October 7, 2003

Field Hockey Finds Win on Road Trip

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It took a full game and a couple of overtimes, but the Red finally snapped its six-game losing streak Sunday.

Entering its third straight weekend on the road, the Red was matched up with perennial Ivy League powerhouse, Princeton, who is currently ranked 10th in the nation. The Tigers came into the game with 27 straight conference victories, including three this season, to add to their 6-2 record. Though the Tigers defeated the Red by the score of 2-0, Cornell can take away a moral victory as this was the first contest the Red held Princeton to under two goals since 1994.

“We came out as if we had nothing to lose,” said senior Kimmy Gardner, “After the first 15 minutes, we started to get going.”

The first fifteen minutes were the problem, as the Red gave up the only two goals of the contest in that time span. The goals came by sophomore Maren Ford, on an assist from junior Natalie Martirosian, and senior Claire Miller on a rebound.

After that, the Red stepped it up, as the Tigers had just eight shots and five penalty corners in the second half. Senior goalie Kaitlin Tierney took care of those shots, making seven saves in the second half, and finishing with 11, to match her season high.

Tierney had a lighter day against Lehigh on Sunday, making seven saves, and facing only one shot in the two overtime periods the Red needed to defeat the Mountain Hawks, 2-1. The win was big for the Red because it snapped its five-game losing streak on the road and was the team’s first victory in three tries in the state of Pennsylvania.

When asked if there was any pressure on the team going into overtime, Gardner said, “We were dominating the whole game, it was just a matter of putting the ball in the cage.”

Finding the cage is exactly what Gardner did in the second half, off a corner, to even the contest at one. Assists came from classmates Kelly Soltis and Karleigh Burns. It took two overtimes before the next goal, which was scored by junior Gina Testa with an assist from classmate Sara Weiner to clinch the victory. The goal came on Testa’s 10th shot of the contest, and the first by either squad in the second overtime period. It also was Testa’s fourth goal of the year. She currently leads the Red in that department.

The Red dominated Lehigh all game, out-shooting them 23-10, and in penalty corners, 10-7.

The loss to Princeton dropped the Red’s record to 1-3 in the Ivies; the victory Sunday improved the Red’s record to 3-7 on the season.

The Red will try to ride the momentum of its victory into next weekend when it will play host to Harvard on Sunday, and then travel down to Virginia to face the Cavaliers in a mid-week showdown. The game on Sunday will be just the third contest in Ithaca, and the first since mid-September when the Red split the weekend, beating Columbia and falling to Central Michigan.

Archived article by Chris Mascaro