camp in Oshawa, Ontario before the team traveled to Jeju Island, South Korea for the tournament. Being previously played in Limerick, Ireland; Turku, Finland; and Adelaide, Australia, the tournament is a way to bring lacrosse to new places and grow the game.
“It’s exciting to share the game and hopefully make it more mainstream, not just in North America but abroad too,” Buczek said.
Canada opened its campaign against the United States, which had Buczek on the coaching staff, running the American offense. The U.S. roster included freshman attackman Rowyn Nurry and sophomore defenseman Michael Marshall.
In this opener, Canada fell 7-6, but Robinson tallied a goal and an assist. Despite the loss, Robinson felt the pride of representing his country.
“It’s the highest honor to be able to wear the colors and represent your country,” added Buczek, a former team USA player.
Canada went on to dominate its next four games, beating Australia, Haudenosaunee, Jamaica and Australia again to set up a rematch against the United States in the final. In the high powered grudge match, Canada overcame the odds and won the world championship by a score of 6-5. “Their team is very talented and they were favored to win the game, we knew it was going to be a battle. It was pretty sweet to come out on the winning side of it,” Robinson said.
With Cornell in 2025, Robinson did not see much playing time, with a stacked roster of upperclassmen in front of him.
“Last year with Cornell we had so many great players. I took more of a backseat role and tried to learn from those guys,” Robinson said.
Now, Robinson will likely step into a bigger role in the Cornell midfield that graduated many key contributors, including Canadian Andrew Dalton ’25. Of Robinson’s role this spring, Buczek said, “Playing high level lacrosse as much as he did this summer with team Canada put him on a good trajectory to come back and be ready to take a bigger role. … If this team is going to be successful he is going to play a big hand in that.”
Robinson has simple individual goals for the season, to fit the Cornell system and do whatever it takes to get the team a win.
It is a packed offseason schedule for the Red, who value strength, conditioning, and team building as much as any team in the country. “We get workouts four days a week, so it’s busy but that’s what makes it so good. Coach Howley is one of the greatest, he knows what he’s doing, so whatever he tells us to do we’re going to do it,” Robinson said.
“We’re fortunate to have the best strength coach in the world working with our team,” Buczek said.
In the coming weeks, Cornell will be preparing for its “fall ball” offseason scrimmage against the University of Maryland, a national championship rematch. The two teams will face off in Wilmington Delaware at Salesianum high school on Oct. 25th at 1 p.m..
As always, Cornell has lofty goals for the 2026 season, according to Buczek.
“Goals are the same year in and year out. We want to win an Ivy League regular season championship, we want to win an Ivy League tournament championship, and we want to win a national championship,” Buczek said.
Despite the busy schedule, Robinson joked that while he is not ribbing Buczek as much, he is still finding time to let his teammates Nurry and Marshall from team USA hear about his win.
“[Robinson is] a superb young man, really excited for the success he’s had and excited to see what it looks like with the Big Red this Spring,” Buczek said.
