Cornell Women of Color Conference

Cornell University

March 8th-9th, 2013

However, things did not start well for Cornell. In the 17^th minute of the game, Columbia’s David Najem chipped the ball over the head of Cornell goalie, Zach Zagorski, who was standing in for an injured Rick Pflasterer. The goal put Columbia up 1-0.

In the closing minutes of the first half, Cornell evened the score with a goal from Daniel Haber. After a long pass down field from Defender Patrick Slogic, Tyler Regan sprinted down the right sideline, beat a defender, and crossed to Haber for the assist. The Big Red went into the second half tied with Columbia, and they would exit the final minutes of regulation time the same way.

The teams headed into the first over time ready to score, Cornell eager to edge out the Lions for the title. However, after two overtimes, the game ended in a tie and landed in fourth overall in the Ivy League.

“Coming into this season we felt like last year we left a lot on the table, and the group we had going forward was so committed, that we felt like we had this in us, we had to go out and prove it” said Haber. Cornell fought until the very last minute, until the final whistle blew when almost everyone on the field fell to the ground showing both the physical and emotional anguish the game caused.

“Obviously it’s a pretty emotional night.” Said Lannon, a senior midfielder and captain on the team. “This season, we’ve kind of been fighting back from what we used to be. As tough a result as it was to take, we fought the entire time. And that’s kind of what this team has been all about for the last three years. I couldn’t be more proud of this group,” he continued, “even during the thought time of the game, we got down one nothing, and it took all we got to fight back and get a goal.”

After finishing 1-14 his freshman year, Lannon credited the dedication of the team and coaches for the turn around. “It’s really tough because we put in the hours, we put in all the work that I don’t think a lot of other teams did. And that’s kind of why we really believed we were doing something right. They couldn’t work nearly as hard as us without getting the results and I think this year proved it,” said Lannon, “It’s so tough because we all put our hearts and souls into this whole thing.”

After the game, coach Jaro Zawislan talked about the development of the team over the season. “The foundation with 8 wins 2 losses 6 ties, of course we would like to win more games, of course we would like to win the title tonight for this program, for the fans, for the community here, and just came short, but I am so proud of the players, they left everything on the field,” said Zawislan, who has now been with the program for three years. Along with the efforts of the team, Zawislan was able to push the team into the top 25 in the NCAA rankings this season.

Despite the disappointing finale to the season, after a discouraging 2010 season, the team was still proud of their accomplishments this season. “The whole attitude of the program is completely different now. We are much more positive we really believe that going forward we will be competing every year for the Ivy League Championship and for a spot in the [NCAA] tournament” Haber said.

“The foundation with 8 wins 2 losses 6 ties, of course we would like to win more games, of course we would like to win the title tonight for this program, for the fans, for the community here, and just came short, but I am so proud of the players, they left everything on the field.” Added Zawislan. “Sky is the limit! And we always try for perfection so this process will never end and just looking at the progress that this group of players made from the preseason, form the first game, and getting better almost every half of the game, almost every 45 minutes we’ve been getting better, and better and better.”

In addition to a season the clearly displayed great potential for future seasons, defender Patrick Slogic and junior goalkeeper Rick Pflasterer made first team All-Ivy. Slogic played every minute of every game (except one which he didn’t play in at all), and Pflasterer started 15 or 16 games and allowed only nine goals in 15 games, allowed an average of 0.78 goals against (third all time for Cornell). Pflasterer also had six shutouts, and 81 minutes of a seventh. The last Cornell player to make first team All-Ivy was Matt Bouaree in 2009, and this pair is the first duo since 1996 to make first team All-Ivy, when three Cornell players made the team. Senior midfielder Jimmy Lannon and sophomore forward Daniel Haber make second team All-Ivy, and sophomore midfielder Benjamin Williams was named to the Honorable Mention All-Ivy team. Freshman forward Conor Goepel walked away from the season with two freshman of the week awards, and Goalkeeper Zack Zagorski with one.

For more information about the season, check out our interview with Coach Rob Koll

http://www.slopemedia.org/magazine/magazine-sports/wrestling-season-preview-talking-with-coach-koll/

Coming off a successful season, Koll plans to approach the season by building on the success of prior years. “What [they] really do is work two, three, four years prior to this year in order to have a successful year now. You don’t just wait until everyone graduates and say ‘let’s get to work’.” Last year’s success was years in the making. Koll added “we are going to be good this year, don’t expect us to drop off, we better not have a big drop off…the reason we brought [the new members of the team] here is because they’ve done extremely well in high school, and they all worked all summer long for the past couple summers. Yeah, we have some new faces in the line-up, but they are kids that are going to be immediately competitive.”

Freshman wrestlers do not generally start; with rare exceptions such as Kyle Dake ’13 who won an individual national title his freshman season. The team has five returning members, three of whom are All Americans. “Kyle Dake is an anomaly,” said Koll. “You don’t see many Kyle Dakes who step into the lineup and win a national championship. I think there’ve only been three or four in the history of the sport, it’s been 100 plus years.”  Despite having five members of the team graduate last year, Koll is optimistic that the returning members will create a solid foundation for the team, which will only be strengthened by new additions. “Don’t expect us to drop off precipitously” said Koll. Coming into the season off two, second place finishes, and with a number four overall ranking, their goal is still to win a national title. As for individuals on the team, Coach Koll says that Kyle Dake, a standout on the team, will be great as a team member in bolstering their success, and also individually.  “He is on track to be the first wrestler to win four national championships, and never actually red shirt” said Koll, who believes that Dake—who is now a junior—will continue to be a great resource for the team on the mat and off.

Coach Koll was also very enthusiastic about the addition of Mike Grey ’11 to the coaching staff. “I like to bring in our own if we can” said Koll, “it takes a little bit of time for someone outside of the Ivy League to understand the time commitment these kids have…it is a different world, so Mike has a different appreciation for the academic rigors of Cornell.” Koll expects success from his wrestlers both on the mat and in the classroom.

Koll says that their goals are to win the Ivy title, the Eastern Championship, and of course the national title. This year, the semifinals of the National Dual Meet Championships will be held in Ithaca, so getting to the National Championships (the Final Four) is a huge goal. “If everyone develops like we hope,” says Koll, “we want to be in contention for a national championship.” According to Koll, they are going to need more than a strong team. “[Success] is not always in our hands. We are going to need a little help, some people getting knocked off from the other teams…Penn State had help with us last year, so hopefully we can get some help with our trek to the national title.”

Although the team sells out Bartells, it is not filled with current Cornell students. ”If we can get a little help from the Cornell students, it would make my job a lot easier,” says Koll, “it will be hockey without the puck, and without the pads.”

Their first home match will be on November 18^th versus The University of Minnesota at Newman Arena. The rest of the schedule can be found at http://cornellbigred.com/schedule.aspx?path=wrest&

For more information, check out our interview with Cam Simaz and Kyle Dake: http://www.slopemedia.org/television/cornell-sports-broadcasting/wrestling-season-preview-talking-with-the-team-2/