Cornell (Ever Heard Of It?) Wins Their First College Lacrosse National Championship Since 1977 On The Back Of CJ Kirst Having The Greatest Season Ever
Larry French. Getty Images.No player in the history of college lacrosse has ever had a better season than CJ Kirst. The 4th of 5 brothers from New Jersey. A family that means so much to the sport of lacrosse, and CJ Kirst will go down as the Chosen One.
He set the all-time record for career goals in college lacrosse history. He was the 1st overall draft pick to the PLL. He will undoubtedly go on to win the Tewaaraton Award on Thursday night, which is awarded each year to the best player in the country. And now he capped off his senior season by scoring 6 goals in the national championship game to not only lead Cornell to their first title since 1977, but he also tied the all-time single season goals record in DI college lacrosse with his 82nd goal of the year.
Broke the career goals record. Tied a record for most goals scored in a national championship game. Tied a record for most goals scored in a single season. But if you ask CJ Kirst about that game today, he's immediately going to talk about his teammates. He's immediately going to talk about his family. He's immediately going to talk about his coaches and mentors and everybody else who got him to the point where he is today. Because that's the type of guy and leader CJ Kirst is.
And when you have that type of guy leading the way? Well it almost feels silly to think anybody besides Cornell was ever going to win the National Championship this year.
It was a game that had a lot of feeling out in the beginning. It was back-and-forth for most of the 1st half of the game. Cornell would score, Maryland would answer, rinse and repeat. But the best players in the world always find a way to rise to the occasion. They have their biggest moments on the biggest stages.
And as soon as CJ Kirst got himself going in this game, you could feel there was a switch that flipped. Cornell started to play with some extra confidence knowing that they have their guy going, and Maryland started making more uncharacteristic mistakes today than they have all year. Failed clears, offsides, turnovers, bad shot selections. You mix in a few timely daggers from Ryan Goldstein, and Cornell was able to get the distance they needed to pull away with this one.
4 goals on the day out of Ryan Goldstein. Just another undersized demon attackman out of Philly to go along with other legends like Jordan Wolf, Joey Sankey, Grant Ament, and Michael Sowers. Goldstein would have been the leading scorer on literally any other team in DI lacrosse this year if he wasn't at Cornell with CJ Kirst ahead of him. Unbelievable season out of him, and what a sick duo 15 and 30 turned out to be for the Big Red. Over 200 combined points for those two this year. That's a great recipe for winning a national championship if you ask me.
48 years. They've come close a few times since then. Runners-up in 1978, 1987, 1988, a heart breaker in 2009, and a loss to Maryland in the 2022 National Championship game when CJ Kirst was a freshman. This time around they get their revenge on Maryland, and Cornell is finally back at the top of the mountain all by themselves.
What a win. What a season. What a team. Hard hat lacrosse, baby. Doesn't get better than that.
P.S. -- Heartbreak city for the Maryland Terrapins. They've played in 4 out of the last 5 National Championship games, and have gone 1-3 on Memorial Day since 2021. They'll always have 2022, but losing two straight National Championship games has to be a tough way for this senior group to go out after winning it all as freshmen.