UAlbany men's lacrosse loses in final minute to fourth-ranked Cornell

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UAlbany junior Ryan Doherty celebrates a goal during a game against Cornell on Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026, at Casey Stadium in Albany, NY. (Jim Franco/Times Union) (Jim Franco/Times Union)


ALBANY - The University at Albany men's lacrosse team has closed the gap dramatically with defending national champion Cornell since the last time they played nine months ago.

However, the Great Danes came up just short in Saturday's opener of earning that signature win over an elite nonconference opponent.

The Big Red's Willem Firth scored the winning goal with 37.4 seconds left, and UAlbany's Silas Richmond was stopped on his game-tying attempt in the final seconds of fourth-ranked Cornell's 11-10 victory over the Great Danes before 1,412 fans at Casey Stadium.

"I think every loss is frustrating and we've just got to keep moving into the next game," said UAlbany junior attack Ryan Doherty, who had four goals. "I think what we showed out there, and that belief that we had in each other that entire game, is really what this group is about. Obviously, we'd like to win that one, but we're just going to keep moving forward and knowing what we have here."

UAlbany hosts Penn, another Ivy League opponent, at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Casey Stadium.

The two-time defending America East Conference champion Great Danes were playing Cornell for the first time since losing 15-6 in Ithaca in the first round of last year's NCAA Tournament. The reason UAlbany had to play the tournament's No. 1 overall seed in the first round is that the Great Danes were short of quality nonleague wins that would have improved their tournament seeding.

"We definitely had the talk that this year we've got to win more of those out-of-conference games to get us a better bid when it's tournament time," said UAlbany junior midfielder Jackson Palumb, who also had four goals. "We had the effort and attitude all day today. The ball just didn't roll our way."

UAlbany coach Scott Marr called a timeout with 20.4 seconds left. The Great Danes set up a play for Richmond, the reigning America East Offensive Player of the Year.

Starting with the ball on the right side, Richmond circled behind the goal and came out on the left side. He backed down Cornell longstick midfielder/defenseman Brendan Staub, spun around and took a high shot that was saved by Cornell junior goalie Matthew Tully with 11 seconds left.

Tully, who was a backup last year, finished with 13 saves.

Richmond was scoreless with two assists on five shots Saturday.

"He got to the net, got a great opportunity to score," Marr said. "Just didn't go in… I talked to Silas about it. Obviously, he's disappointed in not putting the ball in the goal, but everybody sees all the great highlights of Michael Jordan scoring. He failed a lot of times, too, trying to get that winning basket."

Marr likened the near-miss to a 12-11 loss to Maryland at Casey Stadium in 2017. In that game, UAlbany star Connor Fields missed a shot wide with 16 seconds left that would have tied the match.

The Great Danes recovered from that defeat to reach the NCAA quarterfinals before losing to Maryland again.

"This team has the same set that team had," Marr said. "This is a really good lacrosse team that we have in that locker room and I couldn't be more proud of how we've come together."

Firth led Cornell with a hat trick. His winning goal came after a turnover by UAlbany midfielder Luke Grove, who couldn't catch a pass from goalie Brady Smith (seven saves).

"I thought Luke Grove played an unbelievable game," said Marr, pointing out that Grove's teammates gave him the player of the game award.

UAlbany was without three players, whose identities Marr didn't disclose, who were serving one-game NCAA suspensions for their roles in a scrimmage brawl against Brown last week.

"Very disappointed in our rules committee," Marr said. "We weren't allowed to go back and look at a video, which we had, that would have showed definitely one of my players who was suspended did nothing but get cheap-shotted in the head with an elbow that started the whole melee."

This article originally published at UAlbany men's lacrosse loses in final minute to fourth-ranked Cornell.

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