ALBANY, N.Y. – The University at Albany men's lacrosse team kicks off its 2022 season on the road this weekend, facing off against long-dormant and #17 Cornell.
 
Game Info
Saturday, February 19 at #17 Cornell (2­­:00 pm)
Live Stats | ESPN+ | Game Notes
 
Leading the Pack

• UAlbany returns 2021's second- and third-leading scorers in Corey Yunker and Graydon Hogg, but has to replace five of last year's top-seven scoring individuals, including top scorer Jakob Patterson
• Yunker and Hogg accounted for 57 of UAlbany's 180 goals in 2021, and the departures among 2021's top-seven scorers accounted for a further 72
• Cornell last played on March 8, 2020
• UAlbany head coach Scott Marr is six wins away from 200 for his career
• Following a four-game winning streak in the series, UAlbany has dropped each of the last two to the Big Red

­­­­­Scouting Cornell
UAlbany will be Cornell's first opponent since the 2020 season, after the Big Red, with the rest of the Ivy League, did not participate during the 2021 season, with a handful of exceptions.  The last time Cornell took the field they had climbed to #2 in the national media poll following a 5-0 start in 2020 with victories over UAlbany, High Point, Ohio State, and Penn State.  Cornell was picked to finish third in the 2022 Preseason Ivy League Poll, behind preseason favorite and 2019 national runner-up Yale and defending Ivy League regular season and tournament champion Penn, both of which feature on UAlbany's schedule later this season.  Fifth-year attack John Piatelli leads the Big Red as a preseason Tewaaraton Award Watch List member and an Inside Lacrosse Preseason All-America honorable mention.  In his last full season, Piatelli scored 45 goals with 19 assists, and scored 20 goals with three assists in five games in 2020.  UAlbany is 4-4 in its Division I era against Cornell, with the Big Red winning each of the last two. 
 
Last Time vs. Cornell
UAlbany hosted then #12 Cornell in its 2020 season opener, the first time the Great Danes hosted a season opener at home since the 2009 season.  The Big Red stifled UAlbany's offense in the first half and pulled away in the third quarter to win 19-10, despite UAlbany's 6-3 advantage in the fourth.  Corey Yunker scored three goals while Jakob Patterson and Graydon Hogg each scored twice.  Cornell held a sizeable advantage on the faceoff, winning 21 of 32, and in ground balls, winning 49 to UAlbany's 32.
 
Last Time Out
UAlbany last played in the America East title game in Baltimore against Vermont, falling to the Catamounts by a final score of 15-10.  UAlbany had lost two regular-season meetings against Vermont, each by two goals.  Vermont defeated Stony Brook and UAlbany knocked off top-seed and host UMBC to set up the rubber-match in the final.  Vermont took a one-goal lead into halftime, but outscored UAlbany 5-2 in the third to take control of the game.  The Catamounts dominated the faceoff, winning 23 of 29 attempts.
 
Around the America East
The America East men's season began February 5 when NJIT fell at Delaware, immediately followed by Vermont falling at Duke the following day, two weeks before UAlbany's opening weekend.  Five America East teams played last week as well, with the league going 1-4, with three games decided by one goal and a fourth decided by two.  Stony Brook is the only team this season to record a win, while UAlbany and UMBC have not yet played their season openers.  Six of the seven America East programs will be in action on Saturday.
 
Saturday's America East Games

• St. Bonaventure at Binghamton (12:00 pm)
• Robert Morris at Stony Brook (12:00 pm)
• NJIT at Harvard (12:00 pm)
• Drexel at UMBC (1:00 pm)
• UMass Lowell at UMass (1:00 pm)
• UAlbany at Cornell (2:00 pm)

Captains
The Great Danes selected three players to serve the team as captains in 2022: seniors Corey Yunker, Zane Sands, and Tanner Hay.  Hay and Sands are defenders and Yunker is UAlbany's top returning scorer from 2021.
 
Approaching 200
At the end of the 2021 season, his 21st at the helm, UAlbany men's lacrosse head coach had won 194 career games, leaving him six away from the 200-win milestone.  Marr has averaged more than nine wins per season in his career, and has led UAlbany to nine America East championship titles.  Marr's ranks ninth among active Division I head coaches, just behind Penn State's Jeff Tambroni's 203.
 
Picked Third
After making a return appearance in the America East title game in 2021, the UAlbany men's lacrosse team was picked to finish third in the 2022 America East Preseason Coaches' Poll.  UAlbany was picked just behind Stony Brook, and just ahead of UMBC, with just two points separating the three teams in the poll.  Defending champion Vermont was the unanimous favorite, earning 36 points and all possible first-place votes.  UMBC, defending regular-season champions, secured the last remaining first place vote and 25 overall points.  In between, Stony Brook landed 27 points and UAlbany earned 26.
 
Schedule Strength
Not one to shy away from a tough schedule, Coach Marr's 22nd year features yet another gauntlet of top-ranked opponents.  Seven of UAlbany's games feature matchups against teams ranked in the preseason top-20.  The Great Danes open the season at preseason #15 Cornell, before a second-straight road game against preseason #18 Drexel.  A trip to preseason #2 and 2021 national runner-up Maryland follows, before UAlbany hosts preseason #12 Syracuse for the first time in program history.  The game against the Orange precedes a home game against preseason #17 Vermont in a rematch of the 2021 America East title game.  Finally, UAlbany closes the season against two ranked Ivy League opponents, at preseason #7 Yale and then at home against preseason #11 Penn, the latter of which is the first-ever meeting between the programs.
 
Coaching Tree
Coach Marr's extensive coaching tree expanded once more in 2021, when Robert Morris hired Craig McDonald '08 as their head men's lacrosse coach.  McDonald was a four-year member of Marr's program, appearing in 61 games while scoring three goals and recording three assists with 148 ground balls.  He was part of the 2007 team that went 15-3 and advanced to the NCAA Quarterfinals.
 
PLL Year Four
The Premier Lacrosse League announced on February 8 that the University at Albany would once again serve as a host for one of the league's weekend slates.  Additionally, the league announced that UAlbany would host the 2022 opening weekend, a change from the campus' traditional window of August.
 
First Times
2022 will feature a series of firsts for the UAlbany men's lacrosse program.  Most prominently, the annual matchup against Syracuse will be played in Albany for the first time after playing the first 19 games in the series in Syracuse.  Syracuse was originally scheduled to visit UAlbany in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down collegiate sports.  The game was rescheduled to this season, with new Syracuse head coach Gary Gait honoring the agreement originally made under former head coach John Desko.  Additionally, UAlbany will play Ivy League opponent Penn for the first time in program history this season, in the regular-season finale at Casey Stadium.
 
Peer Vote
As voted by its players, the Premier Lacrosse League counted down the top-50 players in the league following the 2021 season.  Goalkeeper Blaze Riorden, 2021 MVP and league champion with the Chaos, was voted as the best player in the PLL following his spectacular 2021 season.  And in his first year in the league following the MLL merger, Lyle Thompson was picked third, giving the Great Danes two players in the top-three.
 
PLL Champions
Two former Great Danes, Blaze Riorden and Troy Reh, were crowned 2021 Premier Lacrosse League champions when the Chaos defeated the Whipsnakes.  The game was a rematch of the 2020 title game where the Whipsnakes came out on top.  Riorden led the Chaos to their redemptive title behind an MVP and Goalkeeper of the Year season, while also earning MVP honors for the championship game.
 
Humanitarian Efforts
Lyle Thompson, in his first year in the Premier Lacrosse League following the merger with Major League Lacrosse, was named winner of the 2021 Welles Crowther Humanitarian Award, recognizing his efforts in raising awareness about atrocities committed against Indigenous youth in residential schools in Canada.  Thompson's efforts were also featured in an issue of Sports Illustrated.
 
Super Sixes
Five UAlbany men's lacrosse alumni competed for the Iroquois National Senior Men's Team in October at the World Lacrosse Super Sixes Tournament.  The five Great Danes on the roster were Lyle Thompson, Ty Thompson, Jakob Patterson, Ron John, and Tehoka Nanticoke.  Also competing that weekend was UAlbany women's lacrosse assistant coach Taylor Frink with the Iroquois National Senior Women's Team.
 
2023 NCAA Quarterfinals
On October 14, 2020, the NCAA announced among its selections for over 450 championship sites for the 2023-26 seasons that the University at Albany was awarded hosting responsibilities for a quarterfinal bracket in the 2023 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Tournament.  It will be the first time the Great Danes host a quarterfinal, having previously hosted three First Round games, in 2007, 2017, and 2018.
 
PLL Year Three
UAlbany hosted its second weekend of the PLL summer schedule in 2021.  After a successful first year, the Great Danes were awarded hosting privileges for year two, before the format was changed to account for the COVID-19 pandemic.  The league made its triumphant return to Albany in 2021, playing six games over three days in Tom & Mary Casey Stadium.
 
Next: UAlbany visits Drexel on February 26.