The field hockey team claimed two wins over the state of Pennsylvania as the women beat Penn on Saturday and Lehigh yesterday. Cornell took a took a close 1-0 victory over the Quakers in it’s Ivy League opener. In a convincing win, junior Lindsay Grace netted two goals, including the game winner, in the deceptively close 4-2 victory versus the Mountain Hawks.
Junior Carissa Mirasol had a big day against Lehigh, earning two assists in solid overall play. In a game that was controlled by the Red throughout, the Mountain Hawks quickly found themselves in tense situations. With only 5:36 taken off the clock, Mirasol nailed a shot that was deflected by Lehigh goalie Brynn Murphy before being hammered home by Grace for her first goal.
Later in the half, Mirasol ignited the offense once again. After moving into the Lehigh zone, she pushed a pass to a darting Danielle Dunn, a sophomore, to create a breakaway for the Red. Murphy came out of the net to try to cut Dunn off before she could get a shot away, but failed to block her completely. Though Murphy got a piece sof the ball, it wasn’t enough, and Dunn made it a 2-0 game with her first goal of the season.
Only seconds before halftime, Grace got her second goal of the half on an assist from senior captain Sarah Nordstrom to give the Red a commanding 3-0 lead at the break.
The Red controlled every aspect of the field in the first half, out-shooting Lehigh 14-2 with a 4-0 advantage in penalty corners.
Early in the second half, Nordstrom had a penalty corner. She got the ball to sophomore Stephanie Maher, who was able to feed a shot to junior Kimmy Gardner. Gardner ripped a shot past new Mountain Hawk goalkeeper Meghan Gove to give the Red a nearly insurmountable 4-0 lead with less than 30 minutes to play.
In the game’s final 15 minutes, the Mountain Hawks netted two goals to round out the scoring.
Junior Kaitilin Tierney had four saves, to follow up her eight-save shutout against Penn, as the Red improved to 3-2 (1-0 Ivy). In the loss, Mountain Hawk goaltenders (Murphy and Gove) combined for 10 saves as Lehigh fell to 2-6.
The Red will return to the field on Saturday Sept. 28, where it will face Ivy-League rival Yale in a noon showdown at home.
Archived article by Matt Nassr