October 17, 2005

W. Soccer Records Mixed Results

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The women’s soccer team could not get past No. 20 Yale on Saturday, but the Red was able to earn a 2-1 overtime win over Albany yesterday. The non-conference road victory ended a five-game losing streak for Cornell.

The Red’s weekend began in New Haven, Conn., where Cornell (7-5-0, 1-3-0 Ivy) met the first-place Bulldogs. Yale (10-2-0, 3-0-0 Ivy) outplayed the Red throughout the 5-0 win, demonstrating why the Bulldogs have become the favorite to win the Ivy League.

“[Yale] played very well, and we didn’t play one of our better games,” said Cornell head coach Berhane Andeberhan. “They’re very quick and very fast, [although] the field conditions were really muddy.”

Yale forward Emma Whitfield opened the scoring in the fifth minute. Ten minutes later, her teammate Laurel Karnes would make the score 2-0. Whitfield scored again later in the first half, and Yale went into halftime with a 3-0 lead.

“In the beginning of the game, we couldn’t get on track,” Andeberhan said.

Cornell was able to generate some offense towards the later parts of the first half, but Yale’s defense and goalkeeping were able to keep the Red off the scoreboard.

The Bulldogs would add two more goals in the middle of the second half, as Crysti Howser and Alicia Fujii capped off the scoring.

Cornell freshman goalie Taylor Hendren had three saves on the day. Yale outshot Cornell, 17-9.

The Red then traveled to meet lowly Albany (1-16-0, 0-6-0 America East). Cornell outshot the Great Danes, 29-12, and generally controlled the game. However, Albany managed to keep the game close, and the Red needed overtime to earn the win.

Field and weather conditions were also poor in Albany, as they had been at Yale. The strong winds added an extra challenge for the Red, who had trouble getting shots on net yetserday.

“It was muddy, and by the time the game was done, it was a quagmire,” Andeberhan said. “And with a gusty wind, sometimes you don’t know where the ball is going to go. I’m really proud of our team. They played with a lot of guts, and a lot of courage. It wasn’t a very pretty game, but we were able to get [the win].”

Albany opened the game with its lone score of the afternoon, when Uju Ogbuawa found the net after five minutes of play. Cornell would have a number of offensive chances during the rest of the first half, yet the Red could not get on the scoreboard.

Cornell would get its first goal in the 57th minute, when senior co-captain Kara Ishikawa scored from five yards out. She was assisted by her fellow co-captain, senior Shannon Fraser. “We were playing well all day long,” Andeberhan said. “[We] took some excellent shots that would have been goals on any other day.”

Although the Red continued to look for the golden goal, Cornell was unable to end the game in regulation. The teams went into overtime tied at 1-1, but Ishikawa would soon give Cornell the win.

In the third minute of overtime, Ishikawa took a shot from 10 yards out, beating the Albany goalkeeper. She was again assisted by Fraser, and it was Ishikawa’s team-high seventh goal of the year.

“Ishi was right between the defenders, and she fired it [in the net],” Andeberhan said. Cornell will return to Ivy League play on Sunday, when the Red meets Brown at Berman Field.

Archived article by Ted Nyman
Sun Staff Writer