No. 5 Penn State Falls to No. 1 Cornell in NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Semifinals

Photo courtesy of Penn State Athletics 

View 2025 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Tournament Bracket 

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Despite a strong performance from the defense, Penn State lost to No. 1 Cornell 11-9 in the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Semifinals. The Nittany Lions’ defense held Tewaaraton finalist CJ Kirst scoreless and forced 15 total turnovers, but the Big Red proved to be too much in the second half. 

Penn State trailed 10-6 heading into the fourth quarter, but then showed similar signs of its comeback earlier this season on March 8 against Cornell when they came back from down four goals to win 13-12 in overtime.

The Nittany Lions scored three unanswered to make it 10-9, but this time Cornell’s leading scorer on the day, Hugh Keller, scored the final goal of the game with 5:49. The Big Red kept the distance the rest of the way.

Sophomore Liam Matthews had a breakout game for Penn State. He scored four goals, two of which were highlight-reel behind the back plays. Matt Traynor also added two goals for the Nittany Lions.  

Penn State finished the 2025 season with 12 wins, the most since 2019 when the Nittany Lions made the final four with 16 wins. It had highlight wins over No. 1 Cornell in the regular season and defending national champions Notre Dame in the NCAA quarterfinals.

Nittany Lion players Matt Traynor and Hunter Aquino also won Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year, respectively.