No. 13 Penn State plays host to reigning national champion Cornell

Penn State is looking to sweep all of its Ivy League opponents on the 2026 schedule when it squares off with reigning National Champion Cornell on Saturday. 

Last year, the two programs met in the regular season in Ithaca, N.Y., and also over Memorial Day weekend in the final four of the NCAA tournament. They split the contests one a piece, but the Big Red won the big game in the tournament en route to its first national title since 1977. 

Head coach Jeff Tambroni has ample respect for Cornell, where he coached before Penn State, and its head coach, Connor Buczek, whom he recruited to play for the Big Red. 

“I remember when he committed to Cornell, it was a huge win for us and our coaching staff, and we were very excited,” Tambroni said. “It’s been fun to watch from before with my connection at Cornell for so many years, and I think he’s just done such a great job.”

Penn State keys to success: Limit turnovers & maintain man-up success

This season, the Nittany Lions are tied for the 16th most turnovers per game, with 18.2 per game to start the season. With a young offense, turnovers are expected, but not at this rate. 

It’s an area that Penn State wants to clean up sooner rather than later. 

“I think we have to do a better job of being a little bit more deliberate in our approach week to week, and maybe working a little bit extra under duress,” Tambroni said. “That’s in part on the coaches putting our guys under pressure so that they can manage those situations better than we have.”

As a team, Cornell causes the fifth fewest turnovers per game at 5.5 per outing. The numbers make up for a perfect scenario for John Haus’s offense to right the ship, but they need to be at their best to do so. 

Penn State has the second-best man-up in the country, with it clicking at 71.4%. However, the Big Red is tied for 16th nationally, killing 80% of its penalties to start the year. Coach Tambroni also noted he’s unsure what his man-up is truly made of with only seven opportunities in the early stages of the season. 

“I think we have to figure out how good we’re going to be long term. I think only time will tell,” Tambroni said. “They’re managing their opportunities when they get them, and I think that the collaboration and chemistry are by far the biggest piece in that. If you get a group of guys that enjoy the unit itself, enjoy competing and playing for each other, then that unit is typically more successful.” 

On Saturday, the special teams battle will be imperative in swinging momentum one way or another. 

The Nittany Lions will also need another monster performance from Colby Baldwin and Reid Gills at the faceoff stripe to help manage the pace of the game on Saturday. 

Scouting Cornell

Cornell has one of the best one-two punches at attack in the entire country with Willem Firth and Ryan Goldstein. Firth’s 21 points (12G, 9A) lead the Big Red, and Goldstein’s 18 (8G, 10A) are a close second. Their early success has caught the attention of the Penn State staff. 

“They are both extremely skilled and extremely talented,” Tambroni said. “They play off each other extremely well and have continued that trend. One thing that stands out most about those guys is the courage that they play with.”

The praise for Cornell’s talented attackmen didn’t end there. 

“They both play with an extremely high level of confidence, and they’re willing to take a ton of risks because of the productivity that they garner,” Tambroni said. “Both of those guys are a handful on their own, but as a tandem they’ve really developed a great deal of chemistry and certainly have our attention going into the weekend.”

Another notable player this season for the Big Red is senior faceoff athlete Jack Cascadden. The veteran FOGO has won 64.1% of his draws this season, which is good for 10th in the nation, and he dominated Penn State last season in the final four, going 15-of-23 (65.2%). 

Cascadden isn’t just a star at the stripe. He also has an innate ability to score goals after winning draws. He only has one goal this season, but last year, he hit double digits with 10 goals, including one in each game against Penn State. 

Baldwin and Gills have been great to start the year for the Nittany Lions, but they’ll have their hands full this weekend against Cascadden. 

Notes from last year’s contests

The Big Red were led last year by Tewaaraton winner CJ Kirst. Kirst was the eventual first overall pick in the PLL Draft and won the Lt. Raymond J. Enners Award, given to the Outstanding Player of the Year in college lacrosse. 

His absence, along with the graduation of Michael Long, Hugh Kelleher and Andrew Dalton, has led to many younger guys filling larger roles within the team on the offensive end of the field. 

Both games went down to the wire last year, and could easily follow that trend this year with the parity we’ve seen in the lacrosse world to start the 2026 season.