It was a rough weekend for the Cornell field hockey team. The Red opened the 2000 season with two losses during its round-robin tournament at Kent State this past weekend.
Cornell dropped a hard fought battle to first-time foe Southwest Missouri State on Friday. Although the Red played well, outshooting the Bears 13-11 and earning seven more penalty corners, it was unable to capitalize on its opportunities for the win. The team was forced to retire with a 2-1 loss.
In their fourth game of the year, the Bears didn’t waste anytime putting a point on the board. At 8:47 into the game Mollie Reichard scored an unassisted goal on a penalty corner. This left the Red with the job of playing catch up.
About 12 minutes later, sophomore Anna Starkey evened the score on an unassisted goal and gave the Red a new resurgence of energy. However, Cornell was unable to build upon this momentum and entered half-time tied.
It was an even battle for most of the second half until 40:56 when Liz Lopez broke the tie and sealed the victory for the Bears.
Senior Maureen Sullivan made six saves on the day.
Looking to leave the tournament with a .500 record, the Red tried to regroup to beat national power house Kent State. Unfortunately this was not to be.
Yesterday, Cornell did all it could to fend off the Golden Flashes, but the hosts proved too formidable for the Red. The Golden Flashes took the game by a score of 5-0.
Sullivan once again played well in goal recording nine saves, but the Red was only able to take one shot. The solitary shot taken by Starkey was no match for the Golden Flashes’ 20.
The first Kent State goal scored by Jessica Creeden set a new Golden Flashes record. Creeden became the first true goalkeeper to score a goal in the school’s history. The backup goalie came in to take a penalty stroke at 3:12 into the game.
“We obviously wanted to start our season on a positive note, and two losses wasn’t what we wanted,” senior co-captain and midfielder Amy Galebach said, and looking for a silver lining, added, “But we were really prepared and we played really hard.
The Red is hoping to regroup and come up with its first win as it takes on Ivy League foe Columbia this weekend. The Red is 4-0 against the Lions.
Archived article by Kristen Haunss