The best season in No. 6 Rutgers men’s lacrosse history came to an end on Saturday with a 17-10 loss to No. 7 Cornell in the NCAA Tournament semifinals.
Despite the loss, it was still a celebratory occasion for the Scarlet Knights, who were in the semifinals and the championship weekend for the first time in program history. Rutgers finishes the season 15-4 but has established themselves
Of their four losses this season, all have come against teams playing on championship weekend. Rutgers lost to Maryland twice (regular season, Big Ten Tournament final) and Princeton (in an out-of-conference game).
No. 1 Maryland plays Princeton in Saturday’s other semifinal.
Saturday’s game was broken-up by a three-hour delay due to inclement weather with Rutgers down 8-3 at halftime.
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Cornell won the faceoff battle 17:14 while Rutgers outshot the Ivy League side 45:37. Cornell, however, had a 30:26 advantage in shots on goal.
Rutgers scored the game’s first goal from Mitch Bartolo at 10:18 in the first quarter. Cornell then went on a run, scoring the next three goals and five of the next six as the Ivy League program secured a 5-2 lead early in the second quarter.
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Two goals a piece by Bartolo and Brian Cameron led Rutgers. Goalkeeper Colin Kirst had 13 saves in the loss.
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