Women’s lacrosse fell to No. 20 Dartmouth 15-8 on Saturday afternoon in Hanover. However, the Red received word that it will have another shot at taking down Dartmouth, as it received a slot in the Ivy League playoffs.
Despite the loss, junior goalkeeper Katie McGahan made 13 saves — a season high that she has achieved in three games this year. But the Green’s offense was too strong for the Red to handle. Dartmouth outshot the Red, 44-20, and won 19 of 25 draw controls. Five of the Dartmouth’s goals — three in the first half and two in the second — came from senior Elizabeth Mastrio.
Cornell found the back of the net first, with a goal by senior Shannon Bertscha, assisted by junior captain Caroline Allen, less than two minutes into the game.
The Green responded with its first four-goal spurt of the half, to which the Red responded with two tallies of its own, both unassisted, by senior Tomasina Leska and sophomore Olivia Jensen, to cut Dartmouth’s lead back to one.
While Cornell threatened to take another lead, a second four-goal run by the Green extended the hosts’ lead to 8-3 and prevented Cornell’s comeback efforts from succeeding.
Cornell responded to the second four-goal Dartmouth run with two goals of its own, this time by sophomore Grace Paletta and senior captain Sarah Phillips to stay within striking distance.
But the Green scored the final goal of the first half and the first three of the second half to add to its lead.
The rest of the game saw back-and-forth play that resulted in three goals for each team. Leska and Bertscha both netted their second goal of the game for the Red in the process, and Allen scored as well. Freshman Genevieve DeWinter assisted Bertscha’s goal.
The eight-goal offensive output represents the first time the Red failed to score double-digit goals in over a month. But thanks to results around the league, the weekend provided good news for Cornell: it will head to the Ivy League tournament in early May.
Princeton, Dartmouth and Penn will join the Red in the tournament, which will take place at Columbia University. The league champion will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
But first, Cornell will face Princeton at home in its last regular season game at 3 p.m. Saturday.