We take a comprehensive look at the Big Red as the Terps prepare for a Memorial Day rematch.
No. 2-seed Maryland men’s lacrosse head coach John Tillman tends to avoid playing Cornell as much as he can.
Tillman grew up in Corning, New York, just under an hour away from Cornell’s campus. Long before he was a coach, he was a college lacrosse player for the Big Red, a defensive midfielder that earned a varsity letter with the team in his senior season.
The ties run deep between the coach and the programs. Tillman’s head coach at Cornell, Richie Moran, was a Maryland alum. The teams have met three times in the title game — of just 19 all-time contests — with Maryland winning in 2022 but losing in 1971 and 1976. Cornell has only beaten the Terps three times ever, but all of them came in the NCAA Tournament.
With the loaded history, it’s understandable Tillman would try to keep the Big Red off his schedule. Now, though, with Cornell the lone program standing between the Terps and their fifth-ever title, he can’t avoid the matchup anymore.
Maryland and No. 1-seed Cornell will play in the NCAA championship game Monday at 1 p.m. The game is at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and will be available on ESPN.
Cornell Big Red (17-1, 6-0 Ivy League)
Cornell head coach Connor Buczek expected to be here.
The Big Red have topped the USILA polls since March 24. Cornell lost just one game this season: a 13-12 overtime thriller against Penn State. But the Nittany Lions needed to mount an incredible comeback — they scored six goals in the fourth quarter, including four in the final 2:30 of the frame. Penn State’s ability to even level the game was boosted by Cornell faceoff specialist Jack Cascadden earning a two-minute non-releasable unnecessary roughness penalty. The disadvantage both in numbers and on the X cost them.
Cornell’s overall team performance has been exceptional. The Big Red score 5.82 more goals per game than their opponents on average, and that takes a village. But it’s impossible to not start and end the conversation surrounding them with CJ Kirst.
It’s hard to be hyperbolic in describing Kirst. He’s a generational player, the top pick in the 2025 PLL draft, a near-lock for the Tewaaraton Award. He leads Division I in points, averaging 6.35 per game. And he’s got 76 goals on the year, 16 more than anyone else.
In a rematch against Penn State in the semifinals Saturday, the exceptional attackman had an exception-to-the-rule game. Kirst was held without a point for the first time in 66 college appearances. Just one of his seven shots was on goal, and he finally gave opponents an indication he can be stopped.
But stopping Kirst doesn’t equal stopping Cornell. The Big Red still beat the Nittany Lions, 11-9, and will face Maryland galvanized by the fact they can succeed with Kirst not at his best.
Players to know
Ryan Goldstein, sophomore attacker, No. 30 — Goldstein is Cornell’s secondary attacking option, but there’s precious few teams in the country where that’d be the case. His 5.18 points per game rank fourth in Division I. He’s got 50 assists on the season, working behind the cage as a playmaker on many possessions. And he, too, had an off game against Penn State, with just one goal and no assists.
Wyatt Knust, senior goalkeeper, No. 19 — In the absence of his offensive co-stars, Knust was a big reason the Big Red advanced to the final. He made nine saves, including six in the first quarter, to keep Cornell in the game as its other offensive pieces found momentum. Knust has a 53.7% average save rate on the year, but he’s faltered recently, sitting just shy of .500 across three tournament games.
Hugh Kelleher, senior midfielder, No. 27 — Someone had to step up and do the scoring against the Nittany Lions, and it was Kelleher who answered the bell. The talented midfielder finished with three goals and an assist for his third four-point game in Cornell’s last four games. But the one game he didn’t finish with four points — against Richmond in the semifinals — Kelleher blanked completely.
Strength
Offense. As of May 23, Cornell led the country in the following statistics: shot percentage, scoring offense, assists per game, points per game and winning percentage. The Big Red have eight double-digit scorers — CJ Kirst’s 76 goals are 40% of Maryland’s entire season tally alone — and three players with over 30 assists.
Weakness
Scoring defense. The Big Red have hardly any flaws, but it is notable that their 10.27 goals against per game ranks 26th in the country. That’s under 0.1 goals ahead of Syracuse, a team that Maryland scored 12 non-empty net goals against Saturday. Seven teams have put 12 or more past Cornell this year, but just one has won. Cornell fights fire with even more fire exceptionally well.
Faceoff watch
Maryland’s faceoff day against Syracuse needs to be talked about. John Mullen, one of the best faceoff specialists in the country, had a 31.6% success rate against Shea Keethler (7-of-10 against Mullen) and Carrier (4-of-9 against Mullen). Mullen also had four faceoff violations across the game’s last three quarters. Keethler and Carrier were the ones to stamp Maryland’s logo on the bracket in the locker room Saturday, and for good reason.
Cornell’s Cascadden is top-10 nationally in faceoff winning percentage. He hasn’t finished a game below .500 since the first loss against Penn State. And he’s a threat off the X too — Cascadden has 10 goals on the season, including one Saturday that stalled some early Penn State momentum. Monday will present another challenge in the circle for Maryland, but the Terps have raised their level in the postseason.
Three things to know
1. How healthy are the stars? Despite insisting that he was “perfectly fine” after the semifinal, rumors abound that Kirst is playing through injury. And Eric Spanos ate a hit after scoring Maryland’s first goal that he never seemed to shake off; he was receiving attention on the sideline for the rest of the game. Both players have the chances to take over a game and would be missed, but Kirst’s absence — or even ineffectiveness — would be more significant.
2. Maryland sloppy in the semifinals. The Terps won, so little will be made about it, but the semifinal was an uncharacteristically mistake-prone outing from Maryland. After turning the ball over just three times in the first half, Maryland had 6 turnovers in both the third and fourth quarters. And the Terps were flagged for three penalties after getting called for half that a game on average all season.
3. Can Maryland clear the final hurdle? The Terps have been to eight championship games in 14 NCAA tournaments with Tillman, but have won just two of them. Tillman is considered a coach teams don’t want to face when he gets a week to prepare; because they had the late game Saturday, Tillman gets just 43 hours to prepare his team for the most important game of their season.