This past Wednesday, women’s lacrosse triumphantly won 17-6 against Colgate (1-5) for their third win of the season. The Red had a consistent but close lead throughout the game until the fourth quarter, when they acquired an 11 point difference.
Not only did Cornell (3-3, 0-1 Ivy) leave the game with an impressive forefront, but they significantly outshot Colgate, 43-17, and retained more ground balls, 20-16.
Cornell started strong by scoring three goals almost immediately. It wasn’t that close till midway through the second quarter, as Colgate scored three goals, raising the score to 6-4.
Many players had multi-points during this matchup, including freshman attacker Josie Vogel, who shined by racking up an impressive four goals. Freshman midfielder Kylie Gelabert not only attained her first Cornell goal but achieved five points.
“I was really pleased with our freshmen… I felt like the young players really, really shined against Colgate,” said Head Coach Jenny Graap.
Senior midfielder Amanda Cramer once again prevailed during this game: she scored her tenth goal of the year while simultaneously securing the lead for the Red.
Cramer left with two goals and one assist, and junior attacker Sophie Alois had two assists. Grad goalie Katie McGahan continued to stay solid in the net with eight saves.
With 8:32 left and at 9-6, the Raiders were persistent through the battle. However, after senior midfielder Genevieve DeWinter’s first goal of the game, it sparked the Red’s 8-0 goal streak to finish off the game.
“I think in general, a lot comes from the defensive effort,” Graap said. “I think Riley Fletcher, one of our defensive captains, had a couple of caused turnovers, some good defensive stats in the game. Then the draw control we’ve been pretty consistent with our junior Annie Thomas. I think that between Annie controlling some really scrappy circle play, Hilary Hoover and Amanda Cramer’s strong control of possessions became really important.”
Sophomore attacker Bailey Mutch also scored her first goal at Cornell during the fourth quarter, marking it the final goal of the Colgate game with 27 seconds to spare.
“Coming off our first home game win from Colgate felt really good,” said senior defender Ciara Frawley. “Both sides of the ball dominated and it was truly a team win. We went into the fourth quarter with confidence and it allowed us to play loosely.”
On Sunday, the Red faced off against the University of Connecticut (6-1) and lost 20-14, after reluctantly falling behind during the third quarter and never coming back.
“UConn was a really, really tough battle, it was a game of runs,” Graap said. “We were tied at halftime, and then in the third quarter, they went on a run and had six goals in a row. I think that was really a challenge for us to try to recover from a team doing a run like that.
Cornell won more draw controls than the Huskies, 22-15, thanks to the help of junior midfielder Annie Thomas. Again, Thomas was up at the draw controls, tying her personal best of 11 wins, as junior defender Hilary Hoover added five to the board.
Cramer accumulated four points while getting three draws and three ground balls. Junior attacker Katie Castiello scored twice with one assist, then senior midfielder Shannon Brazier and DeWinter improved the Red’s score by adding two goals each.
After a close first two quarters, UConn pulled ahead during the third quarter with seven goals while the Red only scored three times. The Huskies continued their hot streak in the fourth quarter and added five more points to secure that six-point lead.
“The storyline in the game was just how important it is to have possession and how important it really is to have a defensive stop,” Graap said. “In that short period of time, we didn’t have the defensive stop that we needed and that really cost us. UConn… pushed the transition and caught us in a period of time where we weren’t as sharp with our transition defense.”
UConn took advantage of the Red’s momentarily weakened defensive line and instantly capitalized on it to increase the score from 8-8 to 15-11 by the end of the third.
“It never feels good when another team gets that much momentum and that much confidence because it really does work,” Graap said.
On Saturday, March 19 at 3 pm, Cornell is back in Ithaca to defend their home field for their first Ivy League home game against Columbia.
“[We need to] continue to grow our confidence on the field and to try to sustain… I think it’s part of that learning curve,” Graap said. “We missed the whole year of competition… This is an area of obvious growth and just getting back into that stamina and your body, your knowledge of how to compete and how to stay strong for the full 60 minutes.”