With a five-goal lead with 17 minutes left to play, Cornell women’s lacrosse looked poised to earn its third conference victory, but Brown used a late scoring run to narrowly edge by Cornell, 14-13.
The Red (6-4, 2-2 Ivy) traded goals back and forth with the Bears (8-4,1-3) in the early goings, and senior midfielder Joey Coffy was able to find the back of the net just as the buzzer went off to end the first half deadlocked 6-6.
The Red then opened up the second half with three goals within the first four minutes, but the Bears were resilient, notching two goals of their own to bring the game back within one.
Cornell then went on a four-goal unanswered streak to pull away from Brown with the largest margin of the game, 13-8.
However, during the final 17 minutes of the match, the Bears were able to claw their way back and slide past the Red thanks to yellow cards called against Cornell that generated man-up opportunities for the Bears.
“Lacrosse is a momentum game and Brown was dominating the draw which gave them a huge advantage in offensive opportunities,” said head coach Jenny Graap ’86. “The fact that Cornell took two yellow cards late in the game was also costly as Brown was able to score two man-up goals.”
Cornell and Brown were evenly matched in all aspects of the game, except in the draw control. Brown won 19 draw controls to Cornell’s nine, giving Brown significantly more scoring opportunities.
“As much as we can look at conceding six goals in the final 17 minutes as a defensive issue,” Graap said, “The truth was our lack of offensive execution and struggle on the draw circle were major factors as well.”
Despite the lopsided draw controls, Cornell still took 26 shots to Brown’s 27, caused five turnovers to Brown’s six and fielded 14 ground balls to Brown’s 11.
Senior captain and midfielder Taylor Reed had a huge day for the Red — tallying a career-high four goals en route to surpassing the one hundred career point benchmark to bring her total to 101 points.
“Great players like Taylor Reed make their teammates and their program better, and Taylor has been a force for Cornell women’s lacrosse since her freshman year,” Graap said. “For Taylor to reach this 100-point milestone as a 2-way midfielder speaks to how impressive she is as an athlete. As a senior captain, Taylor brings the competitive fire in every game, and we are all proud of her accomplishment.”
For Reed, the accomplishment allowed for her to mull over her highly successful career thus far.
“Obviously yesterday’s game didn’t go our way and it was a tough loss, but hitting 100 points gave me the opportunity to reflect on all the hard work I’ve put in and the amazing memories I’ve made over the last four years here,” Reed said. “It made me grateful for the time and the incredible teammates I’ve had along the way. There is still a lot of season left and I am lucky to still be playing and be able to work even harder going forward.”
In addition to Reed’s four goals, freshman midfielder Grace Paletta notched a career-high three goals herself, and Coffy contributed two goals of her own.
Defensively, sophomore goalkeeper Katie McGahan tallied six saves and fielded one ground ball.
Junior defender Hannah O’Reilly fielded four ground balls, while Coffy fielded three, and Coffy and senior defender Cait Callahan each caused two turnovers.
Cornell will continue Ancient Eight play on Saturday as it welcomes Dartmouth to Schoellkopf Field at 1 p.m. for Senior Day.