By ryan
The No. 12 Cornell (10-3, 5-2 Ivy) women’s lacrosse team submitted another dominating performance to the NCAA tournament selection committee on Saturday, knocking off Harvard (6-8, 1-6), by a 12-8 count. Junior Jaimee Reynolds, sophomore Sarah Averson and the Red defense led the way as the team sped to an 11-2 lead before settling into cruise control. Reynolds and Averson each recorded a hat trick, and Cornell out-hustled the visitors for a 32-21 advantage on ground balls. “There’s no difficulty in inspiring our team for big games,” head coach Jenny Graap ’86 assured. “To be in a big game is awesome. When we are building and working towards a goal, it just awesome.” For 15 minutes, the Crimson seemed to have solved the Red attack, as it led 2-1. Lizzie Frisbie tossed a couple of assists for Harvard, and finished the game with four points. But Reynolds gave the momentum back to the Red, scoring on a feed from junior Lori Wohlschlegel. There would be no looking back. Junior co-captain Ginny Miles, Averson and junior Erica Holveck gave the Red an 8-2 lead going into halftime. “This team is much more mature than last year’s team,” Graap said. “But we’re in the same mode, and we’re starting to gel.” After holding for ten minutes, Harvard’s defense finally broke holes and Reynolds, freshman Michelle Allen and Wohlschlegel all scored one goal a piece. The romp was on. To keep the game from getting ugly, Graap began pulling her starters with her team up 11-2. “There were only fifteen minutes left to play and it seemed like we could let some of the younger kids play,” she explained. But against the Red second-team, the Crimson finally flexed its muscles. “Harvard was picking up its intensity. They were angry, and were fighting back.” Frisbie tossed in two goals within three minutes of each other. After freshman Kate Hirschfield scored Cornell’s final goal, a number of miscues allowed Harvard to score four more times. “It was interesting the way it happened,” Graap mused. “It worried us on the sidelines that we were starting to make mental mistakes. I didn’t anticipate so many errors and it was getting frustrating.” But the phenomenal play of Hirschfield and Allen kept the Red’s ride smooth sailing. “Kate did an outstanding job, and handled the ball well. Michelle also did some nice things [with the ball].” The Red is quickly catching up in the all-time series, which now stands at 4-19 in Harvard’s advantage. Cornell has won the past three meetings. Next up for the Red is a colossal showdown with No. 20 Johns Hopkins at Schoellkopf Field on Saturday. The winner of the game will likely get the NCAA at-large bid. “We are excited to play Hopkins at the same place we beat them last year,” Graap said. In last year’s ECAC title game, the Red embarrassed the Blue Jays, 16-4. “[The win] will either work in our favor in that we have the intimidation factor. Or the revenge factor will ignite them. Either way it will be an emotional game,” Graap noted. The game will be especially emotional for senior co-captain Sarah McGoey, who will be playing her final regular season home game for the Carnellian and white.Archived article by Sumeet Sarin
By ryan
Usually it’s Cornell that wins the groundball war. But against Brown this past Saturday in Providence, R.I., it was the men’s lacrosse team (7-5, 4-2 Ivy) that lost its most important groundball of the year. And as a result, it also lost its chance to claim an at-large spot in the NCAA Tournament. With the game tied 8-8 entering overtime, a loose ball scurried away from the face-off X. Brown picked it up and put it in the hands of Brian Miller, who quelled Cornell’s postseason hopes by beating Red junior netminder Justin Cynar to the end the contest only 19 seconds into the extra period. “He was all by himself,” sophomore attackman Michael Egan described how Miller slipped behind the Cornell defense and ended up one-on-one with Cynar. “He just put it in. You can’t expect Justin to make a save like that.” After losing to Princeton 7-4 last weekend, the Red would have had to beaten the Bears as well as Ohio State (its opponent next Saturday) to make a case for a postseason berth. “We’re definitely bummed,” Egan said. “We knew we had to win.” Although Cornell prides itself on coming out on top in the groundball and face-off categories, those between-the-lines may have been the Red’s downfall this weekend. “We didn’t play the way we wanted to,” Egan said. “We got outworked by them. It feels like we didn’t get the groundballs we should have.” Senior Drew Schardt used different diction in explaining the loss, but his message was the same. “Outplayed is the best word for what it was,” he said. “They made more plays than we did.” In the loss, Cynar recorded 11 saves while Brown netminder Beret Dickson had 18. “[Cynar’s] play was excellent,” Egan praised. “He didn’t let in any of the losses he wasn’t supposed to let in.” As it frequently does, the Red held the lead at half-time, 6-2. Schardt and classmate David Key scored, as did junior Galen Beers and Egan. But as it has in all its losses this year, Cornell helplessly witnessed its opponent mount a successful comeback in the second half. Brown scored the first two goals after intermission to trim its deficit to 6-4. Richard Mormile and Chris Mucciolo got on the board for the Bears. Key and Schardt scored for the Red, before Brown got one to make it an 8-5 game. However, while Cornell’s offense was shut down for the rest of the game, Brown’s attack rode its momentum, scoring three more times to even the score at 8-8 at the end of regulation, making way for the Bears’ improbable overtime victory. “I think mentally, we weren’t ready to go in the second half,” Schardt said. “I don’t think we had our minds in it.” For Schardt and other two seniors on team (Key and defenseman Bobby Werhane), Saturday’s loss assures they won’t be able to extend their careers past next weekend. “We certainly were disappointed,” Schardt said. “We wanted to try to go out positively in the Ivy League.” “The seniors were absolutely devastated,” Egan added. “They worked too hard this year not to see the fruits of their labor.” However, if there is a sliver of a sliver lining to be found in the defeat, it’s that Key —