The women’s lacrosse team traveled to New Jersey on Saturday afternoon to battle Princeton with first place in the conference on the line. Despite jumping out to an early 4-1 lead, the No. 12 Red could not hold on, as it fell to the No. 8 Tigers, 10-6. The loss is the 19th straight for Cornell (6-2, 2-1 Ivy) against Princeton (4-4, 2-0), a perennial Ivy League powerhouse.
The Red came out of the gate firing, jumping out to an early, 2-0, lead on goals by sophomores Katherine Simmons and Noelle Dowd.
Kathleen Miller would cut the Tiger’s deficit in half, however, with the first of her three goals on the night coming off a free position shot. But over the course of the next 10 minutes, the Red would add to its lead. Sophomore Courtney Farrell scored her 19th goal of the season, and then five minutes later, junior tri-captain Margaux Viola notched her 22nd tally, converting on a feed from Simmons.
“We played very well in the first 20 minutes of the game and looked really sharp,” said head coach Jenny Graap ’86. “Then Princeton started to slowly and steadily creep back into the game. It was very frustrating for us when we continued to shoot the ball, but weren’t able to score.”
Princeton would score three goals in the final five minutes of the half to tie the score at four heading into the intermission.
Picking up where it left off before halftime, Princeton scored the game’s next three goals to pull ahead, 7-4. Sophomore Charlotte Schmidlapp scored her second goal of the season with about 10 minutes remaining in the game, ending a 32-minute scoring drought for the Red. Cornell would not get any closer, as Princeton scored three consecutive goals to seal the game.
With 26 seconds left in the game, Simmons recorded her second goal of the game and her 17th of the season to close out the scoring. Simmons was the only Cornell player to record a multi-point game, while Katie Lewis-Lamonica paced Princeton with four points on two goals and two assists.
Cornell controlled play for much of the game, particularly in the first half. The Red out-shot the Tigers, 33-19, and held the turnover advantage, giving up the ball just 19 times compared to 28 Princeton turnovers. However, the primary difference was efficiency, as just 13 of Cornell’s 33 shots were on goal, compared to 17-of-19 by Princeton.
Cornell senior goalie Maggie Fava had seven saves on the day, including five in the first half, while sophomore Amanda Linnertz recorded seven ground balls.
“We didn’t really play as a unit in the second half. We got desperate and out of sorts,” Graap said. “This week we really need to focus on the team and mental side of the game, come together on offense, and not let this happen again.”