This past Saturday, the Red (10-7, 4-3 Ivy) triumphed against Yale (9-8, 3-4 Ivy) ending the season with a victory.
After a tough loss in overtime to No. 12 Harvard (13-4, 6-1 Ivy), Cornell was ready to bounce back againstYale.
“[The game against Harvard] was a real letdown,” said head coach Andy Smith. “It was tough. But I give them a lot of credit for digging out of that performance and doing what they did today.”
Cornell’s defense started off strong, preventing Yale from scoring on five corners, all shot in the first eight minutes of the half.
“I think we’ve gotten a lot of defensive corners this season,” said senior defenseman Caroline Ramsey. “So, it’s something that we’ve gotten really confident in. The DPC [Defensive Penalty Corner] unit is really strong and with Aerin Park in back, I feel really confident going into it. We just have a brick wall mindset, so it works well.”
The Red had two offensive corners in the second half, but none found the back of the net.
After halftime, the Red came back with a new intensity.
“Picking up the energy was a big thing. I think in the first 7 minutes [of the game] we came off kind of slow,” Ramsey said. “But from the second quarter and on, we really picked it up from there. So, going into the third, we were just focused on keeping up and playing the game.”
Freshman forward Grace Leahy scored during the end of the third quarter with an assist from Ramsey, bringing the score to 1-0.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, senior forward Claire Jones suffered an injury that took her out of the rest of the game.
“She has had a really good season after battling back from a potential career ending injury, and she’s done such a good job. I’m very proud of her.” Smith said.
Yale obtained three corners within four minutes of play, however, they could not capitalize on any of them.
“We had another shutout DPC, which has done really well,” Smith said.
The Bulldogs pulled their goalie out of the game with 3:22 left in the second half. This allowed them to substitute for another field player.
According to Smith, this strategy is frequently used in one goal games.
“They go in with 11 field players, but we’re prepared for that,” Smith said. “We know what we’re doing and didn’t really change much.”
Yale was not able to gain the offensive advantage, even with the extra field player. The Red won 1-0.
After ending their season in a victory, Smith is looking to the future.
“I think a number of people have asked me this week about if I’m going to rebuild now. We are not going to rebuild,” Smith said. “We’re just going to reload. We will really miss the senior class and they’ve been sensational. They’ve been here since I got here. But we have really good players coming in and we have really good players in the program that will step up and they’ll be just fine.”
This season marks the 12th time in program history that Cornell finished with 10 or more wins in the regular season. The program also had its first win against a top-five opponent.
Field hockey ended with a 10-7 record and finished No. 24 in the country.