The No. 6 women’s lacrosse team travels north to Hamilton, NY, to take on Colgate this evening.
The Raiders beat Lafayette, 12-8, last weekend to earn a spot in the Patriot League tournament. Overall, Colgate has a 6-9 record, including losses to Brown, Dartmouth, and Syracuse — three teams Cornell has beaten in the past month.
The Red (10-1 overall, 5-1 Ivy) looks to extend its current winning streak to six games and to continue to raise its level of team play.
On paper, Cornell has a clear advantage — ranking above the Raiders in every relevant statistical category — but the Red doesn’t plan to take its opposition lightly. Senior Beth Calder pointed to the possibility of an upset as motivation for the Red.
“We’re still looking at [the season] game by game,” said Calder. “Every win is important from here out.”
“We don’t take any teams lightly,” noted senior captain Lori Wohlschlegel.
This past Saturday, Cornell faced No. 8 Yale in a battle for second place in the Ivy League. For 50 minutes, the Red dominated, playing its way to a 9-4 lead with a little more than 10 minutes left in the game. But the Bulldogs wouldn’t back down. They got a goal back on a free position shot and used the momentum to come back for another four goals to tie the score at 9-9 at the end of regulation.
In overtime though, Cornell stepped up. Senior goaltender Carrie Giancola stopped a pair of shots, helping the defense hold Yale scoreless, and junior Sarah Averson nailed a free position shot to give the Red its lead. Cornell remained in control for the rest of overtime, running out the clock for its 10th victory.
Giancola turned in another outstanding game with 16 saves. That performance gave her 419 career stops at Cornell and put her in first place on the Red’s all-time saves list — 15 ahead of Lori Wick ’81. For her efforts, Giancola was named Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week. Against Syracuse and Yale, two of the top 20 offenses in the country, Giancola had a .625 save percentage and a 7.14 goals against average.
Right next to Giancola was classmate Jaimee Reynolds, honored by the league with the Offensive Player of the Week award. After a solid three goal performance against Syracuse, the midfielder came up big against Yale with four goals and two assists to give her nine points in the two games. The honor marks Reynolds’s fourth Player of the Week award and her first on offense. She previously won three Defensive Player of the Week awards.
Today against Colgate, Calder said the team would be working on some of the mistakes it made against Yale. The team is looking to make a good start and keep a quick pace through the game.
“We want to come out and set the tempo,” said Calder.
“We’re looking to play well from the start and get a lot of players in,” added Wohlschlegel.
Right now, according to both of the seniors, the team is focused on improvement with the hopes of postseason success.
This weekend, Cornell matches up with Harvard in its final Ivy League contest. The Crimson stands tied for sixth in the Ivies with a 1-4 league record. It is 6-6 overall. Next week the Red’s opponents include Delaware and No. 17 John’s Hopkins.
“We need to work on our game,” noted Wohlschlegel, “and the next two weeks should provide ample opportunities.”
Archived article by Matt James