2018 Men's Lacrosse Schedule
 
ITHACA, N.Y. –  Interim head coach Pete Milliman has announced the Big Red's schedule for the upcoming 2018 men's lacrosse season. The slate is an exciting one with seven home games, as well as a trip to Sparks, Md. to take on Penn State at US Lacrosse's Tierney Field. As always, the Big Red schedule will also feature the ever-competitive Ivy League conference games, several games with traditional rivals, five opponents that participated in the 2017 NCAA men's lacrosse tournament, and the ninth season of the Ivy League Tournament, slated to be played for the first time in New York City.
 
The Big Red opens the season on Saturday, Feb. 17 when it travels to Hamilton to take on instate rival, Colgate. Cornell, which owns a 43-7-1 record in the series with Colgate, has won 13 consecutive contests against the Raiders, including last season's 15-6 victory in Ithaca. Colgate, under the direction of seventh-year head coach Mike Murphy, is coming off a 5-9 campaign (3-5 Patriot).
 
The home-opener happens one week later, as the team welcomes its oldest rival, Hobart, to Schoellkopf Field on Saturday, Feb. 24. The game will be the 138th meeting between the two programs, with the Big Red holding an 86-48-4 advantage in the all-time series, which began in 1896. The Statesmen ended a 12-game skid in the series with last season's 16-8 victory in Geneva. In his fifth season at the helm of the Statesmen's program, Greg Raymond led Hobart to a 9-7 record overall and a mark of 5-1 in the NEC before falling in the NEC Championship game to Bryant, 5-4.
 
Cornell heads to Albany the following Saturday (March 3) before returning to Ithaca for a mid-week contest against Binghamton, who returns to the schedule for the first time since 2015, on Tuesday, March 6.


The Great Danes hold the slim 3-2 lead in the series after winning each of the last three meetings. Albany had another tremendous season in 2017, going 15-3 overall (6-0 American East) and winning the America East Tournament title to earn a spot in the NCAA tournament.
 
Cornell is a perfect 12-0 in the series against the Bearcats after winning the 2015 meeting, 17-10. Second-year head coach Kevin McKeown, one of the most decorated players in Binghamton lacrosse history, guided the program to an 11-5 record (4-2 AE) and a trip to the America East Tournament championship game in his first season at the helm.
 
The Big Red will get its first look at US Lacrosse's Tierney Field when it meets Penn State on Saturday, March 10. The Nittany Lions took the 21-20 lead in the all-time series with back-to-back wins over the past two seasons. Penn State advanced to the NCAA Tournament last season after posting a 12-4 record overall and a mark of 3-2 in the Big 10 conference.

Ivy League play begins as the Big Red welcomes the defending conference champions, Yale, to Schoellkopf Field for the 78th meeting all-time on Saturday, March 17. Cornell has dropped two in a row to the Bulldogs for the first time since the mid-1990s, but still holds the commanding 51-25-1 lead in the all-time series. Yale went 10-6 last season (5-1 Ivy), won the Ivy League Tournament title and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
 
The following weekend, Cornell heads to Penn for a contest on Saturday, March 24, before returning to Ithaca for a mid-week game against Air Force on Tuesday, March 27.
 
The Cornell and Penn rivalry is the second-oldest in the Ivy League, beginning in the Quakers' second varsity season in 1901. The two programs began playing each other regularly in 1920, meeting nearly every season since. The 2018 edition will be the 94th meeting, with the Big Red holding a dominating 65-25-3 record overall, including winning nine of the last 12 meetings. A year ago, the Quakers earned a slim 10-9 win over Cornell, a victory that gave them the tie-breaker over the Big Red for the final spot in the Ivy League Tournament. Penn finished the year with a record of 7-6 overall (3-3 Ivy).
 
Cornell will square off with the Falcons for just the second time in program history. The only other meeting, a 9-6 Big Red victory, took place in the 1968 season-opener in Boca Raton, Fla.
 
The team will close the month of March with a trip to Hanover to take on Dartmouth for the 68th time in program history on Saturday, March 31. The Big Red has dominated the series against Dartmouth, posting an all-time record of 52-15, and winning 18 of the last 20 meetings, including last season's 14-5 victory in Ithaca. The Big Green, under the direction of fourth-year head coach Brendan Callahan, is looking to improve on a 2017 campaign in which it went 2-11 overall and 0-6 in the Ivy League. 
 
The only back-to-back home games on the schedule will take place the following week as Cornell welcomes Harvard on Saturday, April 7 and Syracuse on Tuesday, April 10.
 
The Big Red had a three-game losing streak against the Crimson snapped last season with a 12-9 victory in Cambridge to improve to 65-26 in the all-time series. A year ago, eighth-year head coach Chris Wojcik led his alma mater to a 6-7 record (2-4 Ivy).
 
The series with Syracuse began in 1920 and since that time, there have been only four seasons (1944, 1945, 1977, 1978) that the two squads have not faced each other in varsity competition. Syracuse owns the 65-38-1 record all time after a 15-8 victory a year ago. Syracuse, which is beginning its fifth season in the ACC, is coming off a 13-3 campaign (4-0 ACC) and a trip to the NCAA Quarterfinals.
 
The final non-conference game of the season will be at Lehigh on Saturday, April 14. The Mountain Hawks are the first collegiate team that Cornell ever played in men's lacrosse in a contest held on May 4, 1893. Lehigh owns the 9-6-3 record in the all-time series, but all of the Mountain Hawks' victories came prior to World War I. Cornell has won six consecutive games (1954, 1955, 2006, 2016, 2017) but the teams have met only three times in the past 63 years (2006, 2016, 2017). Lehigh went 7-7 overall in 2017 and posted a mark of 4-4 in the Patriot League.
  
Senior Day will take place when Cornell welcomes Brown to Schoellkopf Field on Saturday, April 21. The Big Red owns a 36-21 record in the all-time series with Brown, but the Bears have won three in a row after last season's 13-10 decision. Brown finished the 2017 campaign year under first-year head coach Mike Daly with a 10-6 record overall (4-2 Ivy).

Cornell will play its final regular season game when it travels to Princeton on Saturday, April 28.

The marquee matchup in Ivy League lacrosse, the two squads have combined for 53 conference titles. The Big Red won last year's meeting in a shootout, 18-17, getting the victory in 12 of the last 17 contests to cut Princeton's lead in the all-time series to 41-38-2.

For the ninth year, the Ivy League will sponsor a post-season tournament on the weekend of May 4-6. The 2018 Ivy League Men's Lacrosse Tournament will include the top four teams in the conference regular season round-robin and for the first time will be hosted at a neutral site – Columbia's Robert K. Kraft Field at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium.