Recovering from a tough loss at Princeton a week ago, the No. 11 women’s lacrosse team remained in the hunt for an Ivy League title as the Red knocked off No. 15 Dartmouth, 13-8, at Schollekopf Field on Saturday, earning its second win over the Green (6-4, 2-2 Ivy) in the two teams’ last 15 meetings.
“We played really well,” said head coach Jenny Graap ’86. “We were very pleased with the outcome. It was an excellent team effort – a huge improvement over last week.”
Sophomore Courtney Farrell had a career day for the Red (7-2, 3-1), posting our goals while also adding three assists to lead the attack.
“She had a great day on the attacking end,” Graap said.
However, even with Farrell’s dominance, there was a whole cast of fellow contributors as the Cornell offense again showed off its impressive depth. Eight different players scored goals for the Red, while a total of six players had two or more points for home team.
“That was my favorite part of the win,” Graap said. “Everybody played a part in the win – we had such a diversity of people making contributions. Also, I think it was the most assists we’ve had all year.”
Meanwhile, Cornell goalie Maggie Fava was solid in net as Dartmouth – an NCAA Final Four particpant a year ago – made several comeback attempts. In the end, the senior made 11 saves, including four on Dartmouth free-position attempts, to preserve the Red victory.
“Fava was pretty awesome in net,” Graap said.
Never trailing at any point in the contest, Cornell got on the board first as senior captain Allison Schindler opened up the scoring a little over eight minutes into the game. Though the Green went on to tie the score at 1-1 at the 16:29 mark, the Red used a 5-0 run – with five different goal scorers – to work its way to 6-2 halftime advantage.
After scoring the first two goals of second half, Dartmouth cut the lead to 6-4 with 26:15 to play. However, Cornell would extend the lead back to four on goals by Schindler and sophomore Noelle Dowd.
Meanwhile, assisting on both those goals, Farrell picked up the first two of the five total points she would tally in the second half.
Refusing to go away quietly, the Green cut the Red lead to 8-6 on a pair of goals just 22 seconds apart. Again, though, Cornell responded positively to the challenge as it used a 4-0 run to put Dartmouth out off striking distance.
“It was pretty huge being able to respond to the Dartmouth pressure like that coming off last week’s game,” Graap said. “Against Princeton, we let them score seven or eight goals in a row – we didn’t respond well when the other team went on a run. Here, we were able to come right back.”
Junior captain Margaux Viola, who was recently named to the watch list for the Tewaaraton Trophy, which is awarded to the nation’s top player, put together another strong performance with a goal and two assists.
Along with Farrell, Viola and Schindler, sophomores Charlotte Schmidlapp and Katherine Simmons, and junior Alison McKeown were the other multiple point scorers for the Red.
On the other side of the field, the Green attack was led by Casey Hazel and Sarah Szefi, who each notched two goals and an assist. Dartmouth goalie Devon Willis had six saves in the losing effort.
The Cornell victory moves the Red into a tie for second, just a half game behind Princeton in the Ivy League standings. Meanwhile, the loss drops the Green into a fourth-place with three games to go in its Ivy schedule.
Archived article by Olivia Dwyer