Cornell men's lacrosse defeated No. 2 seed Maryland 13-10 in Monday's national championship at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The top-seeded Big Red captured their first national title since 1977, avenging their loss to the Terrapins in the 2022 NCAA title game.

The championship win is also Cornell's first NCAA team title in any sport since their last lacrosse title in 1977. Previous NCAA championships include men's ice hockey in 1966-67 and 1969-70, along with men's lacrosse titles in 1971, 1976 and 1977.

"I know it's been a long time for the whole group, but I came on the heels of the 2009 national championship with the expectation we were going to win one here," Cornell coach Connor Buczek said postgame on the ESPN broadcast. "Credit to these guys, credit to these players, credit to this tradition, credit to my staff. I'm the luckiest guy in the world and I'm surrounded by incredible people who just work their tails off day in, day out. I'm so happy for the university. I'm so happy for our tradition. This feels incredible."

Cornell senior attacker CJ Kirst had six goals and an assist in the championship game. His 82 goals on the season tie the Division I single-season goals record. He already owned the Division I career goals record, finishing with 247.

"We knew if [Kirst] got going we were going home with hardware," Buczek said. "And my God if he didn't find it and find it in a big way. He's got the biggest heart. He's the hardest worker I've ever been around. And man, he pulls the best out of everyone around him. He's the engine that makes this thing go. So happy for him and that whole senior class. They decided they wanted to do this. I've never seen a group that was so intent on doing this."

Cornell defeated No. 5 Penn State 11-9 in Saturday's semifinal, advancing to their sixth national championship game since their last title in 1977. The Big Red had lost all five previous appearances in 1978, 1987, 1988, 2009 and 2022.

This was Maryland's fourth national championship game appearance in five years, during which the Terrapins secured one title and suffered two losses in the final.