There’s just something special about overtime wins. Heart stopping excitement and disappointment are just around the corner, and inevitably one of those feelings disappears.
As said by women’s soccer head coach Berhane Andeberhan, “In overtime, you’re always on the edge of ecstasy and disaster.”
The Red kicked off its 2001 Ivy League schedule in spectacular fashion Saturday, beating Yale 1-0 in overtime at the Yale Soccer-Lacrosse Stadium in New Haven, Conn. It came up big late in the game to defeat the Bulldogs in an exciting contest that was up for grabs until the very end. The result moved Cornell up to 2-1 (1-0 Ivy) and dropped previously undefeated Yale to 3-1 (0-1 Ivy).
Junior midfielder Sarah Olsen scored the game’s only goal, tapping a rebound past Bulldog goaltender Lindsay Sabel 2:26 into overtime to seal the victory for the Red and give Olsen her first goal of the season, directly causing a celebration pile to form at midfield.
Freshman Katie Thomas had another outstanding performance, making six saves to earn her second shutout of the season.
Andeberhan assessed Olsen’s importance to the team.
“She’s our MVP. She’s a tremendous leader both on and off the field, and the players find it easy to follow her. It’s easy when the captains are the hardest workers. It’s like she’s a rookie — she works as hard in practice as she does in the games, and it reflects on the rest of the team.”
The two teams were very evenly matched throughout the contest. Both dominated different aspects of the game. Yale controlled the field early, but the Red seemed to get stronger as the game went on. Andeberhan attributes the victory to superb off-season conditioning.
He adds, “[Yale is] a very strong team, but during the last 15-20 minutes of the game, we really started to gain momentum and dominate. We worked hard over the summer to become a well-conditioned team, and it showed. I felt we had the edge going into overtime.”
He had nothing but praise for Thomas as well.
“She’s not like a freshman. She has a lot of experience, and she understands the position extremely well,” he adds. “This is the kind of performance we can expect from her each game; she is a tremendous talent.”
This victory should be an important boost for the Red, which was coming off of a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to Syracuse.
According to Andeberhan, “Both games were valuable, but as a coach, it’s always nice to see the players get rewarded for their hard work. We still have a long way to go, but we were much more consistent today, and of course it’s always sweeter to win.”
The Red will try to harness its newfound momentum when it faces Colgate at home this Wednesday.
Archived article by Matt Nassr