The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/author/jbp67cornell-edu/)
Cornell field hockey continues to keep the ball rolling in the right direction as the Red stayed perfect on the season after shutting out Siena, 4-0, yesterday afternoon.
Saints (1-3) goalkeeper Renee Clavette registered 22 saves, but could not hold off the persistent Red (3-0) attack. In the course of 70 minutes, Cornell pounded the net with 43 shots to Siena’s one.
The Cornell field hockey team, under head coach Donna Hornibrook, will open the 2009 season on the road with two games this weekend at American University in Washington, D.C. The Red will face Davidson on Saturday at 2 p.m. and gear up again to play Georgetown Sunday afternoon.
Athletes and teams of every sport all around the world adopt slogans and perform pre-game rituals to get fired up for competitions. The Cornell softball team is no different. This weekend, the Red will be in “Beast Mode” as it gears up to compete in a best-of-three series for the Ivy League title on its home diamond against Dartmouth.
Junior first baseman Ashley Garvey borrowed the term “Beast Mode” from NFL football player Marshawn Lynch of the Buffalo Bills, who coined the phrase to describe his athletic ability to the press. After sharing it with her teammates, the saying quickly became one of the squad’s most frequented expressions and is now fully embraced by the Red.
The women’s lacrosse team suffered a disappointing defeat Saturday afternoon on Schoelkopf field against Harvard. Six Cornell players found the back of the net in the first half, but the Crimson shutout the Red in the final 30 minutes of the 11-7 loss. After this weekend, Cornell (9-6, 3-4 Ivy) drops to No. 21 in the nation.
Despite out-hustling Harvard on the draw circle, 11-9, and with groundball pick-ups, 17-13, Cornell was unable to exploit its statistical edge. The Red turned the ball over 18 times to the Crimson, allowing Harvard to notch their second Ivy win of the season.
Junior defense-wing Tissy O’Connor led the Red in the midfield with four draw controls, two groundballs, and a caused turnover. O’Connor also netted a goal in the contest.
After having to wait a year to avenge heartbreaking defeat last April, the softball team will finally step up to the plate against Princeton today at 12:30 p.m. for the Tigers’ final home games of the season. The Ivy League South Division Champs (34-10, 13-3 Ivy) will then return to Ithaca, with Princeton (14-18, 8-8) trailing behind them, to celebrate their own Senior Day doubleheader on Niemand-Robison Field this Sunday.
Because Cornell and Princeton are travel partners, the four-game series is divided between the two venues.
The rowing teams will pack up their boats and part ways tomorrow as they continue to pull through April and steer toward warmer days. The heavyweight men’s crews ride to Syracuse, where they will race host Syracuse and Navy in hopes of recovering the Goes Trophy from the Orange. More extensive travel plans are in store for the lightweight men, who will make the trek to Boston for a morning engagement with MIT and Columbia on the Charles River before a second road trip south to Connecticut for a 4:30 p.m. race versus Yale. The women’s team will compete for the Raritan Cup in one of five races scheduled against host Penn and Rutgers.
After sweeping Penn in back-to-back doubleheaders over the weekend, the softball team’s blinders are set on its next games down the road in Syracuse. The Red will face the Orange (19-10, 8-4 Big East) in a doubleheader scheduled for today at 3:30 p.m., at SU Softball Stadium.
Syracuse has won its last three games, the most recent of which came against Canisius on Monday in a doubleheader sweep. In the first contest, sophomore Angie Sagnelli pitched a complete game to improve to 5-1 on the season; the Orange outhit the Golden Griffins, 11-5, and notched seven RBIs –– good for a 9-2 win.
The softball team made sitting in the cold, blustery weather worth it to the Red crowd who bundled up to avoid wind chill in this weekend’s doubleheaders against Penn. The Red came away with victories in all four games of the series to annihilate the visiting Quakers.
After sweeping Penn over the weekend, Cornell (31-7, 10-2 Ivy) tops the Ivy South Division standings and boasts better overall and league records than North Division leader Dartmouth (18-14, 9-3 Ivy).
“The weekend put us in a really good position in the Ivy League,” said junior shortstop Alyson Intihar. “The team grew over the last couple of days, and the wins have created momentum to carry us into future contests.”
Two teams of Cornell rowers will say goodbye to the familiar Cayuga Inlet after successful outings on the lake last weekend. The women will make the short trip to Syracuse today to compete in this evening’s races, while the lightweight men head to Penn to row in the Matthew’s Cup tomorrow. In the meantime, the men of the heavyweight crews will keep an eye on the Red’s John Collyer Boat House as they stay behind to train for the George Washington Invitational in Washington, D.C., on April 10.
The women, who were originally scheduled for Saturday engagements against Syracuse and Yale, were forced to change gears last minute when the race was moved back to tonight due to weather forecasts calling for unfavorable conditions in the area this weekend.
Ancient Eight play is now underway for the men’s and women’s tennis teams, as both squads faced Columbia in the Red’s Ivy openers this past weekend. The men’s team dropped the majority of its matches to fall behind, 3-4. The loss, which puts the men 9-4 for the season, halted a six-game winning streak for the Red. Meanwhile, the women’s team won at home, 6-1, on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Ithaca to improve to an overall record of 5-9. [img_assist|nid=36404|title=At the ready|desc=Junior Natalia Sanchez, playing in the No. 1 spot against Columbia on Saturday, was one of six team members to win their matches over the course of the dual match.|link=node|align=left|width=|height=0]