Last season ended in disappointment for Cornell. The Big Red won the regular-season Ivy League title but lost in the conference semifinal and didn’t receive an invitation to the NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament.

The year didn’t begin all that great for one of their players in particular, either.

Jack Cascadden, a top faceoff weapon, tore his ACL in a practice just before the team left on a trip to Denver in February 2024. He took a medical leave from school for his surgery and recovery and had to watch his team from home on Long Island.

“It hurt,” Cascadden said. “It really stung watching my team on the field playing and building those memories… It stunk watching that season from the couch.”

Now, Cascadden is back, and, perhaps not so coincidentally, so is Cornell.

The Big Red (16-1) is the top seed in this year’s tournament and will face Penn State (12-4) in a semifinal on Saturday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on Saturday. Penn State handed Cornell its only loss of the season, 13-12 in overtime in early March. Syracuse (13-5) and Maryland (13-3) will play in the other semifinal of a weekend dripping with blue-blooded programs.

It will be Cascadden, though, who starts it all off when he crouches down for the opening faceoff of the Final Four.

“It’ll be the biggest stage I have ever played on,” the junior from Garden City said. “I have dreamt about this for a while. It’s really special. Something we preach here at Cornell is taking everything day by day and embracing the moment, understanding it’s just another opportunity to compete, another day in the office, so when we step onto stages like this the lights aren’t too bright. But obviously as any sane person would, I am looking at this moment and getting excited, nervous, feeling all the emotions. More than anything I am really dialing into the basics and going into the game focusing on what I can do to help my team.”

So far this season that’s meant controlling the faceoffs for Cornell. Cascadden is second in the nation in faceoffs won (260) and ninth in the nation among qualifying players in win percentage (.618). In the tournament so far, he has won 30 of 45, giving him the best percentage in the field.

“He’s a rock star for us,” Cornell coach Connor Buczek said. “Obviously it was a big loss for us when he wasn’t able to compete last season… He gets stronger as the games go on. In the biggest moments, in the fourth quarters of a lot of games, he is really making a difference for us and getting our offense the possessions that are necessary to win and help rest our defense.”

Cornell is led by the all-time leading goal scorer in Division I history, CJ Kirst, with 241 career goals and 76 this season – 16 more than anyone else in the country. Only eight players in the nation have more points this season than Kirst has goals.

Those numbers might not be as gaudy if not for Cascadden getting the ball for Kirst to score.

“I like to think I helped him out a little bit,” Cascadden laughed. “But I think he would still have the record regardless of my situation.”

As for a potential championship that would be Cornell’s first since 1977? That's something they’ll get to finally try to accomplish together this weekend.

The sharpest light in the Syracuse-Maryland game will undoubtedly shine on Joey Spallina. The attackman has been one of the most high-profile players in the country since he was playing at Mt. Sinai High School. In three years at Syracuse – where he has donned the sacred 22 jersey – he has been among the nation’s top scorers. He has scored 35 goals with 54 assists this year.

“Obviously one of the best players in the country,” Maryland coach John Tillman said.

This, though, will be Spallina’s first Final Four (Syracuse’s first since 2013) and an opportunity for him to truly shake the criticism of coming up small in big games.

That reputation took a hit last weekend when Spallina had four goals and four assists – including the pass on the game-winning goal – in a comeback quarterfinal victory over Princeton at Hofstra.

“I guess I can’t dodge anybody or beat anybody,” he said in a cheeky postgame TV interview. “I don’t know.”

His coach, Gary Gait, considered by many to be the greatest player of all time, had some advice for Spallina’s Memorial Day Weekend debut.

“It’s the same thing we’ve told him since Day One and that’s whatever the team needs you should put the effort into that, play your best game, and have fun doing it,” Gait said. “Don’t buy into pressure and all that other stuff. Just play lacrosse and enjoy the game like you usually do… I think you saw that [last weekend] where he had one of his better games and he was smiling and having a great time and he made plays. It was awesome.”