Women’s hockey suffered one of the biggest upsets in recent memory on Nov. 1. Then, -No. 9, Cornell lost to Union for the first time ever at Lynah Rink.
Three months later, Cornell was nearly upset again. Trailing for the majority of the game, Cornell needed until the third period to complete a comeback.
The Red got its long-awaited revenge, taking down the Garnet Chargers 2-1 on Saturday afternoon to complete a weekend sweep after defeating Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute the night before.
Cornell (19-4-4, 15-2-3 ECAC) leaves the weekend with a 3.5 point lead on Colgate, thanks to the Raider overtime loss on Saturday. With a win over Yale or Brown next weekend, Cornell can secure its seventh ECAC regular season title.
On Saturday afternoon in Schenectady, New York, Cornell found itself down by a goal with just 7:05 remaining in the third period. Despite controlling the puck for most of the two opening frames, Cornell had been unable to break through the Garnet Chargers (12-19-1, 8-12-1 ECAC) defenses.
“We had spent a lot of time in the offensive zone, but weren't getting many grade-A chances,” said head coach Doug Derraugh ’91. “[Union] did a good job of keeping us to the outside.”
Eventually — as has been the case throughout the season — Cornell broke through. Senior forward Gabbie Rud flicked a pass through the neutral zone and junior forward Mckenna Van Gelder outraced a Union defender to grab the puck.
All alone with the Union netminder, Van Gelder deked to her right and slipped the puck into the back of the net to tie the game. The goal pushed both Van Gelder and Rud’s points streak to four games and ensured Cornell’s 26-game streak of scoring at least one goal would continue.
A minute later, the Red took the lead. Sophomore forward Karel Prefontaine picked off a Union pass in the neutral zone, skating in towards the Union net before unleashing a wrist shot that lit the lamp to give Cornell a 2-1 advantage.
The Red held on for the remaining 6:01 — despite Union pulling its netminder with 1:44 remaining in the period — to secure the six-point weekend.
While the game resulted in a Cornell win, Union nearly proved itself to be the Red’s kryptonite again. The two shaky performances against the Garnet Chargers stand out, considering the record difference between the teams. Cornell has dominated its opponents for most of the season and was coming off a weekend sweep of two top-10 teams in the nation.
Union, meanwhile, entered the weekend just 5-9-1 at home under first-year head coach Tony Maci. The Garnet Chargers’ sole win over a ranked team this year came in Cornell’s home-opener earlier this season. In that matchup, similar to the one on Saturday, Cornell dominated possession of the puck but could not solve the Union defense. In that scenario — when Cornell controls play but struggles to find the back of the net — Derraugh emphasized trusting the game plan over excessive urgency.
“The tendency is to get away from what you do as a team, and you know individuals, they sometimes want to put it on their own shoulders and try to do more,” Derraugh said. “[We] just try to stick to our process and what we do as a team.”
Friday's 4-0 win against RPI was less stressful than Saturday’s nail-biter. Initially, Cornell started well, picking up an early power play 2:02 into the first period, but could not convert. Then, sloppy play hampered the Red.
“I thought we got off to a slow start. I didn’t think our passing was very good to start off the weekend,” Derraugh said. “But I thought after about the first 10 minutes, we got better.”
Overall, the first period was dominated by Cornell, who posted 16 shots on goal to RPI’s two. The Engineers’ first period offensive struggles were a sign of things to come. Throughout the evening RPI would flounder against Cornell’s suffocating forecheck.
Despite Cornell’s dominant performance, the game remained scoreless after the first period. Seven minutes into the middle frame that would change.
Sophomore defender Piper Grober got the scoring started for Cornell when she flicked a puck through the legs of the RPI netminder. 2:54 later, senior defender Ashley Messier added a power play goal for her sixth score of the season, the most by a Cornell defender.
Just over four minutes after Cornell doubled its lead, junior forward Georgia Schiff tipped a shot into the back of the net to join the second period scoring parade. Junior forward Avi Adam tallied her team-leading 25th point of the season on a one-on-one rush 3:42 into the third period.
Adam was Cornell’s fourth goal-scorer of the night, and all six goals of the weekend came from a different skater.
“It’s something that you don’t have every year, where you have the kind of depth that we have this year,” Derraugh said. “It’s what we’ve needed all year long to have any kind of success offensively, and I think both our defense and our forwards have embraced that.”
The 4-0 win was sophomore goaltender Annelies Bergmann’s eighth clean sheet of the season, which is tied for the most in the nation. When asked after the weekend, Derraugh praised the defense while highlighting Bergmann’s performance.
“[Defense] is always a team thing, but obviously she’s the most important piece of that team defense,” Derraugh said. “She’s playing great for us right now. She's aggressive and square to the puck and looks real calm and steady back there.”
The Detroit native — who represented Team USA in the 2024 Six Nations Tournament in December — was one of nine semifinalists announced on Friday for the Women’s Hockey Goalie of the Year Award.
Cornell will return home this weekend hoping to celebrate an ECAC regular season title in front of the Lynah Faithful. The Red will take on Brown at 6 p.m. on Friday before ending the regular season against Yale at 3 p.m. the next day. All action will be streamed live on ESPN+.
Eli Fastiff is a senior editor on the 143rd editorial board and a member of the class of 2026 in the College of Arts and Sciences. You can follow him on X @Eli_Fastiff and reach him at efastiff@cornellsun.com.
