Wild Ivies Yield Four-Way Tie; Cornell to Host
by Brian Delaney | Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online | Cornell-Princeton Blog
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Roy Lang's second goal in the fourth quarter proved to be the game-winner, as No. 10 Cornell beat No. 7 Princeotn, 10-9, on Saturday. The Big Red will be the top seed in the Ivy League tournament. © Greg Wall |
PRINCETON, N.J. -- The year of the first Ivy
League men's lacrosse conference tournament will also be the year
of the first four-way tie for the regular season title in 54
years.
After Saturday's three deciding results, the foursome of Cornell,
Princeton, Yale and Brown finished 4-2 in league play in
unquestionably the deepest, most parity-driven season of lacrosse
in Ivy history. Fittingly, it seemed, each pivotal game Saturday
was decided by a single goal.
In a pair of 1 p.m. starts, Yale topped Harvard 9-8, and Brown
edged Dartmouth 10-9 in overtime on a goal by Thomas Muldoon to
shore up the four postseason qualifiers. The only question left to
decide was who would host.
No. 10 Cornell answered that question, barely, in its 5 p.m. game
at seventh-ranked Princeton. Holding off a furious Tigers rally,
the Big Red clinched the top seed by virtue of a tiebreaker and
will host the league tournament after a 10-9 victory at Class of
1952 Stadium.
"I've never seen anything like what the Ivy League's been like
this year," said Cornell coach Jeff Tambroni, whose program won a
share of its eighth straight league championship.
Cornell entered the fourth quarter leading 9-3, but was outscored
6-1 over the final 15 minutes as the Tigers controlled the faceoff
X. Freshmen Mike Chanenchuk and Jeff Froccaro had shot
opportunities to tie the game in the final 15 seconds, but
Chanenchuk's offering missed the net and Froccaro's nipped the pipe
and squirted out of bounds while time ran out.
Cornell goalie A.J. Fiore said he couldn't tell if he got a piece
of Froccaro's shot, but he heard it hit the pipe.
"I dont even know. I was so hyped up on adrenaline, it was like
please hit me, hit the post, hit the net, go wide, do whatever you
want, just dont go in the net," Fiore said.
Cornell will play Brown in the 1-4 game, a rematch of the Bears'
13-10 victory at Schoellkopf Field last weekend. Princeton,
meanwhile, will face Yale for a shot in Sunday's championship. The
Tigers beat the Bulldogs by a goal earlier this season.
The winner gets the league's automatic berth to the NCAA
tournament.
"I thought momentum was with us, and I thought guys were making
plays out there. The ground balls were going our way. But it just
didnt happen," Princeton senior midfielder Scott MacKenzie
said.
Princeton was held to scoreless droughts of 20:40 and 20:38 over
the first three quarters, and Cornell pitched shutouts in the first
and third quarters. The Tigers outshot Cornell 44-40, but only put
17 shots on cage.
Princeton got rolling in the fourth, as MacKenzie and Chanenchuk
scored two goals each. Sophomore Roy Lang gave Cornell a brief
respite with a tough, change-of-direction score off the dodge to
make it 10-7 with 6:24 left. Princeton answered on goals by
Chanenchuk and Alex Capretta, the latter coming with 2:56
remaining.
MacKenzie hit the crossbar shortly thereafter, and A.J. Fiore made
a stop on Jack McBride with just under a minute to go.
Tambroni semi-joked afterward that hosting the tournament may not
be a great thing, considering three of Cornell's four losses came
at Schoellkopf Field. Regardless of where the tournament was going
to be held, it became apparent over the last few weeks that teams
one through six all were capable of winning two games in three
days.
Saturday's outcomes only reinforced that notion.
