Cornell women’s lacrosse (3-7, 1-4 Ivy League) fell to Dartmouth (8-2, 4-0 Ivy League) last Saturday, 7-13. The Red traveled to New Hampshire with hopes of making a turning point in its season, but ultimately was unable to take away a win.
Cornell scored the first goal, but after several solid attempts, Dartmouth countered a few minutes later. The Red was the next to score, but in the last few minutes of the first half Dartmouth scored several goals to make a lead that Cornell would never recover from.
“We played them pretty well in the first half, but then they knocked a few quick goals that we couldn’t get back from,” explained junior captain Jessi Steinberg. “It was the last ten minutes or so at the end of the first half that killed us.”
With less than six minutes left in the first half, Cornell was down only 3-4. Five minutes later the team found itself down 3-8.
“We played pretty tight with them in the second half but just couldn’t come back,” added senior captain Libby Johnson.
Shannon McHugh, Libby Johnson, and Katie Kirk all contributed goals for the Red in the second half. However Dartmouth was able to score another five to secure the win.
“It wasn’t really anything specific,” Johnson said. “We didn’t really have any answers for them. They beat us pretty well on draw control which was one of the biggest things.”
Ultimately, Dartmouth was able to hold possession for the greater part of the game, and gave Cornell little opportunity for making any sort of progress. The Green out shot Cornell 30-18, and won 14 of the 22 draw controls.
The game was especially important because Cornell is now most likely out of the Ivy League tournament.
“We have a chance but it would take a lot of big teams to fall … and wins to go the wrong way,” Steinberg said.
Cornell still has two Ivy games to play this season against Brown and Yale.
“We need to secure these next Ivy’s coming up,” Steinberg said. “We need to focus on being consistent and doing the little things right.”
The team plans on trying to finish out the season as successfully as it can.
“We just have to finish strong in the Ivy League,” Johnson said. “We just want to play strong for those two games and come away with the best record that we can.”
With such a tough loss it will be a true test of character for the team to be able to keep its focus and finish the season on a more positive note. Even with little hope of entering the tournament, there is still a chance that Cornell can finish its season with an even or winning record.
Original Author: Rebecca Velez