When the NCAA tournament comes around, lacrosse is at its best. Every team has its season on the line every game and the intensity and physicality of the game is ramped up.
However, Cornell came into its NCAA tournament game and had one of its worst performances of the season. Despite individual greatness from junior goalkeeper Matt Tully, the Red fell 9-8 to Johns Hopkins.
“We just didn’t make the plays, we weren't very poised,” said head coach Connor Buczek ’15 MBA ’17. “At the end of the day in high stakes games you've got to have better possessions and we did not.”
No. 7 Cornell won the opening faceoff and junior midfielder AJ Nikolic, playing on the first midfield line, scored on the run with his left. No. 8 Johns Hopkins quickly answered on a wrap-around and the game slowed down significantly after the quick start.
After a stretch of fantastic defense and hotly contested ground balls from both teams, a ground ball and clear by junior midfielder Luke Gilmartin led to a transition chance for Cornell, and a goal from freshman attackman Rowyn Nurry.
Hopkins got a man-up opportunity but a big save from Tully killed the penalty. Cornell then scored again with Goldstein firing a shot over his defender. Hopkins got another man-up and converted before the quarter ended at a score of 3-2 in favor of Cornell.
The Red got incredible production from its specialty positions in the first quarter, with senior faceoff Jack Cascadden winning all six faceoffs and Tully making four big saves.
Cascadden won the draw to open the second and late in the shot clock, Nurry scored on a basketball-esque post-up move. It was Nurry again, ducking inside his defender and floating a shot to the far post to put Cornell up 5-2.
Hopkins got a momentary numbers advantage through the subbing game and converted. A few more huge saves from Tully shut down the Blue Jays' offense and gave Cornell a man-up chance with 13 seconds left in the half.
Cornell got everyone a touch and junior attackmen Ryan Goldstein and Willem Firth connected for a buzzer beater for a 6-3 halftime lead. During the second quarter, junior defender Ike Lohnes made his return from injury.
Willem Firth '27 beats the buzzer against Johns Hopkins.
Hopkins opened the second half scoring with a three-goal run and then the game came grinding to a halt, with the teams seemingly endlessly turning over the ball back and forth. The third quarter ended with the score at 6-6. Cornell did not register a single shot on goal or faceoff win in the frame, but Tully kept the Red in it.
This time, it was the Red using the subbing game to get a leg up, and Nikolic scored another lefty goal to put Cornell ahead with under ten minutes to go. However, Hopkins answered with a high bouncer and a tough angle skipper to take its first lead of the game.
Another huge save from Tully gave Cornell possession and senior midfielder Brian Luzzi ducked through two defenders to tie the game with 3:30 to go. It was Tully standing tall again that gave the Red the ball back, but the Red hit the pipe.
Brian Luzzi '26 shoots and scores against Johns Hopkins.
With the season on the line, Hopkins had the last possession of regulation, and the ball with Matt Collison, their star player. Cornell tried to put its best defender, senior Brendan Staub, on Collison, but that gave Collison the short stick matchup from behind the cage.
Collison dodged from behind the net and Cornell was late to send a pole to help, but Collison’s shot went straight into the stick of Tully, sending the game to overtime.
Johns Hopkins had the first possession of overtime and Cornell repeatedly had chances to clear, but turned the ball over twice. Firth then took a penalty while fighting for the ball, giving Hopkins a man-up chance with the game on the line.
It was Tully again, standing tall as the penalty expired to save Cornell’s season. However, Hopkins had the shot backed up. Collison dodged around a screen on Staub, forced a slide and moved the ball to the open man who scored to win the game 9-8 for Johns Hopkins.
“I think we got rubbed off a little bit on the pick, and didn't support it the right way. Didn't do it in a unified way,” Buczek said.
Tully was clearly the star of the game for Cornell, making 17 saves on 26 shots for a 65% overall save percentage, many coming down the stretch and on extremely tough shots.
“He's exceptional, he's an unbelievable worker, he's a competitor,” Buczek said. “He shows up every day, and he had an awesome day today. He gave us a chance.”
Cascadden won 12 of 19 faceoffs but struggled after the first half when the Hopkins faceoff began to tie him up to force ground balls.
On offense, Cornell struggled mightily, mustering only 11 shots on goal, though Nurry did have a nice day, scoring a hat trick.
This loss marks the end of Cornell’s season. The Red put up an overall record of 11-5, won the Ivy League regular season championship, and fell four games short of defending its national title.
“Not sure we did enough today. I'm not sure we put ourselves in a position to be successful,” Buczek said. “I thought we fought hard, but I'm not sure we executed at a high enough level to win an NCAA tournament game.”
This marks the end of the road for Cornell’s 11 seniors who were with the program through four straight Ivy League regular season championships, one Ivy League Tournament championship, three NCAA tournament appearances and one NCAA national championship.
“Really proud of them, they had really big shoes to fill this year, and they grew into it tremendously well,” Buczek said. “We’re certainly going to miss those guys, and I think that's the part that hurts the most, to know our time on the field is finished.”
