Sports
Cornell Women’s Basketball Finishes Season Fifth in Ivy League
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The Red were defeated by Yale and Brown on the road, failing to end their season on a high note. But the team is now motivated to work hard going into the offseason.
The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/womens-basketball/page/2/)
The Red were defeated by Yale and Brown on the road, failing to end their season on a high note. But the team is now motivated to work hard going into the offseason.
The Cornell women’s basketball team had a weekend of highs and lows as the team hosted Penn and Princeton for two very special nights. On Friday, the Red welcomed the Quakers, who entered the contest second in the league. The Quakers had previously beat the Red, 65-50, in the last meeting in Philadelphia.
One of the strengths of the Cornell women’s basketball team has been its team chemistry and balanced scoring. This Saturday however, the spotlight is on one player — guard Maddie Campbell. The team’s lone senior, Campbell, will play her last game in Newman Arena against the Princeton Tigers.
The women’s basketball team had another trip away from Ithaca this past weekend, traveling to Dartmouth on Friday and Harvard on Saturday. The women have four games left in the regular season but this was the last time they faced either the Green or the Crimson. Going into the weekend Cornell was ranked third in the Ivy League, but after losing both contests — on Friday to Dartmouth, 60-52, and then on Saturday to Harvard, 68-63 — the Red left sitting in fifth place in the conference standings with a record of 5-5 against Ivy League opponents. “It was an interesting shift being on the road,” said junior forward Nicholle Aston. “But that doesn’t account for the poor result we had.
“Really, this upcoming weekend is big for us,” said senior guard Maddie Campbell. “We need to work on our rebounding and forward defense.”
Senior captain Maddie Campbell stated on Jan. 31 that the team aimed to have a sweeping victory the following weekend. The Red (13-7, 5-1 Ivy) fulfilled this mission this weekend when they conquered two Ivy League opponents — the Brown Bears (12 – 7, 1-5 Ivy) and the Yale Bulldogs (11 -12, 2-4 Ivy).
The women’s basketball team will head into two Ivy League games against Brown and Yale this weekend. The Red has played four Ivy League contests, currently holding an Ivy record of 3-1. “I think we had a really gutsy win on Saturday night coming off our Harvard loss Friday night,” said head coach Dayna Smith. “When we are playing together and sharing the ball and playing team defense, we are getting a lot of good things accomplished.”
Brown and Yale have different styles of basketball compared to what the Red is used to playing against, according to Smith. “I think Brown and Yale are very guard-oriented,” Smith said.
This past weekend, the Red hosted Harvard (8-9, 3-1 Ivy) and Dartmouth (7-13,2-2) at Newman Arena and went 1-1, losing to the Crimson, 56-65, but rallying to beat the Big Green on Saturday night, 71-58.
Coming off a two-win weekend over Columbia, the Cornell women’s basketball team looks to keep the momentum going against Harvard and Dartmouth this coming weekend. The two wins over the Lions have Cornell perched atop the Ivy League standings alongside rival Yale.
While the rest of campus was enjoying winter break, the Cornell women’s basketball team was busy in the middle of its season. The 10-6 team competed in seven games over break, winning five of them. The Red was challenged by teams from Stanford, California State University at Fullerton, Binghamton, Howard, Delaware State and Columbia. Cornell is currently in a three-way tie for first in the Ivy League with Yale and the Penn, boasting a 2-0 record against conference opponents, picking up two victories against Columbia. Following the strong break, the team is now focused on keeping up the momentum for the rest of the season, according to head coach Dayna Smith.