The Red had a disappointing weekend on the road, losing in a close contest to William and Mary, 1-0, on Friday before falling to powerhouse George Mason, 2-0, yesterday afternoon. Traveling to Fairfax, Va., the Red played both teams as part of the George Mason Tournament.

In the opener, the Red (1-5-1) held its own against the Tribe (5-2-0), and put up a tough defensive barrier until William and Mary’s offense broke through in the second half. The lone goal of the game came 61 minutes into play, when the Tribe’s Krissy Vornadore, taking an assist from Katrina Smedley, kicked one in from the left side to Cornell’s far goal post.Overrun: Junior forward Lena Russomagno (16) fights for the ball in the Red’s 2-0 win over Colgate on Sept. 16.

“We played amazing. We should have won that game,” said sophomore defender Sam Wright. “Last week, William and Mary was ranked 22 in the nation and for us to hold them off and potentially should have and could have beat them is a huge step for us. I feel like when we play better competition, we rise to the potential of the level we should play. I am not disappointed at all with the loss because they didn’t have respect for us as a team and didn’t think we were going to be able to hold our own.”

In goal for the Red, sophomore Kelly Murphy made six saves during the contest.

The Red stayed aggressive with its offense as well — the Tribe outshot Cornell only by a narrow margin of 14-11.

“For us to just go out and play an evenly matched game, I definitely think that shows a lot about this team,” said sophomore defender Sidra Bonner.

In yesterday’s game against George Mason (8-1-0), the Red faced another tough competitor, but once again showed that Cornell can keep up with its higher ranked foes.

“Both George Mason and William and Mary are nationally ranked, but I think … it teaches ourselves that we were good enough to be competing at the highest level,” Bonner said.

The Patriots got two goals past the Red with its persistent offense. George Mason took the lead with two first-period goals, and held onto it for the remainder of the game.

The first of the Patriots’ goals came 35 minutes into the first half, when Jessica Pisasale took advantage of a Cornell foul and finished her teammate’s pass in the front of the box. The next goal came only six minutes later after goalkeeper Katie Frey sent the ball far into the defense and Annie Lebherz gave it a light tap into the net.

Neither team could finish for goals in the second half, despite attempts on both sides. In total, the Red outshot the Patriots, 15-12.

“Our strength is that we definitely rise to the occasion when we play better teams. When we are put in the heat of competition and everyone shows up to play, we can possess the ball really well and we can find the open net. We play really direct, we go forward, and we don’t ever play backwards,” Wright said.

Cornell has had a busy schedule, but the team still kept up its energy and enthusiasm with its sturdy defense against the Patriots.

“I think that we played really well, considering the fact that we played five games in eight days and we’ve been playing games every other day since Wednesday. We definitely did well defensively marking up their key players,” Bonner said.

The Red focused on defending its net against these rivals, but the team knows it needs to match this with a forceful offense to keep advancing.

“We just have to finish. We have to put some goals away because we can hold them off and not let them score but we can’t win unless we put our own goals in the back of the net,” Wright said.

Though the Red didn’t come out of the weekend’s games with wins, the team gained valuable experience from facing off against these nationally ranked squads.

“I definitely think it gave us a little more confidence and showed us that we have the potential to do great things in the Ivy League,” Bonner said.