This past weekend, women’s lacrosse (5-1, 2-0 Ivy) traveled to New York City to face Columbia (3-3, 0-2 Ivy) in its second Ivy game of the season.
After a come-from-behind win against Dartmouth, Cornell was looking to jump out in front in its game against Columbia.
“When we played Dartmouth, we didn’t get off to a strong start and were down the entire first half,” said senior midfielder Shannon Brazier. “[With Columbia] we wanted to come off right away. We knew if we gave them an inch they would take it, so we definitely decided we needed to do our best right off the bat.”
The Red started the game strong, winning the opening draw. Brazier scored the first goal of the game, putting the Red on the board within the first three minutes of play.
Cornell was able to fire off three additional unanswered goals in the first quarter to grow the lead to 4-0.
“We were really focused on off-ball movement and making sure we weren’t playing individually,” said junior attacker Maggie Pons. “I think really good offenses are able to make selfless cuts and clears for our teammates. We made sure we were working together.”
With six shots on goal and four finding the net, the Red had a solid lead from the beginning.
Going into the second period, after a foul against Cornell, Columbia got a free position shot that was blocked by sophomore goalkeeper Ellie Horner.
Just over four minutes into the quarter, sophomore midfielder Alexa Donahoe scored the Red’s fifth goal of the game with an assist from senior attack Amanda Cramer.
Midway through the second, Columbia was able to get an offensive advantage with a free position shot, scoring its first goal of the game. The Red roared back with three goals in a five minute span.
The Lions was able to sneak a last second goal into the net during the final fifteen seconds of the half. The Red went to the locker room leading, 8-2.
After halftime, Cornell brought back the same intensity from the beginning of the game, winning the draw and scoring on a free position shot. The Lions had trouble going against the Red’s defense.
“Our defense was doing really well on 1 v. 1 dodges,” said sophomore attack Josie Vogel. “Columbia had some good girls who were able to get to the net, but our defenders stayed strong, and kept them out of the meter. [The defense] also had a lot of back checks and won 50-50 ground balls, which was really important.”
Pons scored another goal for the Red in the third, assisted by Vogel.
Columbia was able to capitalize on a free position shot at the end of the period, bringing the score to 10-3.
In the final period, the Red was able to score three more times.
The Lions gained some momentum towards the end of the fourth period, scoring three unassisted goals in the last six minutes of the game. Despite the final offensive push from Columbia, it was not enough to overcome the huge advantage Cornell had gained in the first 50 minutes.
“I think [Columbia] started to figure out how our defense was working,” Pons said. “A lot of times we try to switch from either man-to-man or zone, just to kind of throw different looks at their offense… They did catch on a little bit, but ultimately, I think our defense did a really good job of stopping them.”
The Red was victorious against Columbia, winning, 13-6.
Looking ahead to the game against Binghamton, the Red is ready to take on the Bearcats.
“Binghamton is going to bring a zone defense and we haven’t played against a full zone yet [this season],” Vogel said. “We’ve been working on cutting and breaking up that zone… It’s going to be a good game.”
Due to the snow storm, Cornell will face Binghamton (4-4, 0-0 American East) at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 15 at Schoellkopf Field.