The women’s lacrosse team continued its strong start, improving to 2-0 on the season with a well-fought 9-5 victory over Rutgers this past Saturday. Junior Sarah Fisher led the offense with four goals and an assist while senior goalkeeper Carrie Giancola and senior defender Katie McCorry held the Scarlet Knights to only five goals on 13 shots.
The victory improved the Red’s all-time record against Rutgers to 6-0.
The game was close for most of the day as a stubborn Rutgers squad refused to go quietly. Though the Red controlled most aspects of the game outshooting Rutgers 34-13, scooping 32-12 groundballs and winning 9 of 14 draws, they had trouble putting the ball in the back of the net.
Rutgers senior goalkeeper Lauren Gulluta made 16 saves before being replaced, by freshman keeper Lyndsey Feldman with eight minutes left in the game.
“We came out against a hot goalkeeper, and even though we took 34 shots on net, we only scored nine,” said head coach Jenny Graap ’86, “That got us nervous and a little out of our flow. Our defense played well and really carried us today. It’s a lesson that you can’t take any opponent lightly.”
Cornell jumped out to a 5-2 lead at the half thanks, in large part, to Fisher’s efforts. She had three of her four tallies in the first half and added her assist on the fourth goal. Rutgers, however, came storming back in the second half, scoring three unanswered goals at the start of the half to tie the game.
The game stayed that way until late in the second half with 6:22 remaining when junior Katie Lavin scored her first goal of the season to break the tie. Senior Jaimee Reynolds quickly followed with two goals of her own to extend her point steak to 49 games. Fisher then fittingly scored her fourth goal of the game to solidify Cornell’s victory.
The defense did a solid job of keeping Cornell in the game while the offense was struggling to get started.
“It took us a little while to get going,” indicated Giancola, “Yet the defense didn’t get frazzled. We were solid.”
Giancola stopped seven shots in goal. One goal that Rutgers scored was an empty net goal when Giancola was called for a foul in the crease. McCorry lead the defense that held the Scarlet Knights to 12 shots. She had 2 groundballs and one turnover in the game.
“The game was a learning experience. We had not been in a situation like that before,” said Giancola on the game being tied late in the second half. “It took a lot of leadership and maturity to pull it together.”
Cornell will look to take momentum from this win into next week when it has its home opener against Ivy League rival Columbia.
Archived article by Chris Callanan