The field hockey team suffered an historic loss Friday night, losing to Columbia, 6-2, for the first time in the program’s existence.
“We were definitely unhappy about our performance,” said senior Danielle Dunn. “We’re a really young team right now, and we’re lacking experience. Once our offense and defense come together we’ll be fine.”
The Red’s struggle to put together a united team performance continued. While the defense was able to withstand the repeated attacks from the Lions in the first half, it buckled in the second half. The offense finally broke through Columbia’s defense in the second half, but it proved to be a case of too little, too late.
The Red came out flat, getting out-shot and outscored in the first half and finding it impossible to get back on top of the game.
Columbia opened the scoring with a goal from freshman Elizabeth Reeve just past the 20-minute mark. The Lions got another marker from senior Kate Mansun just six minutes later, to give themselves a 2-0 lead at the end of the half.
“We played really well in the beginning,” Dunn said. “Then they started scoring, we got some unlucky calls, and we lost our intensity.”
The Red was out-shot in the first half by a 22-5 margin, but managed to get back in the game in the second half. Sophomore Lindsay Moyer put the Red on the board 40 minutes into the contest, notching her fourth goal of the season. She was assisted by juniors Natalie Serle and Blair Corcoran.
The teams were almost equal in scoring opportunities in the second half, with Columbia holding a slight 8-7 edge in shots on goal.
But while the Red was unable to capitalize on these chances, the Lions had no such problem. Minutes after Moyer’s goal, Columbia sophomore Jen Cruz responded with another marker for Columbia. The Lions reeled off three more goals in the next 15 minutes to put the game out of reach.
Senior Sara Weiner scored at 64:46 for the Red to end the scoring for the night. It was her third goal of the season, with the assist going to Moyer.
The Red was taken aback by the loss.
“We literally could not get the ball into the offense,” Dunn said. “We had a really intense practice the day before and we were all really focused, but for some reason we could not pull it together.”
Despite the setback, the Red still has high hopes for the rest of the season. “The team needs to build confidence,” Dunn said. “We need good combinations in the midfield, and we need to stay positive.”
The Lions put on a show of unprecedented strength en route to their first-ever triumph over the Red. The six goals against Cornell was an all-time record for the Lions in an Ivy contest, and equal to 60 percent of last season’s total goals scored. The victory also marked the end of a 16-game Ivy League losing streak for Columbia, dating back to the 2001 season. The Lions are now 2-1 (1-0 Ivy), while the Red falls to 1-3 (0-1 Ivy).
Archived article by Olivia Dwyer
Sun Staff Writer