Over the weekend, the Red (7-6, 2-2 Ivy) suffered a narrow loss to one of their toughest opponents: No.8 Princeton (10-4, 4-0 Ivy). They followed this defeat with a non-conference win against Lock Haven University (11-3, 4-1 AC).
Coming off of last week’s loss against Syracuse, Cornell prepared for the speed of Princeton’s offense.
“We knew it was going to be a really tough game going into it so we were definitely expecting a big fight but we definitely knew that we had a chance,” said junior forward Olivia Friedberg.
Freshman forward Grace Leahy scored within the first three minutes of gameplay with an assist from senior forward Claire Jones.
The Red was up the entire first half as senior goalie Aerin Park saved seven shots from the Tigers’ offense.
Coming into the second half of the game, Princeton was able to capitalize on a corner and score. Soon after, Princeton was awarded a penalty stroke and obtained another point again.
Cornell was unable to regain an offensive advantage during the second half and fell to the Tigers, 2-1.
“[In the second half], the first six and a half minutes we kind of froze a little bit and unfortunately conceded two goals,” said head coach Andy Smith. “We couldn’t get that back. We didn’t create as much offensively in the second half.”
On Sunday, Cornell regrouped as they faced off against Lock Haven University, securing a 2-1 win over the Bald Eagles.
“We had a tough game the game before so we just focused on the simple passes, letting the ball do the work so we could win against Lock Haven,” commented Friedberg.
The first half of game play started off slow for both teams as each only had one shot on goal, neither finding success.
The Red came out of halftime with a newfound intensity as senior defender Caroline Ramsey scored within the first 10 minutes into the third quarter. Building off of this momentum, Jones capitalized off of a rebound and scored again in the fourth quarter.
Lock Haven was able to sneak the ball into the bottom right of the goal in the last eight minutes of the game, ending with a 2-1 win for Cornell.
“I think we bounced back and came up with a solid performance and a good win over a very good team on Sunday,” Smith said. “I’m really proud of everyone involved.”
Looking towards the last stretch of the 2022-2023 season, Smith is very optimistic.
“Everything is still on the table,” Smith said. “You know, we have four games left and we can do a lot in those four games and create some history for ourselves at the end of the season.”
With two weeks left in regular season play, the Red will face Brown (8-5, 1-3 Ivy) at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 21 in Providence, Rhode Island and then return home for a game against No. 5 University of Louisville (12-3, 1-3 ACC) at 11:00 a.m on Sunday, Oct. 23 at Dodson Field.