The Cornell women’s lacrosse team hoped to end its three-game losing streak when it played Ivy-League leading Dartmouth on Saturday, but the Red (6-4, 2-3 Ivy League) fell short, suffering another defeat. The Big Green (8-3, 4-0 Ivy League) ultimately won the contest by a score of 9-5.
According to junior midfielder and captain Chelsea Rowe, the Red is frustrated by the current losing streak.
“It’s a balance,” she said. “Obviously we’re disappointed that there have been four straight losses, but with the team we have, we’re not discouraged and we believe that we can go far this season. I don’t think that one person on the team has any thought about giving up. We’re going to keep pushing and sometimes adversity makes you stronger, and that’s what we hope will be the case with us. We have a lot to build on and a lot of potential, so we’re looking forward to the next game, putting what’s in the past behind us, but also learning from it.”
The Red started the game effectively and held a 2-1 lead, but Dartmouth responded with four straight goals to go up 5-2 heading into the second half. According to Rowe, the Red got out to a strong start, but couldn’t maintain its control throughout the entire game.
“We had the goal to play a full 60 minutes going into this game and to start from the opening whistle,” she said. “I think we did that really well, but as it went on there were still pieces that we were missing. We played really hard and with a lot of heart, but things weren’t coming together for us and I don’t think we played to our full potential unfortunately.”
The Red cut the lead to 5-4 at the beginning of the second half, but the Big Green again responded with four straight goals to claim the lead for good. According to Rowe, Cornell’s failure to gain possession of the ball made room for Dartmouth’s goal streak, and the Red needs to improve its draw control strategy for its upcoming games.
“We can improve with draw controls just by making sure that we come up with the ground balls,” she said. “So we’re working on our strategy, so hopefully we’ll have a better strategy for draw controls and controlling the ball going forward.”
According to Rowe, the Red saw some positives on the defensive side of the game, despite the loss.
“Our defense is really coming together. We’re playing better as a team, and we’re helping each other out,” she said. “We also caused a lot of turnovers by pressuring the ball and hopefully that will continue to be one of our strengths going forward.”
The Red will next host Brown this coming Friday. The Bears have had a strong season and sit above Cornell in the Ivy League standings. According to Rowe, despite the highly competitive nature of the Ivy League, it will be beneficial for the Red to focus on executing its own game-plan rather than worry about its opponents.
“[The] Ivy league is a very competitive league, but going forward we just need to play our game and focus on that, rather than exclusively focus on the opponent,” she said. “Obviously we have our strategy points for different players, but I think we just need to focus on improving the little parts of our game, going out there with no fear, and playing our hearts out.”
Original Author: Ben Horowitz