Brotherly Love: Harvard and Cornell Goalies Square Off

Junior goalkeeper Keith Cynar will have a busy day when he travels to his home state of New York tomorrow.

In addition to minding the net for the Harvard men's lacrosse team against Cornell, Cynar will also be celebrating a family reunion in Ithaca with his younger brother, Justin, on the other end of Schoellkopf Field, who will be in goal for the Big Red.

"This is the first time we've ever played against each other in an official game, so that should make it interesting," Keith said. "Justin has won Ivy League Rookie of the Week a couple of times and is doing well. I saw him when I went home for Easter, but we haven't spoken since then because we're both getting ready for this game, which is very important for both teams."

Indeed, the No. 19 Big Red (3-3, 1-1 Ivy) and No. 20 Crimson (3-3, 1-0) are two of the three nationally-ranked teams in the Ancient Eight. Statistically, Harvard and Cornell might as well be the same team. In addition to identical records and adjacent rankings, one squad (Harvard) has scored 47 goals and allowed 53 while the other (Cornell) has tallied 46 goals against 49 for its opponents.

And this pattern holds true for the Cynar brothers. Justin has an 8.14 goals against average (GAA) and 72 saves for Cornell after the first six games of his collegiate career and should be a candidate for the Ivy Rookie of the Year Award. Keith, a pre-season All-American and former Ivy Rookie of the Year himself, has an 8.11 GAA and 71 saves this season.

"I won't see much of Justin during the game because we'll be on different ends of the field but after the game we'll still be brothers," Keith said. "We'll both be preoccupied because every game in the Ivy League has been decided by one goal this year, and this game should be the same."

The Crimson is on a roll, having won three of its last four games, with its only loss over that stretch coming against No. 2 Duke. Harvard continued its aggressive play at Vermont Wednesday, jumping out to a 7-3 lead and hanging on despite three Catamount goals in the final 3:09 for the victory.

"I'm pretty happy with the team's performance in recent games, but we didn't play that well at Vermont," said sophomore midfielder Roger Buttles, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Week. "Part of the problem was that we were looking ahead to Cornell, and we know this is a huge Ivy League game coming up."

Both Harvard and Cornell have survived one of the tougher teams in the Ancient Eight--Penn, which was ranked No. 15 before losing to the conference's three currently-ranked teams. The Crimson needed overtime and five goals from Buttles to defeat the Quakers, 8-7, at Ohiri Field two weeks ago Saturday and the Big Red outlasted the Quakers, 10-9, at Schoellkopf a week later.

"We are capable of beating anyone in the country, but so is Cornell," Buttles said. "We can give them a run for their money but we can't come out flat. The team that plays with the most desire will win this game, and I think we will have the right mental attitude because winning the Ivy League is our goal and this is our biggest game of the year so far."

The Big Red offense is led by a trio of attackers in seniors Josh Morgan (11 goals, 3 assists), Sean Steinwald (5, 7) and sophomore Andrew Schardt (12, 1). The Crimson will counter with a pair of its own attackers in junior Lawson DeVries (7, 7), sophomore Dana Sprong (10, 3) and Buttles (8, 3).

As the midpoint of its 13-game schedule, the Cornell game is a must-win for Harvard if the Crimson wants a shot at the 12-team NCAA Tournament.

After dropping its first two games to unranked Fairfield and Hobart, Harvard climbed into the polls for the first time this season after beating Penn.

But with tough games coming up in the next few weeks--including a trip to No. 9 Princeton--the Crimson needs to beat the Big Red, the other top threat to challenge the Tigers for the Ancient Eight title.