The women’s basketball team had another trip away from Ithaca this past weekend, traveling to Dartmouth on Friday and Harvard on Saturday. The women have four games left in the regular season but this was the last time they faced either the Green or the Crimson. Going into the weekend Cornell was ranked third in the Ivy League, but after losing both contests — on Friday to Dartmouth, 60-52, and then on Saturday to Harvard, 68-63 — the Red left sitting in fifth place in the conference standings with a record of 5-5 against Ivy League opponents.
“It was an interesting shift being on the road,” said junior forward Nicholle Aston. “But that doesn’t account for the poor result we had. The good thing is that there are more games to be played.”
On Friday the Red went to Hanover to face Dartmouth. In the first meeting, Cornell handled the Green easily, beating Dartmouth easily in Newman Arena, 71-58. This time however, the Green had home court advantage. Dartmouth’s scoring was balanced, and had three separate players reach double figures.
For the Red, junior forward Nia Marshall continued her outstanding play, but was the only player to reach double digits, notching 22 points on the night. Marshall’s shots couldn’t miss the net, but neither could the Green’s. Dartmouth connected on 70 percent of its shots in the first half, and grabbed an 18-point lead right after halftime. It was up to the Cornell defense to stop Dartmouth’s Rowland and Letkewicz, and while the Red dominated the boards, the offense just couldn’t close the gap.
With just five minutes to go, Marshall went on a run, scoring eight points while sophomore forward Christine Ehland added another two. The Green’s lead was cut down, and Cornell’s defense made Dartmouth work for it back. In the final minutes of the last period, Cornell went on a scoring spree, led once again by Marshall along with junior guard Megan LeDuc, but Dartmouth managed to hold on to the ball and run out the clock.
After the exhausting match up in New Hampshire, the Red hopped on the bus and traveled another four hours to Cambridge to play Harvard. The Crimson came into the match with an intimidating 6-3 conference record, after winning its last three games.
In the last meeting of the two teams, the Crimson visited Newman Arena and beat Cornell in overtime, 65-56, with strong performances from guard Kit Metoyer and forward AnnMarie Healy.
On Saturday, Cornell’s lone senior Maddie Campbell gave a performance to match Healy and Metoyer, grabbing eight rebounds and dropping ten points. The guard also stuffed a Harvard shot for the team’s one defensive block of the game.
The scoring was more balanced than against Dartmouth, with freshman guard Caroline Shelquist and LeDuc both scoring nine points, Marshall netting 16, and three other players all combining to score the remaining 19 points.
Sophomore guard Marisa Knox proved she is a force to be reckoned with coming off the bench. On Saturday, she played only half the game but netted seven points and grabbed six rebounds. Despite a jumper from LeDuc in the last five minutes, Cornell couldn’t get the win.
Though the Big Red outshot the Crimson .385 to .377, the Crimson defense stymied the exhausted Cornell backcourt.