M. Lax Faces Hot Big Red

After suffering consecutive losses to No. 17 Penn and No. 10 Duke, the Harvard men’s lacrosse team looks to rebound tomorrow with a matchup against Ivy powerhouse No. 10 Cornell.

The Crimson (4-2, 0-1 Ivy) is looking to this weekend’s contest for its first win in what could be a very wide-open Ivy League race. After this week’s Yale-Princeton upset, each conference game takes on a greater importance.

“At this point, the Ivy title is up for grabs,” said senior midfielder Derek Nowak. “Everyone has losses. We’re looking to put the past two games behind us and come out with a win against Cornell.”

Bringing down the Big Red (6-1, 2-0) won’t be easy. Undefeated in Ivy League competition, Cornell is riding upon a six-game winning streak and looking to maintain its position atop the Ivy standings. A quick-start team, the Big Red has outscored its opponents 30-14 in the first half of games this season, looking to freshman Sean Greenhalgh and sophomore Andrew Collins—who leads the league in scoring—for early goals.

“We’re going to have to play tough defense, possess the ball on offense, and take good, quality shots,” said Nowak.

Midfield precision and possession will be particularly important for the Crimson on Saturday, as the Big Red has tallied on average 11 more ground balls than its competitors. Harvard will look to midfield anchors Nowak, co-captains Michael Baly and James Christian and sophomore Alex Vap.

On the attack, key contributions are expected from Face-Off preseason honorable mention All-Americans Matt Primm and Doug Logigian, freshmen standout Mike McBride and junior Jay Wich, who leads the team in scoring with nine goals in six games.

Cornell’s defense certainly won’t make life easy on the Crimson attack. Anchored by senior goalkeeper Justin Cynar, the Big Red has allowed an average of just over five goals in its last five games.

“They’re definitely one of the most physical, aggressive and atheltic defensive units that we’ll face all season,” said McBride. “We’ve been working on playing under the type of high pressure situations that we’re going to face this weekend, and we’ve definitely become more comfortable executing under pressure.”

Harvard’s defense can expect a good deal of pressure themselves from the high scoring Cornell attack. However, Cornell will have trouble finding the back of sophomore goaltender Jake McKenna’s net. Named a Face-Off preseason honorable mention All-American, McKenna boasts an impressive .660 save percentage.

In front of McKenna, senior Mike Packard anchors a solid defensive unit. Packard, along with junior Andrew Crocco and sophomore Spencer Stenmark, will look to shut down league high scorers Collins, Greenhalgh, J.P. Schalk, and Billy Fort.