April 12, 2002

Women Visit Brown

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The last time the women’s lacrosse team (6-1, 3-1 Ivy) played conference rival Brown, it took nearly perfect play to pull off the 8-6 win. A strong fundamental effort will be crucial again tonight as the Bears host No. 5 Cornell in an important conference matchup. At 4-4 (1-1 Ivy), Brown presents a challenge to the Red as the Bears attempt to make some noise in the Ivy League.

“We’re the faster, more skilled team, but on any given day, that doesn’t mean you’re going to have an easy win,” said head coach Jenny Graap ’86. “The thing about Brown is they never give up, they’re always going after you.”

With 11.3 goals per game to their credit, the Bears have one of the more prolific offenses in Division I, and Cornell will have to replicate the defensive effort it put forth against Dartmouth in order to win.

The road trip will continue Sunday as the Red face the Boston University Terriers for the first time ever. For BU (3-6, 0-0 America East), this game presents an opportunity to return to the IWLCA top 20 after not being ranked this week. The Terriers have broken into the top 20 on four different occasions this season, most recently last week.

Dartmouth defeated B.U. 13-9 on Tuesday to break the Terriers’ two-game win streak.

“They have a couple of All-American type athletes who are very skilled,” reported Graap.

It will also be crucial that the Red brings into the weekend the same type of focus and intensity that resulted in the first Cornell victory over the Green since 1991.

“We can’t rely on our opponent to elevate our game,” Graap said, “we have to do that ourselves.”

A full 60-minute effort on both sides of the ball will go a long way towards ensuring success for the Red.

“The fundamentals of our game have to be in place,” explained Graap. “We have to hustle for the ground balls, we have to get the draw controls, fire off a lot of shots, and we have to play good defense.”

Cornell will hope to ride the momentum both of Saturday’s 14-6 win over Dartmouth as well as the men’s lacrosse team’s 15-11 upset over top-ranked Syracuse on Tuesday.

“Every player on the team was … watching the men beat what was the number-one team in the country,” said Graap, “and that was really, really inspiring. We had a great practice … after watching that.”

Archived article by Owen Bochner