Cornell Hosts First Ivy Lacrosse Tournament

I haven't written much about lacrosse this spring, mainly because I've been too busy to make it to many games. But the Cornell men's team has had a pretty remarkable season.

Despite losing a lot of talent from last year's team which really, really should have won the NCAA title, this year's team is right back at the top. They've had disappointing losses to Brown and Dartmouth, another devastating last-second loss to Syracuse, and a blowout loss to Virginia at home. But they've beaten everyone else and currently sit at No. 6 in the RPI rankings.

Their most significant victory came on Saturday at Princeton. With the win, Cornell secured home field for the inaugural Ivy lacrosse tournament, which takes place this weekend. (Under the previous years' system, Cornell would have earned the Ivy automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.) Here are the highlights from Saturday:

Cornell plays Brown in the semifinal at 8pm on Friday. It's Slope Day, so expect a light student turn-out. I think I went a couple of years ago on Slope Day to see Cornell play Hobart, and there weren't many students. The final is Sunday at noon.

This season, Cornell has struggled to get past some easy teams, and they've nearly blown some late-game leads (including on Saturday). And the final-second loss to Syracuse probably set the team back pretty far in their process of recovering from last year's game. Don't expect to see Cornell in the national championship game this year. But the ability to turn what was expected to be a down year into another highly competitive, Ivy-winning season speaks to the talent of Coach Jeff Tambroni and to Cornell's status as a lacrosse powerhouse.

Can't say we're not living in a great time for Cornell athletics. If only I could erase that nightmare at Foxboro from my memory.