The women’s lacrosse team saw mixed results over spring break, as the Red dropped tight contests to Notre Dame and Penn, but pulled ahead of a strong Jacksonville team in Florida. The team is now ranked No. 18 in the country, and still maintains a winning record.
Cornell (6-2, 2-1 Ivy League) started the week by flying down to Orlando, Florida to play a Notre Dame team that has not been defeated this season. The Irish (6-0) have been dominant against every opponent they have faced so far, scoring at least 14 goals per game and winning every contest by at least three points.
In the first half of the game, it was all Notre Dame, as the Irish tallied five of the game’s first seven goals, with Megan Sullivan scoring a hat trick in the first 20 minutes. Notre Dame opened the game up even more in the second half, scoring three more goals to make the score 15-6. Although Cornell made an attempt to narrow the margin with an impressive four goals in three minutes by senior attack Jessi Steinberg, it was not enough, and the Irish went on to win the game, 17-13.
“Notre Dame was a really good team,” said junior midfielder Veronica Lizzio. “However, we believe that we have the talent to compete with top ranked teams. If we can just play a complete game, than we know that we will be able to compete with anyone.”
The Red stayed in Orlando one more day to face a Jacksonville (6-2) team that has averaged 16 goals per game and has surpassed the 20 goal mark three times this season. From the beginning, Cornell dominated the game, as the Red scored six goals in the first eight minutes. The team scored on seven of the first eight possessions, and Steinberg and senior attack Olivia Knotts each had hat tricks in the first half. Although Jacksonville would bring the game to within four at the beginning of the second half, they never posed a legitimate threat to Cornell, as the Red went on to win the game, 22-13. The 22 goals that Cornell scored were the most in the program’s 18-year history.
To close out spring break, Cornell traveled back to Ithaca for Ivy play against Penn (5-2, 3-0). Jumping out to an early 3-0 lead and controlling the game for the first half, it seemed as though Cornell would pull out a hard-fought victory. However, after Penn stormed back in the second half and held off numerous scoring attempts by the Red, the Quakers came out on top of the match, 11-10, and were the victors in the closest game for Cornell this season.
“I think if we put a full game together, we can be very competitive with anyone,” Lizzio said. “We believe that we have the potential to be the top team in the Ivy League, and, with Princeton and Dartmouth coming up, we can really make a dent in the standings.”
Original Author: Nicholas Rielly