May 19, 2002

BALTIMORE, Md. - All-America attack man Conor Gill set an NCAA tournament record with nine assists, but it was the lone goal that Gill didn't take part in that sent Virginia to the Final Four. Following a furious rally that led the Cornell men's lacrosse team back from an 8-3 deficit, Joe Yevoli found John Christmas on the doorstep for the final goal of an 11-10 win for Virginia. While the Cavaliers will battle Syracuse next Saturday for a spot in the NCAA final, Cornell ends another terrific season with an 11-4 record.

Cornell had two chances to even the score after Christmas' lone goal of the contest. An errant pass that nearly deflected off a Virginia stick ended one Cornell possession with about one minute remaining. The Big Red forced the Cavaliers out of bounds with 38 seconds remaining, setting up a final opportunity. The ball was sent to senior Billy Fort, who was stationed to the right of the crease. Fort found classmate Scott Lee five yards in front of the goal, but a stick check by David Berman knocked the ball free. Virginia cleared and was able to run the clock out without losing possession.

It marked the fourth tournament game of the weekend that was decided by one goal, which is the first time in any NCAA weekend that has happened. It looked for a while like that wouldn't be the case, as a score by Chris Rotelli gave Virginia an 8-3 lead three minutes into the second half. In the span of 1:02, Cornell chopped the deficit to two goals, as Lee, Ian Rosenberger and Ryan McClay scored consecutively. The third came off a faceoff victory by Addison Sollog, one of 16 that he won. Virginia won nine faceoffs in the contest.

After trading goals to open the fourth quarter, Fort scored a pair of unanswered, unassisted tallies to give Cornell its first tie since early in the second quarter. After scoring his first on a quick spin and low shot, Fort picked up a ground ball that had taken a weird bounce and fired another low shot past Virginia's Tillman Johnson.

Chris Rotelli scored a deep shot to open up an 11-10 lead, but Sean Greenhalgh evened the score at 10-10 when, as he was being hit, fired a bouncer past Johnson. It was his rookie-record 39th goal of the season, but it was also Cornell's final tally of the 2002 campaign.

"The character is the key for our guys," head coach Jeff Tambroni said afterwards. "These guys have fought hard all year. We knew if we kept shooting, we'd get ourselves back in the game. Give Virginia a lot of credit. They made a lot of plays."

Cornell wasted all of 11 seconds before scoring the first goal of the game. After a clean faceoff victory by senior Addison Sollog, junior first-team All-Ivy selection Ryan McClay broke down the right side of the field and took a lead pass from Sollog. With the defensemen forced to stay on the Big Red attackers, McClay bounced a shot past Tillman Johnson for the opening score.

After holding Cornell scoreless on its next possession, Virginia All-America Conor Gill grabbed a loose ball to the left of the crease and found a low opening past goaltender Justin Cynar for the tying goal. Gill's offensive exploits led to Virginia's first lead of the game, as he shook off McClay and found Joe Yevoli, the Cavaliers' leading scorer, alone on the crease. A quick fake and a score gave Virginia the lead 13:25 into the game. That score held until the end of the quarter, as both goaltenders came up with tough saves. Johnson made three point-blank saves in the middle minutes of the quarter.

Following a holding penalty by Chris Morea, Virginia took advantage with another Gill-to-Yevoli goal. This one started behind the crease and ended with Yevoli easily placing a shot into the left side of the goal. Cornell didn't lead get too great, as Galen Beers converted after a strong individual effort and scored from about 10 yards in front of the crease.

From an individual standout effort to brilliant team passing, Cornell tied the score 4:49 into the quarter. After stopping a breakaway by Virginia freshman Johnny Christmas a minute early, Cornell successfully cleared and made four quick passes to an open Sean Greenhalgh on the doorstep. The Big Red leading scorer took a high pass and deposited a low goal to even the score a second time. The final two passes completed a chain by the Cornell attack line, as Andrew Collins found Billy Fort near the crease, and Fort recorded the assist on Greenhalgh's goal.

Virginia reestablished a one-goal lead after Gill fought for a ground ball and found A.J. Shannon alone 15 yards in front of the cage. With ample shooting space, Shannon took a couple of steps in and fired a bounce shot past Cynar for the 4-3 lead. Cornell nearly tied the score with two minutes remaining, but a score by Greenhalgh was disallowed because the freshman's foot was in the crease. On the ensuing possession, Gill struck again from behind the crease. He hit Yevoli in stride, and the freshman did the rest, beating Cynar low for the fifth Virginia goal. The combination proved successful one last time in the quarter, as Gill found Yevoli 15 yards outside the crease, and Yevoli again found an opening low to score again. At the end of the first half, Gill had one goal and five assists, and Joe Yevoli outscored Cornell by himself 4-3.

Virginia will play Syracuse in the second game next Saturday. The Orangemen survived a late man-advantage by Duke to advance to its 20th straight Final Four with a 10-9 win over the Blue Devils. In the other semifinal, defending champion Princeton will take on top seed Johns Hopkins. The Tigers advanced to Rutgers when Ivy League Player of the Year Ryan Boyle scored with four seconds remaining in a 14-13 win over Georgetown. Johns Hopkins withstood a furious second-half rally by the Umass Minutemen and advanced to the Final Four with a 13-12 win on an overtime score by junior Adam Donegar.

Virginia (11-3)		2	4	2	3	-	11
Cornell	 (11-4)		1	2	3	4	-	10

Goals
Cornell: McClay 2, Greenhalgh 2, Fort 2, Beers, Lee, Schalk, Rosenberger. Virginia: Yevoli 4, Rotelli 3, Gill, Shannon, Glading, Christmas.

Assists
Cornell: Sollog, Fort, Schalk, Redd, Collins. Virginia: Gill 9, Yevoli.

Shots: Cornell 31, Virginia 35.
Faceoffs: Cornell 16, Virginia 9.
Groundballs: Cornell 46, Virginia 43.
Extra-man: Cornell 1 for 3, Virginia 1 for 1.
Penalties: Cornell 1 for :30, Virginia 3 for 2:00.
Saves: Cornell- Justin Cynar 10, Virginia- Tillman Johnson 10.

Scoring Summary

C - :11 - Ryan McClay (Addison Sollog) - C, 1-0

V - 2:57 - Conor Gill - Tie, 1-1

V - 13:25 - Joe Yevoli (Conor Gill) - V, 2-1

V - 17:24 - Joe Yevoli (Conor Gill) - V, 3-1

C - 18:00 - Galen Beers - V, 3-2

C - 19:49 - Sean Greenhalgh (Billy Fort) - Tie, 3-3

V - 24:46 - A.J. Shannon (Conor Gill) - V, 4-3

V - 28:47 - Joe Yevoli (Conor Gill) - V, 5-3

V - 29:52 - Joe Yevoli (Conor Gill) - V, 6-3

V - 32:08 - Billy Glading (Conor Gill) - V, 7-3

V - 33:05 - Chris Rotelli (Conor Gill) - V, 8-3

C - 39:09 - Scott Lee (J.P. Schalk) - V, 8-4

C - 39:55 - Ian Rosenberger (Justin Redd) - V, 8-5

C - 40:11 - Ryan McClay - V, 8-6

C - 45:50 - J.P. Schalk - V, 8-7 

V - 47:32 - Chris Rotelli (Conor Gill) - V, 9-7

C - 48:42 - Billy Fort - V, 9-8

C - 49:21 - Billy Fort - Tie, 9-9

V - 53:23 - Chris Rotelli (Conor Gill) - V, 10-9

C - 54:04 - Sean Greenhalgh (Andrew Collins) - Tie, 10-10

V - 56:01 - John Christmas (Joe Yevoli) - V, 11-10