To say the Cornell men's lacrosse team (8-1, 3-0 Ivy) is on a roll would be an understatement. It's more of a tidal wave of momentum that's been swelling as the ninth-ranked Big Red men have rattled off eight straight wins, the latest being a midweek triumph over No. 1 Syracuse.
This weekend, Dartmouth (5-2, 0-1 Ivy) has the unenviable task of travelling to Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca to try to stop Cornell and rebound from last weekend's loss to Penn.
After losing its season opener to Georgetown, Cornell has won eight in a row and is ranked ninth in the country in the latest coaches poll. This ranking is bound to go up after the Big Red upset top-ranked Syracuse, 15-11. The Syracuse game came on the heels of last Saturday's 11-4 victory over No. 19 Harvard, a contest in which Cornell outscored the Crimson 9-0 in the second half to secure the win.
Allowing only 5.88 goals per game, the Big Red has the top-ranked defense in the nation and has outscored opponents 55-24 at home this season. The Big Red defense is led by a trio of All-Americans: preseason All-Americans Ryan McClay (first team), Josh Heller (third team) and previous All-American goalie Justin Cynar.
Cornell is just as good at the other end of the field, so the Dartmouth defense, anchored by Anatole Wedmid '02, will have its hands full. The Big Green longpoles will focus most of their attention on Cornell freshman Sean Greenhalgh. Greenhalgh, voted Ivy League Rookie of the Week for the third time this season, leads both Cornell and the Ivy League in scoring with 27 goals. Greenhalgh tallied four goals in the second half against Harvard before exploding for six goals on seven shots against the Orangemen.
Dartmouth will counter with a freshman pair of its own. Middies Ben Grinnell and Pat Keeley were once again selected to the Ivy League honor roll for the week, and will play an integral part in this weekend's showdown. With his goal against Penn, Grinnell continues to lead the team with 12 goals, while Keeley has remained solid on defense, recently forcing five turnovers against the Quakers.
If you are looking for a subtle statistic that may determine Saturday's winner, keep your eye on time of possession. Goals will be hard to come by for the Big Green attack, so the more time the team can keep the ball, the better chance Dartmouth will have of breaking down the Cornell defense.
Likewise, maintaining possession will keep the ball out of Greenhalgh's stick and give the Big Green defenders important minutes of rest. Geoff Colla '04 will play a key part in the possession game from the face-off circle and the attack and middies will have to cut down on turnovers.
Cornell may look good on paper, but Dartmouth isn't about to concede anything on the field. The Big Green is fired up and looking to avenge last weekend's tough loss to Penn as well as last year's 10-5 decision to Cornell in Hanover. The Dartmouth attackers need another quick start like the first seven minutes last week that put their team up 2-0 against the Quakers. A start like that would put the Big Green in great position to knock off a Cornell team that may be still thinking about the Syracuse win or perhaps looking past the Big Green to next week's showdown against Princeton. If Dartmouth grabs an early lead, it needs to do a better job maintaining it.
"There is no doubt we could have won that game," Wedmid said in reference to the Penn contest. "
"We played well at points, but we weren't able to play at the level we are capable of playing at for the entire 60 minutes we are so close to becoming the type of team we want to be."
A solid effort for 60 minutes against Cornell would be characteristic of the team they want to be. If capable of putting such an effort together, Dartmouth could leave Ithaca with a win and make a much larger statement to the Ivy League than the one it let slip away last week.
