Cornell shares the Ivy League crown with Brown and Princeton.
ITHACA, N.Y. -- After 15 minutes of play in Saturday's showdown between No. 12 Cornell and No. 14 Princeton, the Big Red trailed 5-0. The home team had been doubled-up on ground balls (8-4) and had been outshot 14-4.
By the time John Edmonds scored the team's first goal at the 13:49 mark of the second quarter, the Big Red had been held scoreless for more than 38 minutes of game time extending back to the third quarter of its game with Brown this past weekend.
But the Edmonds goal changed all that and Cornell went on to finish with a 15-10 victory to improve to 10-4 overall (4-2 Ivy) and earn a share of its 29th Ivy League title. The Big Red's win, coupled with Brown's victory against Dartmouth, means that Cornell, the Bears and the Tigers all share the conference crown.
Saturday's results also mean that the Big Red will face Princeton again in the first round of the 2015 Men's Lacrosse Ivy League Tournament, held at Brown on Friday at 5 p.m. ET.
"To earn a share of the Ivy League title yet again is a big deal to us," said Matt Kerwick, the Richard M. Moran Head Coach of Lacrosse. "Of course we want to be undefeated Ivy champions every year but fortunately today we were able to claim a piece of it again and it's a tribute to these guys and how hard they work and how much they care."
"Obviously it was a tough start to that game," continued Kerwick. "We didn't have the ball almost the entire first quarter and to Princeton's credit they just outworked us on the ground balls. Considering we lost the ground ball battle last week against Brown we could maybe start second guessing but our guys did not do that. They kept fighting and clawed their way back into the game and that second quarter was one of the best quarters of lacrosse I've seen us play all season."
The second quarter spark began with the unassisted goal by Edmonds and was benefited by the face-off play of Matt Schattner and Domenic Massimillian, who combined to win seven consecutive restarts, allowing Cornell to essentially play a game of make-it, take-it and outscore the Tigers 9-0 in the quarter.
