Yesterday, The Red earned an important 13-6 victory over upstate rival Syracuse. Four players for Cornell recorded multiple-goal games, including hat tricks from seniors Jaimee Reynolds, Lori Wohlschlegel, and junior Sarah Fischer.
The defense was also solid, holding Syracuse All-American candidate Carrie Soults scoreless for the first time this season. The win puts the Red, currently ranked sixth in the nation, at 9-1 for the year and extends its winning streak to four games.
The Red also avenged a 9-7 loss last year to the Orangeman. The loss drops Syracuse to 7-5.
“We came really fired up for this game today,” said Wohlschlegel. “We wanted to do justice because we have not played that well against Syracuse these past few years.”
The first half was evenly matched, with each team exchanging goals early on, and no team emerging dominant. Wohlschlegel opened up the scoring thirty seconds into the game to give the Red an early lead. The Orangemen quickly answered a few minutes later to tie the score.
After that point, both teams traded several more goals. Fischer scored her first goal of the night while Cornell sophomore Jaimee Quinn added her own off a free position. Syracuse answered each time with goals from Daniel Lillis and Leigh-Ann Zimmer.
With the score tied 3-3, a timeout was called and Cornell regrouped. After several chances for both sides, junior Sarah Aversion broke the tie with a pretty turnaround shot that caught the netkeeper by surprise. Reynolds soon added another goal after faking out a player to get an open shot.
Syracuse had a late opportunity to score after getting a free position. Soults took the shot that was impressively turned aside by senior goalie Carrie Giancola to help maintain Cornell’s two-goal lead heading into the intermission.
The second half was a different story for the Red, as it dominated.
“I think the game was really a story of the second half,” comment head coach Jenny Graap ’86, “Cornell really stepped it up a notch.”
Though Syracuse struck first to cut the score to 5-4, Cornell started to pull away. It scored three straight goals and six out of the next seven to secure the game.
Fischer, Reynolds and Wohlschlegel all tallied two more times to complete their hat tricks for the night. Wohlschlegel’s second goal was particularly impressive. From behind the net, she muscled her way through a crowd to get the shot off with several defenders hanging onto her.
Senior Beth Calder also had two tallies in the second half, giving the Red four players with multiple goal performances.
The diverse scoring continues a trend for Cornell. Seventeen players have at least a point, and six players have at least 14 points on the season.
“I think the fact that we have so many women who can score makes us all the more threatening. I think that it was one of the main components that makes Cornell prominent as a national power,” indicated Graap.
On defense Giancola was tested several times and came up big, making five saves including a huge stop against Soults near the end of the first half.
“I was pretty excited to make that save. It felt really good,” said Giancola.
In the game, she broke the school record in saves held by Lori Wick’81.
The Red also held Syracuse, which averages 12 goals a game, to six goals.
“I think that is one of the best defensive games we have played this season. Syracuse has the reputation of being an explosive team offensively. I was very impressed with how our defense played,” said Graap.
The Red will return to action this Saturday at Schoellkopf where it faces Yale, which is tied with the Red for second place in the Ivy League.
Archived article by Chris Callanan