The Red went to Providence looking for a record setting 10th win but came home empty-handed. Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Brown drops Cornell to 3-2 in the Ivy League and 9-6 overall.
Cornell was taken out of its element from the very beginning of the game. Brown’s defense, however, was not the determining factor. Pouring rain forced Cornell to abandon its gameplan and avoid the waterlogged sidelines.
Warner Field’s drainage was so slow that event staff had to squeegee the turf at several points throughout the game.
“It’s your worst nightmare as a coach,” said head coach Michelle Tambroni.
Brown seemed to adjust more quickly to the soaked field and set up a penalty corner in the closing minutes of the first half. While Cornell stopped the initial shot, it failed to clear the ball from the defensive zone. The result was an unassisted goal by Brown’s Laurel Pierpont.
The Bears scored again just five minutes into the second half. The goal was forward Meaghan Harwood’s fifth of the season. Cornell would not recover, but it would pick up its offensive pace.
Junior back Kimmy Gardner put the Red on the board with an unassisted goal in the 66th minute. Cornell forced its way down field several times in the second half, and earned three penalty corners in the last five minutes. The Red outshot the Bears 20-16.
“We ended up dominating the second half,” said Tambroni. “If we had gone to overtime, we would have come out on top.”
The field hockey team returns home tomorrow against the Princeton Tigers in a 5 p.m. contest on Schoellkopf Field.
Archived article by Matt Janiga