The women’s lacrosse team was handed two one-goal losses this weekend by No. 11 Ohio State, 11-10, on Friday in Ithaca, and yesterday by No. 13 Dartmouth, 7-6, in Hanover, N.H. This is the first time that the Red (7-3, 2-2 Ivy) has dropped consecutive games since the 2000 campaign. With the win, Dartmouth (7-2, 4-0 Ivy) remains the only unbeaten team in conference play, as Yale upended Princeton, 7-6, on Saturday.
Friday, the Red jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the game’s opening 10 minutes. Senior Sarah Averson started off the scoring, netting a goal off a free position shot. Sophomore Lindsay Steinberg scored 29 seconds later, getting the ball off the draw control and beating Ohio State goalie Erin Forquer from the left side. Senior co-captain Erica Holveck finished off the scoring run, as she ran down the center of the offensive zone to notch her second goal of the season.
Ohio State battled back, netting the next five goals. The Buckeyes’ first two goals came on low shots from Ashley Evans and Regina Oliver. Evans added her second tally, as she ran in on net off a free position to tie the game at three after 20 minutes. Caroline Weatherill and Tracey Bounds added to more scores to give Ohio State its first lead of the game.
“I have to give Ohio State a lot of credit, they went hard to the net and they took good shots.,” said head coach Jenny Graap ’86. “It was a different style of lacrosse than what we’ve seen from this point. They didn’t seem to be looking to pass the ball very much, and there weren’t a lot of creative feeds, it was really just the one-on-one to the net.”
The Red held the Buckeyes scoreless for the remainder of the half, and added a goal of its own with a minute to go, as Averson weaved through the defense and hit the back of the net for her second goal of the game.
Averson scored the Red’s next goal in the second half to tie the game, as sophomore Julia Hughey fed the ball from down low as Averson cut through the middle of the offensive zone. The Buckeyes came right back a minute later to reclaim the lead, but the Red scored four goals in the next six minutes to take a 9-6 lead with nine minutes left in the game.
The Buckeyes mounted a furious comeback that started with Oliver’s free position goal. Evans and Oliver added their third goals of the game to tie the game at nine.
“Regina Oliver is an incredible athlete; she’s very fast. Our markup with Erica Holveck marking Oliver was very sound, Holveck held Regina to one goal for most of the game,” said Graap. “Holveck had to come off the field [in the closing minutes of the half] with a concussion because Regina Oliver ran her over, it was just a physical thing. Regina’s a strong kid, and overall the game was very rough.”
With the score tied at nine, the contest went into overtime, and neither team was able to score in the first three-minute period. Junior Jaime Quinn received a pass from freshman Allison Schindler, and beat Forquer on a high shot to give the Red the lead a minute and a half into the second overtime period. The Buckeyes answered immediately, as Shannon Wilson drove hard to the net and beat junior goalie Ashley Charron.
“Overtime is a tricky thing, because it’s two three-minute intervals, and I think when we scored, maybe we felt like ‘Ok, we won it, it’s over,’ instead of playing defense the whole way through,” said Graap.
With time winding down, Oliver sped down the field, and found an open Alexia Vogler in front of the net, who beat Charron with only two seconds left in the second overtime.
“There was just so much pushing and physical contact out there that people were getting hurt. We didn’t have a very deep bench, and we were getting banged up, and I think that was a factor going into the overtime,” said Graap.
Averson netted four goals for the Red to go with four ground balls and five draw controls. Charron made six saves in net, while Forquer stopped nine for the Buckeyes.
Yesterday, the Red faced an equally tough team in Dartmouth. However, the laxers were without Holveck due to the injury she sustained against Ohio State.
“Whenever one of your senior leaders goes down, it requires the underclassmen to really step it up a notch,” said Graap.
Once again, the Red took the early lead, with sophomore Jessica Williams scoring off a feed from Schindler, and Quinn connecting on a free position shot. Katieanne Christian added a free position goal and an unassisted goal to tie the game at two. Quinn added her second of the contest with 10 minutes to go in the half to give the Red a one-goal going into halftime.
The Green dominated the second half, scoring the next four goals to go up by three with less than five minutes remaining in the game. Rather than crumble under the pressure, the Red responded with a valiant comeback.
Quinn scored the Red’s first goal of the half with only 1:31 remaining in the game. Lana Smith of Dartmouth answered right back with under a minute to go to extend the Green’s lead to three.
Steinberg came back with an unassisted goal with 34 seconds left, and Schindler put one in with eight seconds left on a free position shot. The Red was unable to win the ensuing draw, and the Green came away with the win.
After beating Dartmouth for the first time in 10 years last season, the Red came up just short of beating the Green in consecutive seasons for the first time in program history.
The Green dominated the Red in draw controls winning 13, while Cornell only won two. The laxers scooped up six more ground balls, but turned the ball over four more times than the Green.
Charron made nine of her 12 saves in the first half, with Devon Wills making four saves for Dartmouth.
Archived article by Jonathan Auerbach