Both Cornell varsity lacrosse teams received the good news they were looking for May 5 -- invitations to the 2002 NCAA tournament.
The women's team earned the No. 4 seed and will play host to No. 13 Syracuse today at 4 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field. The men, who were seeded sixth in the 12-team field, will play Stony Brook Saturday, May 11, at Brown University in Providence, R.I.
Cornell is one of six schools (with Duke, Georgetown, Princeton, Syracuse and Virginia) that have both their men's and women's lacrosse teams competing for a national title.
In more good news, the Cornell softball team was among four teams invited to the ECAC championship to be held May 11-12 at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., the conference office announced May 7. Cornell put together a 30-20 regular season with an 8-6 mark in Ivy play, good for third place in the league. The team now has reached 30 victories in six straight seasons. This is the third time the Cornell women have been invited to the ECAC championships. The team will begin its quest for the title in the double-elimination format with a contest against Dartmouth Saturday, May 11, at noon.
The softball team has won two of three games against Dartmouth this year, including an 11-6 extra-inning win at the Rebel Games in Florida and a split in an Ivy doubleheader at Niemand-Robison Field, April 20. The team is a combined 5-3 this year against the other three schools in the tournament.
The women's lacrosse squad brings a 14-1 record into its second consecutive NCAA tournament appearance. The win total is a school record, as is the squad's current nine-game winning streak. The Big Red also went 6-1 in Ivy League play to finish second, its best finish in program history. The team is riding a 10-game home winning streak and has posted a 6-1 record against teams ranked in the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association Top 20 poll.
This will be the team's second meeting with Syracuse this year; Cornell collected a 13-6 victory April 17 at Schoellkopf Field. A victory would propel Cornell into a second round game against the winner of the Loyola (Md.)-Maryland game Sunday, May 12, at a site and time to be determined. The winner of that game will advance to the NCAA Final Four in Baltimore at Loyola, May 17.
The men's lacrosse team (10-3) will return to the NCAA tournament for the first time since the 2000 campaign. The Big Red will face the America East champion Stony Brook Seawolves Saturday, with the winner battling No. 3 Virginia in the quarterfinal May 19 in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins.
The Cornell men are 2-2 against NCAA tournament teams this year. Besides this past Saturday's 10-6 win over Hobart, the squad defeated then-No. 1 Syracuse 15-11 at Schoellkopf Field earlier in the year. Cornell fell to Georgetown 8-5 in the season opener and dropped a 12-7 decision at Princeton on April 20.
Cornell is 1-0 all-time against the Seawolves, having earned a 12-5 win to close the 1999 season.