The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/category/sports/)
When Jay Matthews, a rising junior midfielder on women’s soccer, founded WOCCA in March, the need for a space dedicated to Cornell’s female athletes of color was already obvious. Now, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and increased attention to police brutality nationwide, the group is increasingly vital for projecting the voices of Cornell’s black athletes.
The League’s decision quickly drew criticism for holding steadfast to its eligibility requirements during an unprecedented time — the Ivy League, founded in 1954, has never canceled an entire sports season.
The Red will welcome four new members to the team next year.
The top two teams in the country at the end of the 2019-20 season will face off in a two-game series at Lynah Rink in late October.
“It was just kind of one of those things, an instant reaction. It’s not like I was mad at anyone,” Urbon said of the tweet. “It’s just more of a disappointment — I spent the last nine months to a year in the training room every day … [The tweet] was kind of just, throwing it out there, and I guess it gained traction a lot more than I thought it was going to.”
Coach Hall said: “You can’t play gymnastics after college, and for most of these kids, their entire life has been gymnastics…”
While the men’s and women’s teams saw their runs in the postseason cut short, they both achieved the end-of-season No. 1 ranking for their efforts throughout the year.
Cornell started the season with a 5-0 record and attained the No. 2 ranking before its season was cut short due to COVID-19.
“I was kind of in shock, but at the same time, with the progression of everything getting canceled, it was just a matter of time,” said senior Chas Tucker.
“The team really came together well this season, and as a result we saw a lot of successful seasons both individually and as a team,” said head coach Wes Newman ’09.
While postseason college basketball was canceled last week, the end of a largely uninspiring season for Cornell women’s basketball came two weeks prior, after the team suffered a loss for their final game of the season to Princeton, 69-50.
