Focus.
Coming off a heart-breaking 6-5 double overtime loss to Dartmouth last weekend, the women’s lacrosse team needs some focus.
The squad has had a week to ponder the defensive struggle it lost, and how it is going to move on. Whether they are ready or not, the women will be tested again tomorrow at 1 p.m. on Schoellkopf Field. The Bears of Brown are coming into town, hoping to avenge the 11-6 loss they received last year in their contest with Cornell.
Brown (5-4, 2-1 Ivy) is hoping to sneak in a win against the battle-weary Red (7-2, 2-2). The Bears are fresh off a 12-9 come-from-behind win against Vanderbilt earlier this week, capping a three-game winning streak.
Cornell needs this win though, to heal the wounds from the Dartmouth game. Also, the women want to play the kind of lacrosse they are capable of and get back to dominating the way they were earlier this season.
“We know we have the talent and the ability, we just need focus,” noted head coach Jenny Graap ’86.
This game goes deeper than the contest on the field for Graap. First, Brown’s head coach Theresa Ingram worked as an assistant coach at George Mason University under Graap in the ’94-’95 season. She is excited for the match up.
“Brown is a strong Ivy rival. We need to be up for the challenge. Under my tenure we have only beaten them once, so I want to improve on my 1-2 record,” added Graap.
Although the Red wants to concentrate on the game, there still are other factors out there. Brown is currently ahead of Cornell in the Ivy rankings. Cornell is sitting at fourth-place, behind top-seeded Princeton, No. 2 Dartmouth and then Brown.
Graap knows what her team needs to do to win.
“We need to focus our game. We need to make better mental decisions,” she explained. “Dartmouth was a mentally strenuous game, it was a grind. Afterwards, we were mentally exhausted. The game was frustrating because we were so close.
“Now we are looking to clean up our decision-making and get our act together in all aspects of the game. We need focus not only in our offense, but also our midfield transition and our defensive communication. Continuity is what we are looking for. We play well together at moments but are still looking to improve,” she summarized.
Cornell’s strengths are still intact — they are merely tested, not broken. On offense juniors Jaimee Reynolds and Ginny Miles are always prepared to score. Cornell also holds loaded weapons in Lori Wohlschlegal, Sarah Averson, Sarah Fischer and Michelle Allen. Erica Holveck has been having some big games too.
The defense showed its strength last weekend by holding off the Green attack through 60 minutes of play. Goaltender Carrie Giancola has proved herself on the field, emerging as one of the nation’s top defenders. The defense, led by Sarah McGoey and Katie McCorry, is strong and fast. Fellow defenders Kari Zarzecki and Sarah Graham round out the Red. However, even they will be tested against the Bears.
“Brown is not incredibly talented or fast. But they are scrappy, feisty and aggressive on ground balls. They are not ranked, but we need to regroup and to play well. We are looking to prove ourselves for ourselves. We need to de-emphasize the extraneous things like rankings and records. We need to focus,” finished Graap.
Archived article by Cammy Kandiko