Cavaliers Fall to Cornell 15-6 in National Semifinals

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FOXBOROUGH, MASS—Cornell used excellent shooting and tremendous defense to defeat Virginia 15-6 in the semifinals of the NCAA Championship this afternoon at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

The top-seeded Cavaliers see their season end with a 15-3 record, while Cornell improves to 13-3. The Big Red meets Syracuse for the national championship Monday at 1 p.m. Syracuse defeated Duke in the other semifinal today 17-7 to advance to the title game for the 16th time.

The Big Red shot 40.5 percent (15-of-37) and forced Virginia to commit 18 turnovers, while never allowing the Cavaliers to string together back-to-back goals.

Cornell controlled play from almost the beginning and built a 3-0 lead after five and a half minutes of action. Chris Finn opened the scoring at the 11:28 mark by taking a pass from Ryan Hurley on the crease and beating Virginia goalie Adam Ghitelman. Fifty seconds later the Big Red capitalized when Jonathan Thomson pounced on the free ball in a mass of players in front of the Virginia goal and putting it in the back of the net. Following a UVa penalty Hurley’s extra-man goal extended the lead to 3-0.

Danny Glading scored Virginia’s only goal of the first quarter midway through the period on only the Cavaliers’ second shot of the game.

Freshman Rob Pannell, who finished with three goals and three assists, scored his first goal by splitting a Virginia double team to give the Big Red the 4-1 advantage with 4:17 remaining in the quarter.

Rocco Romero scored early in the second quarter as Cornell’s lead grew to 5-1. Nearly 10 minutes passed before Hurly pushed the lead to 6-1 by knocking home a pass from Romero.

Shamel Bratton tallied Virginia’s second goal with just under four minutes to play until halftime to end a scoring drought of more than 17 minutes. But Cornell answered with two goals in the next minute to take an 8-2 lead to the locker room at halftime.

The teams traded goals over the first 20 minutes of the second half, as Virginia was never able to score consecutive goals or get a run going.

Glading scored his second goal of the game with 9:53 remaining in the contest in what proved to be the last goal of his career and of the Cavaliers’ season to make the score 12-6, but Cornell scored the game’s final three.

Glading and freshman Steele Stanwick led the way for Virginia with two goals and one assist apiece.

The Cornell starting attack of Finn, Hurley and Pannell each scored three goals as the attack accounted for nine of the team’s 15 goals.

Cornell 4-4-3-4—15 record: 13-3
Virginia 1-1-2-2—6 record: 15-3
att—36,594

Scoring (G-A)— C: Rob Pannell 3-3, Ryan Hurley 3-1, Chris Finn 3-0, Rocco Romero 2-1, David Lau 1-1, Max Seibald 1-1, Roy Lang 1-0, Justin Thomson 1-0, Austin Boykin 0-1, John Glynn 0-1. V: Danny Glading 2-1, Steele Stanwick 2-1, Garrett Billings 1-1, Shamel Bratton 1-0.

Goalie Summary—C: Jake Myers 60 mins., 8 saves, 6 goals allowed. V: Adam Ghitelman 60 mins., 5 saves, 15 goals allowed.

Shots: C—37, V—27
Ground Balls: C—32, V—30
Clearing: C—23×27, V—11×15
Faceoffs: C—12, V—13
Penalties: C—1-0:30, V—6-5:00
EMO: C—2×4, V—0x1