Four days before the COVID-19 pandemic curtailed the 2020 season, Connor Buczek watched the Cornell men’s lacrosse team’s undefeated campaign almost slip away from the sidelines at William Amos Hough High School in Cornelius, N.C. On the back of a first half 10-goal run, the Big Red led Penn State 13-5 in the third quarter of the Crown Lacrosse Classic. The Nittany Lions stormed back to pull ahead 17-16 with less than four minutes to play.
But in the Cornell huddle during a timeout with 47.4 seconds remaining, you would have never known the stakes by looking at senior captain Jeff Teat’s expression. He was a picture of calm. The soft spoken superstar discussed with Buczek — then the Big Red’s offensive coordinator — the plan for the possession, where he wanted the pick set and the motion they’d run off it.
Teat then ran it to perfection. He got the short stick matchup he wanted off the pick. He changed direction five times on the left wing, until he found a sliver of space to score the tying goal with 18.2 seconds left to play.
“He worked on that short stick and made an amazing play,” Buczek said. “Where most guys force their way to the goal, he was patient. It was right in character with how he operates. It can be the most high pressure situation you can think of or a practice. He’s just serene on the surface and competitive as hell.”
But when Teat talked about the 18-17 win that lifted the Big Red to 5-0 — their best start to a season since 2014 — in a Zoom interview last week, he did not reference his late-game heroics, or any of his other two goals, three assists or 268 career points, which ranks third all-time in program history. Instead, he highlighted freshman faceoff specialist Angelo Petrakis’ game-winning goal with eight seconds remaining.
“At the time, it was just really fun to be a part of and a really good win,” Teat said. “Now looking back on it, it was a really special way to kind of end the season, unfortunately, but it was a good ending.”
While Teat recalled the highlight of the Big Red’s 2020 campaign from his bedroom at his family’s home in Brampton, Ontario, the lefty attackman will not have to say goodbye just yet to the place he has called home for the past four years. Last week’s first overall selection in the NLL Entry Draft by the New York Riptide will put his professional prospects on hold for the chance to finish what he started, even if that means taking the fall semester off and pushing his graduation to 2021.
As long as there was an opportunity to come back to Ithaca, he planned to stay the course.
“There wasn’t really another option as long as that door is open,” Teat said. “I love it at Cornell.”
Although Teat has accrued no shortage of accolades, the two-time Tewaaraton finalist’s time “Far Above Cayuga’s Waters” has had more ups and downs than the university’s notoriously hilly campus.
The No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2016 according to Inside Lacrosse struggled at first to find his bearings on the field. The Big Red lost their first three games of 2017 (including a season-opening 20-10 defeat to Penn State) by a combined 29 goals. Teat registered four goals and 10 turnovers in those contests. Ever the quick study, though, the communications major broke through in the next game against Virginia and tallied 11 points in an 19-18 overtime loss.
“That was the moment that I’ll always remember watching him really take over a game for the first time in a Cornell uniform,” Buczek said. “You knew that he was going to be something really, really special for four years for us.”
The path to come back for a fifth year was not without its hurdles. Although the NCAA deemed that it was “appropriate” to grant eligibility relief for spring sport athletes after the cancellation of the season in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ivy League’s tradition that bars graduate students from competing in athletics complicated that process.
Michael Sowers and Phillip Robertson headed south to Duke after Princeton prevented spring sport athletes from withdrawing as a means to preserve their eligibility. Kyle Thornton and Kyle Gallagher moved on from Penn to Notre Dame. TD Ierlan will return to Yale for the 2021 season. Teat is the only returning fifth-year player for Cornell.
Teat tried to not dwell on what was out of his control and concentrated on assembling an academic plan to add another semester to his undergraduate experience. He “played it as it goes” and remained patient during the several months as those behind the scenes worked to get the approvals needed from Cornell and the Ivy League.
Meanwhile Teat sought out advice from his teammates, his parents and high school coaches — Brodie Merrill and Reilly O’Connor at The Hill Academy — that gave him confidence in his decision to come back for a fifth spring.
“We use Jeff as a standard for our program,” Merrill said back in February. “He set the bar, both with how he was off the field and his unselfishness. He plays the game right.”
Beyond his point totals, Buczek has seen Teat grow as a leader and become more assertive in when and how he uses his voice.
“It’s funny cause he is certainly not a loud individual, but he’s found those times to step into that role,” Buczek said. “I’m excited to see him continue to grow into that as we move through this year.”
Teat and the Class of 2020 helped re-establish a winning culture at the tradition-rich program and put the Big Red back in the national conversation. They reversed a 5-13 record from their freshman year to go 13-5 in 2018 while also securing an Ivy League tournament title and a run to the NCAA quarterfinals.
After a 10-5 record in 2019 that left them one of the last teams out of the NCAA tournament, Cornell seemed poised for another postseason run this past spring after starting 5-0. The second-ranked offense in the country also featured junior John Piatelli, who ranked fourth in goals per game (4.00) in Division I and freshman Michael Long, who tallied 19 points and earned Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors twice, at attack.
“I think we’re just an extremely simple offense,” Teat said of the unit that Buczek oversaw for the last three years. “We don’t do anything outside of what we’re capable of. At the same time, we have a lot of fun and we’re a little creative.”
This year will be Buczek’s first year at the helm of the program. The former three-time All-American who graduated in 2015 was named head coach a couple days after Peter Milliman left for John Hopkins. Buczek is Teat’s third head coach in five years.
“Their passion for the game and how much they care about the program is extremely rewarding for us and easy to play for,” Teat said of Buczek and Jordan Stevens, who was promoted to the Mario St. George Boiardi ‘04 Associate Head Coach of Men’s Lacrosse.
The endowed position is not the only way the program celebrates the legacy of Boiardi — a Cornell lacrosse captain who died in March 2004 after being struck in the chest by the ball during a game at Schoellkopf Field against Binghamton. Every spring, a junior is tasked with carrying a hard hat emblazoned with the No. 21. Teat carried the hat in 2019. He passed it on to midfielder Jonathan Donville, in whose locker it still sits until the university gives the team approval to resume in-person activities.
“Carrying the hard hat and sitting next to [George] in the locker — it’s a big deal,” Teat told Inside Lacrosse in 2019. “I can’t think of enough words to put together what it means.”
To Buczek, who carried the hat in 2014, the honor shows that if you put in the work, good things happen.
While he’s only able to connect with his players via Zoom right now, he remains optimistic about the spring and said the Big Red will be ready to compete whenever the opportunity calls.
Teat’s presence should facilitate that transition.
“It’s certainly very assuring on our end,” Buczek said of Teat’s return. “We know that Jeff and the rest of the leaders on our team this year are cut from that same hardworking and humble cloth. What we talk about at Cornell is that everybody’s judged by the same standard. Whether you’re the first guy on the depth chart or the last guy, the expectation is that you’re a great teammate. He fulfills that role every single day.”