W. Soccer Competes at ECACs

The women's soccer team will compete in the ECAC championships this weekend, which are being held at St. John's University in Jamaica, N.Y. The Red (8-5-2, 2-5 Ivy) is the third seed in the four-team tournament, and will square off against the second seed, Providence (8-8-2, 1-5-0 Big East), tomorrow at 2 p.m. St. John's, the first seed, will take on fourth-seeded Niagara at 11 a.m. The winners of tomorrow matches will face off on Sunday in the championship game.

"We want to have a lot of fun and play some good soccer this weekend," commented head coach Berhane Andeberhan. "Even though conditions were bad at times, the team has trained well the past two weeks."

The booters lost a tough match to the then-No. 19 Princeton Tigers in their final regular season match at Berman Field. Freshman Maura Gallagher scored two goals in the last three minutes of the first half to give the Tigers a 2-0 victory. The Red held Princeton scoreless for the second half, but was unable to convert on any shots. The game was very physical, with the Tigers committing 17 fouls and two players being booked for yellow cards.

The Friars finished their regular season on October 30 with a 1-0 win against Holy Cross. Sophomore BriAnne Bruni scored the lone Providence goal just four minutes into the game. Junior goalkeeper Caroline Haines and freshman forward Kerry O'Malley were named last week to the All-Big East second team and rookie teams, respectively. Haines played in 14 out of 16 games this season and recorded a 1.12 goals against average, while O'Malley was second on the team in scoring with four goals and five assists.

Providence and Cornell have faced four common opponents this season in Brown, Yale, Marist, and Syracuse, with the Friars posting a 3-1 record against those teams and the Red recording a 1-1-2 mark. Providence's only appearance in the ECAC Championships came in 1989, when it lost to Rutgers in the semifinal round. This will be Cornell's seventh trip to the tournament. The Red last appeared in the tournament in 1999, losing 2-0 to Villanova in the semifinals. The booters reached the championship game in 1994 and 1995, besting Colgate and Dartmouth in the semifinals, respectively.

The Red will look to net its first goal in three games, as it did not find the back of the net against Princeton and battled to a scoreless tie against Syracuse.

"On offense, we have a tendency to go to the outside too easily. We want our center midfielders and forwards to hold the ball in the center, and try to create some chances in the center," remarked Andeberhan. "We're good at attacking down the flank, but by creating chances in the middle, it will make us unpredictable."

This week, four Cornell players were tapped for All-Ivy honors, with senior co-captain Sarah Olsen being named to the second team for the third year in a row. Junior co-captain Lindsay Rovegno, sophomore Katie Thomas, and freshman Shannon Fraser received All-Ivy honorable mention.