In the latest chapter of a roller-coaster ride of a season, the women’s soccer team earned a 1-1 tie Brown in an Ivy League match at Berman Field yesterday.
Cornell (7-5-1, 1-3-1 Ivy) peaked with six consecutive wins to start its season before dropping its next five contests in a row. However, after snapping that losing streak with an overtime victory at Albany a week ago, the Red appeared primed for another upswing as it went into yesterday’s contest with the Bears (5-7-2, 1-2-2) looking to end a three-game conference skid.
“There’s no reason we can’t win the rest of our games,” said senior co-captain Shannon Fraser. “We had a rough stretch, but we have a chance to win out.”
Entering the contest knowing it would most likely prove to be a low-scoring affair, the Red faced quite a challenge against Brown’s staunch defense, led by senior goalkeeper Hilary Wilson. Nevertheless, an undaunted Cornell squad came out firing and got a goal from an unlikely source to take an early 1-0 lead.
Just under six minutes into the contest, Cornell junior midfielder Jessica Snyder found herself with the ball in front of the Bears’ net. Unable to get off a shot, however, the ball was deflected away from Snyder to classmate Mira MacLennan – a player known better for her defense than scoring abilities – who managed to put it home.
Wilson made a valiant effort to keep the Red scoreless, deflecting MacLennan’s attempt, but was unable to redirect the ball from out of the net.
The goal was the first collegiate points for the junior defensive midfielder. In fact, she had only taken five total shots throughout her career at Cornell prior to Sunday’s contest.
Cornell managed to keep the 1-0 lead for almost 40 minutes. Nevertheless, the Bears got the equalizer a little over a minute before halftime.
Lindsay Cunningham earned her team-leading fifth goal of the season for Brown, beating Cornell freshman netminder Taylor Hendren with a blast into the top right corner of the net from twenty yards out. Setting up Cunningham for the shot, junior Kathy Moos picked up her second assist of the season on the play.
Following halftime, the game became a back and forth affair in which both teams had chances and both goalies made multiple game-saving stops.
Hendren, a freshman, looked composed beyond her years in those crucial moments, coming up with three huge saves in overtime play alone. Overall, she made eight saves on the day and improved her save percentage to the .700 range.
Wilson managed nine saves on the day as Cornell held a slim advantages in shots on goal (10-9) and total shots (22-21).
Cornell will try to stay out of the loss column for the third straight game Wednesday night as it battles Army under the lights of Berman Field.
Archived article by Scott Reich
Sun Staff Writer