The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/mens-soccer/page/3/)
The Red Men’s Soccer team (4-1) are winners of four straight and look to carry that momentum into Tuesday’s twilight matchup against rival Syracuse University (4-3). The Battle for Central New York will kick off at 7 p.m. at Berman Field, where Cornell’s eleven will look to capture regional pride and beat the Orange at home for the first time since 1998.
The Red kicked off their season with a road trip to North Carolina, losing to NCAA-ranked Wake Forest University and beating High Point University.
After ceding a 4-0 loss to Ivy League champion Columbia, the Red failed to capture what would have been its first and only Ivy League win of the year.
In a season with very few high points, the Cornell men’s soccer team still has a chance to get its first Ivy League win of the season, as the Red travels to Columbia on Sunday for its season finale. Head coach John Smith admits that while the season hasn’t gone the way anyone would have liked, it “has gone how [he] expected.”
“I have been involved long enough to know where you need to be at in order to succeed at this level, and the fact is we are currently not where we need to be, but have showed significant signs of improvement and we will ultimately get there — that much I am sure about,” Smith said. Regardless of how the season has shaped up, Smith is confident that the Red (1-13-2, 0-6-0 Ivy) will come out and finish the season strong. “Coming into the final game, I know this group will work hard and do their very best to produce a positive result,” he said. “We played our best game of the season against Dartmouth and I expect a similar performance against Columbia.”
The game was originally scheduled for Saturday, but after the announcement came that Harvard suspended its soccer team, the game was rescheduled so that all teams could complete the full seven-game Ivy season.
For Pedlow, a first-year striker on the Cornell men’s soccer team, the transition to university life included a transcontinental journey.
The Cornell men’s soccer team suffered a one-goal loss to Dartmouth (7-4-5, 4-1-1 Ivy) on Saturday, after a corner kick was headed by the Big Green three minutes into the second half of play. The matchup marked the last home game of the season for the Red (1-13-2, 0-6-0 Ivy) .
These actions have no place in the world of college athletics. Harvard has suspended the team for the remainder of its season, and the team has published a formal apology. That said, Harvard and the Ivy League should work together to ensure incidents like this never happen again on any Ivy sports team.
“The team is looking forward to this last [home] game,” Pedlow said. “This is a moment we all will relish, especially as the season has flown by. A strong show against Dartmouth could be instrumental for our progress pushing forward, and leading into the spring.”
After a scoreless first half, Cornell could not come back from two goals in the second despite strong scoring opportunities late in the game.
A difficult season continues for Cornell. Brown defeated the Red, 1-0, on a penalty kick goal 51 seconds into the second half.