2023 Men's Top 30: How Cornell Fared vs. Projections

Before USA Lacrosse Magazine looks ahead to what’s to come in 2024, our team of staff and contributors decided it was worth taking one last look at 2023.

After all, you have to look at the most recent results before making projections for what’s to come. To do that, we’re taking a journey through the top 30 teams in men’s and women’s lacrosse — what went right, what went wrong and what we should all think of that team’s season.

Was it a success? A failure? A mixture of both? You’ll find out our thoughts over the next month or so.

CORNELL MEN’S LACROSSE

Nike/USA Lacrosse Preseason/Final Top 20 Ranking: 4/10
2023 record: 11-4 (5-1 Ivy League)

WHAT WENT RIGHT

CJ Kirst (65 G, 19 A) was one of the nation’s best attackmen. Gavin Adler was arguably the top defenseman in Division I and wound up going first overall in the PLL College Draft. The Big Red won the Ivy League regular season, reaching at least 10 goals in all but two games while never allowing more than 13 goals in any game through the end of April.

WHAT WENT WRONG

The defense struggled in Cornell’s two games in May, a 22-15 loss to Yale in the Ivy League semifinals and a 15-14 setback against Michigan in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

SEASON HIGHLIGHT

Kirst had a pair of seven-goal games (against Hobart and Penn), but the Big Red’s greatest accomplishment as a team was winning its 31st Ivy League regular season title. Cornell didn’t clinch it until the regular-season finale when Aiden Blake forced overtime against Princeton with a goal late in regulation and then won it with 2:23 left in the extra period.

VERDICT

With the season firmly in the rear-view mirror, it might be harder to peg just how good Cornell was than any other team. It was 11-2 with victories over Army, Princeton and Yale to go with losses to Penn State and Harvard entering its conference tournament, and its No. 8 seed in the NCAAs was perfectly fair. This much is certain: With the dynamic Kirst on attack, the Big Red could be awfully fun to watch, even if May brought an abrupt end.