The Red stickwomen have seen better days. After getting dominated by Harvard , 6-0, and blanked by No. 20 Virginia , 4-0, the team is reeling.
Having lost eight of their last nine contests, the Red’s postseason hopes have been dashed.
Senior goalie Kaitlin Tierney said, “We just aren’t capitalizing on our chances at all.”
But against the Crimson (8-3, 3-0 Ivy), there weren’t very many chances. The Red was held to just two shots and was bombarded with 30 at the other end. It also had just one penalty corner to Harvard’s 22. Tierney had seven stops and junior Lori Blutinger, who played the entire second half, added five, but it wasn’t enough, as the Crimson attack notched six goals.
For Harvard, senior Kate McDavitt scored two goals and her sister, Jen McDavitt, also recorded a goal on one of Mina Pell’s two assists on the game. Pell’s other assist came on a goal by junior Shelley Maasdorp, who also had two assists.
The only scoring chances the Red had were on shots by senior Kimmy Gardner and junior Julie Huang.
Gardner recorded three shots against Virginia (8-7) on Tuesday, to add to the 14 by the Red. Unfortunately for the Red, Cornell was unable capitalize on any of those chances, and was shut out for the fifth time this season, while the Cavaliers earned their third shutout of the season.
Virginia, the 20th ranked team in the nation, scored in the eighth minute of the contest off of a penalty stroke. Tierney made a season-high 12 saves, but was tested often, facing 22 shots, which was also a season-high for Virginia. The Cavaliers pulled away in the second half, notching three goals in an 11-minute span. Two of the goals came unassisted, one by Erin Hayes on a rebound and one by Sara Miller off of a loose ball in the circle.
While Virginia dominated in shots, the Red held a slight advantage in penalty corners, 6-5, but could not put one past goalie Logan Carr. Carr made five saves for the Cavaliers, including a phenomenal stop on a shot from junior Gina Testa, the Red’s leader in goals scored.
Tierney mentioned how “it is frustrating because we are always fighting back to get on the board.”
That battle continued for the Red this past weekend. The two losses dropped the team’s record to 3-9 on the season and 1-4 in conference play.
The Red will get another crack at a member of the Ancient Eight when it battles Brown one week from Sunday.
Archived article by Chris Mascaro