Wiegand’s Goal Boosts W. Lax Over Yale

While on the road this weekend, the women’s lacrosse team pulled through with a 7-6 win over Yale in a close contest that was decided with less than five minutes remaining. The game-decider was an unassisted goal scored by senior midfielder Jessica Wiegand.
This win bumped Cornell (8-5, 3-3 Ivy) up in the standings, while pushing Yale (5-9, 1-5) behind to another Ivy League loss.
Freshman midfielder Katie Kirk’s three goals, all coming in the first half, helped lead the Red to success. Wiegand and senior Halsey Diakow each contributed a goal and an assist in the contest.
The game was a tight one from the start. Yale scored first, but Cornell answered with two shots, from Libby Johnson and Kirk, to lead 2-1. After that, the Red did not trail the Bulldogs for the remainder of the game.
However, Yale never strayed far behind the Red, preventing Cornell from gaining more than a two-point lead during the contest. Both teams scored again, with Yale then tying it up at 3-3 before Kirk put the Red back into a lead, 4-3, in the final seconds of the first half.
Coming out after the break, the Bulldogs tied up the score at 4-4 before freshman Shannon McHugh and Diakow each scored for the Red to earn Cornell a slight 6-4 lead. Diakow’s goal was one of Cornell’s free-position scores. Yale had only one free-position opportunity during the game, while Cornell utilized three of its seven. [img_assist|nid=37016|title=That’s mine|desc=Senior midfielder Jessica Wiegand (4) scored the game winner with less than five minutes remaining to help the Red over Yale, 7-6, on Saturday.|link=node|align=left|width=|height=0]
In the last seven minutes the Bulldogs erased Cornell’s lead once again, rallying to score two goals within two minutes to even out the score at 6-6.
Yet the Red came through in the final minutes of the game, and the shot from Wiegand was the goal the Red needed to come out of it with a win.
The Red won 10 out of the 15 draw controls during the match, and all seven during the second half.
In goal for Cornell, junior Kristen Reese made seven saves.
After a close loss to Syracuse last week, this win was a positive note for the Red.
“I definitely think it’s good for us to keep our fourth seed in the Ivy League, knowing that next year we’ll have an Ivy League tournament,” McHugh said.
However, the game also showed that the team needs to continue improving and working to reach its peak.
“I thought we played pretty well coming off of a good showing at Syracuse, but I think we still have a lot of things to work on if we want to play some tough teams this week,” McHugh added.
The team is planning on playing quality one-on-one defense and utilizing scoring opportunities as it matches up against strong competition this week.
The Red hopes to continue its success and hard work as the team approaches its final matches of the season. Cornell begins a string of three home games, beginning with Vanderbilt tomorrow.
“I think we have three really tough games to end the season, and we would like to come out of them with three wins,” McHugh said.