The women’s lacrosse team wraps up its most successful season ever tomorrow as it travels to Baltimore to visit No. 18 Johns Hopkins (10-6, 4-2 ALC). Cornell (13-1, 6-1 Ivy), ranked sixth in the nation for the third straight week, enters the game on a high after handily defeating Delaware 14-6 in Wednesday’s home finale.
Senior Jaimee Reynolds notched her best game of the year, a five-goal, six-point performance that moved her past Cari Hills ’98 in to first place on the Red’s all-time points list. She now has 184 total points, including 130 goals, which is one off of Hills’ record of 131.
Cornell was the beneficiary of an extremely diverse attack Wednesday, as eight different players scored during the Red’s thorough handling of one of the top goalies in the country. In addition to Reynolds, two other laxers tallied multiple goals, junior Sarah Averson, and freshman Lindsay Steinberg. Senior goalie Carrie Giancola returned to form following a disappointing outing against Harvard, recording eight saves on 14 shots on goal.
“I expect to build on the energy and performance against Delaware,” said head coach Jenny Graap ’86. “That game was pivotal in getting us back on track of playing hard for 60 minutes.”
In Johns Hopkins, the Red will face a talented opponent which has had an up-and-down season, handling non-ranked opponents with ease while falling to many ranked teams in close games. The Blue Jays are coming off a 15-6 thrashing of Towson on Wednesday which saw six players score. Jamie Larrimore scored four goals and added an assist in the win. The senior is currently in fourth place on Hopkins’ career points list. Heidi Pearce and Erin Wellner join Larrimore to comprise one of the more potent offenses in Division I at 11.5 goals per game.
“Hopkins is a team with three very strong attackers,” said Graap, “the game is going to come down to our ability to contain these threats.”
This will be the third meeting in the series between the two schools, in which Cornell holds a 2-0 advantage. The Red upended Johns Hopkins 16-4 in the final of the ECAC tournament in 2000. Last year, Cornell defeated the Blue Jays 8-5 to close the regular season.
This matchup holds great importance for the Red (13-1, 6-1 Ivy) as a win would almost guarantee home field advantage in at least the first round of the NCAA tournament. This would give a significant edge to Cornell, which is 17-3 on the Schoellkopf turf over the past three years. In addition, the team would benefit from not being forced to travel during finals week, which is what happened in last year’s tournament appearance.
The game is also notable as Lellie Cherry Swords, formerly an assistant for the Red is the volunteer assistant coach for Johns Hopkins. While on Graap’s staff, Swords was responsible for recruiting, and was instrumental in brining many of the team’s upperclassmen to the Hill.
“She knows our personnel and our style,” said Graap. “Hopkins will definitely be well prepared for this game.”
Archived article by Owen Bochner