Women Laxers Face Colgate

While the women's lacrosse team will miss the postseason for the first time in five years, it has the chance to go out on a winning note, as the Red will faceoff against Colgate (13-5, 5-0 Patriot) tomorrow in Hamilton, N.Y. at 1 p.m. With a win tomorrow, Cornell (5-9, 3-4 Ivy) can finish the season having won five of its last six contests. Meanwhile, the Raiders captured their first ever league title and will be playing in the upcoming NCAA tournament for the first time.

"The goal is to have a game where we control our own destiny for 60 minutes. I would personally like to dominate and control and feel that empowerment of really culminating our efforts this year," said head coach Jenny Graap '86.

"We've been up and down this year. We had a tough start and then we came on strong at the end. I think if we're really going to feel satisfied with this year, we want to get as many players onto the field as possible."

Graap hopes to be able to utilize most of her bench, something that she has not been able to do this season. In order to accomplish this, the team's starters need to take control of the game early on.

On Sunday, the Red closed out its Ivy season with a 10-9 win at Harvard. Cornell's victory saw eight different players score, while sophomore goalie Maggie Fava made six saves, including a point-blank stop with 40 seconds left in the game.

Fava was named Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week after her efforts against No. 14 Syracuse and Harvard. She stopped four shots against Syracuse in the sudden-victory overtime periods, helping the Red get the upset in quadruple overtime. 

"I'd like to see Maggie be consistent with her clears and to continue to elevate her game outside of the net with her ground balls and interceptions," Graap said.

The team's two seniors, co-captains Jaime Quinn and Kate Hirschfield, look to end their careers on a winning note. The Red swept the weekly league awards, as Quinn was named Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week, scoring five goals in the team's two games last week. 

"I'm expecting consistent leadership [from the seniors] that lets the younger players see by example what they need to do," Graap said.

The Red's defense will have another challenge on its hands, as Colgate boasts several prolific scorers. Sophomores Katie McVeigh and Kelly Winning lead the way for the Raiders, with 44 and 36 goals, respectively. McVeigh and Winning were pegged as Patriot League first-team selections along with classmates Heidi Ross and Sue Bielamowicz. Bielamowicz was also named the Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year after recording an 8.76 GAA and a .564 save percentage.

Graap will be relying on the defensive strategy that the team has been using all year, calling on the team's best defenders to hold Colgate's offensive weapons in check with solid marking.

"There's going to be some individual responsibility to mark those girls, but we're looking for that total team effort," Graap said.

The Raiders clinched their first ever trip to the NCAA tournament after knocking off American in double-overtime of the conference tournament finals. The Red can curb Colgate's momentum heading into the tournament with a solid win tomorrow.

"This game is going to be particularly emotional since it's Colgate first time ever making the NCAAs. We know what that was like, we got that out of our system in 2001 when for the first time ever, we represented Cornell lacrosse in the women's NCAA tournament," Graap said.

Women's Lax Falls to No. 14 Yale

A late rally was not enough for the women's lacrosse team, as it fell to No. 14 Yale, 11-8, on Saturday at Schoellkopf Field. The Red (3-9, 2-4 Ivy) was unable to clamp down on all of Yale's offensive weapons, as the Bulldogs (12-4, 5-2 Ivy) went on a 4-0 run 15 minutes into the second half to pull away.

"I think in general, we had a lull in the second half there where in a matter of four minutes, [Yale] scored four goals. That lull ultimately cost us the game because they got enough cushion where they could start stalling and slowing things down, and then the clock worked against us," said head coach Jenny Graap '86.

Cornell got on the board first thanks to a great effort by senior co-captain Kate Hirschfield. Double-teamed to the right of the goal, Hirschfield lost both defenders and put the ball home on an open look. Junior Lindsay Steinberg made it 2-0 after firing a fast shot from the top of the arc at 8:26.

Yale struck back two minutes later, as Katherine Sargent scored after getting the feed from Lyndsay Levin off of a free position shot. Miles Whitman, one of the fastest players in the nation, demonstrated her speed early, as she outran the Cornell defense after a restart to score her first of three goals in the game.

The Red did a good job of shutting down the Yale offense early, limiting the Elis to two goals in the first 20 minutes of the game.

"In the beginning of the game, we had some really good strategy defensively. We were marking their leading scorer, Miles Whitman, really closely, and that may have taken Yale a little bit of time to regroup and reorganize and try to figure things out," Graap said.

The task of marking Whitman throughout the game fell to freshman Anne Riordan, the Red's fastest player. Riordan excelled in guarding her mark and put forth her best effort of the year, according to Graap.

"[Whitman] was really fast and quick, though when I got on her after a while, she just stopped moving. We were sort of spectators for a lot of it," Riordan said.

After junior Kristen Smith scored two straight to give the Red a 4-2 lead, Yale's Sarah Driscoll responded with two goals of her own to even the game at four all with six minutes to play in the half. Driscoll's second tally came after she knocked the ball out of sophomore goalie Maggie Fava's stick. The Bulldogs took their first lead of the game at 25:47 of the first half on a goal by Sophie Melniker.

Sargent extended Yale's lead at the start of the second half, but freshman Margaux Viola closed the gap for Cornell after she scored on a wraparound six minutes into the half. Unfortunately for the Red, it would not score another goal for another 10 minutes, as four different Yale players scored in four minutes to put the Bulldogs up, 10-5.

The Red rallied back, as senior co-captain Jaime Quinn started a 3-0 run with 13 minutes left in the game. Smith and Hirschfield both added goals on free position shots to close the gap to two. But that would be as close as Cornell would get, as Yale successfully ran out the clock. Whitman added another tally in the closing seconds of the game to give Yale the 11-8 win.

Cornell's offense was dominated by solo efforts during the game, as all but one the team's eight goals came unassisted.

"That's kind of unusual for us to have so few assisted goals. Some of it was that they face-guarded [sophomore] Allison Schindler, who's normally our assister, and it took her out of the game a little bit," Graap said. "I think that we weren't necessarily looking for so many feeds in the second half, we were looking more for the solo drive."

Yale finished the game with 41 shots to Cornell's 19, while Fava recorded a career-high 14 saves in goal.

"Our defense was really doing a great job in forcing them to take some bad shots and off-angle shots, and though they ripped a lot of shots, they were missing high, missing wide," Graap said. "When it came down to it, they were a taller team than we were, they were a little bit faster than we were, and some of those things ultimately play into the outcome."

A late rally was not enough for the women's lacrosse team, as it fell to No. 14 Yale, 11-8, on Saturday at Schoellkopf Field. The Red (3-9, 2-4 Ivy) was unable to clamp down on all of Yale's offensive weapons, as the Bulldogs (12-4, 5-2 Ivy) went on a 4-0 run 15 minutes into the second half to pull away.
"I think in general, we had a lull in the second half there where in a matter of four minutes, [Yale] scored four goals. That lull ultimately cost us the game because they got enough cushion where they could start stalling and slowing things down, and then the clock worked against us," said head coach Jenny Graap '86.
Cornell got on the board first thanks to a great effort by senior co-captain Kate Hirschfield. Double-teamed to the right of the goal, Hirschfield lost both defenders and put the ball home on an open look. Junior Lindsay Steinberg made it 2-0 after firing a fast shot from the top of the arc at 8:26.
Yale struck back two minutes later, as Katherine Sargent scored after getting the feed from Lyndsay Levin off of a free position shot. Miles Whitman, one of the fastest players in the nation, demonstrated her speed early, as she outran the Cornell defense after a restart to score her first of three goals in the game.
The Red did a good job of shutting down the Yale offense early, limiting the Elis to two goals in the first 20 minutes of the game.
"In the beginning of the game, we had some really good strategy defensively. We were marking their leading scorer, Miles Whitman, really closely, and that may have taken Yale a little bit of time to regroup and reorganize and try to figure things out," Graap said.
The task of marking Whitman throughout the game fell to freshman Anne Riordan, the Red's fastest player. Riordan excelled in guarding her mark and put forth her best effort of the year, according to Graap.
"[Whitman] was really fast and quick, though when I got on her after a while, she just stopped moving. We were sort of spectators for a lot of it," Riordan said.
After junior Kristen Smith scored two straight to give the Red a 4-2 lead, Yale's Sarah Driscoll responded with two goals of her own to even the game at four all with six minutes to play in the half. Driscoll's second tally came after she knocked the ball out of sophomore goalie Maggie Fava's stick. The Bulldogs took their first lead of the game at 25:47 of the first half on a goal by Sophie Melniker.
Sargent extended Yale's lead at the start of the second half, but freshman Margaux Viola closed the gap for Cornell after she scored on a wraparound six minutes into the half. Unfortunately for the Red, it would not score another goal for another 10 minutes, as four different Yale players scored in four minutes to put the Bulldogs up, 10-5.
The Red rallied back, as senior co-captain Jaime Quinn started a 3-0 run with 13 minutes left in the game. Smith and Hirschfield both added goals on free position shots to close the gap to two. But that would be as close as Cornell would get, as Yale successfully ran out the clock. Whitman added another tally in the closing seconds of the game to give Yale the 11-8 win.
Cornell's offense was dominated by solo efforts during the game, as all but one the team's eight goals came unassisted.
"That's kind of unusual for us to have so few assisted goals. Some of it was that they face-guarded [sophomore] Allison Schindler, who's normally our assister, and it took her out of the game a little bit," Graap said. "I think that we weren't necessarily looking for so many feeds in the second half, we were looking more for the solo drive."
Yale finished the game with 41 shots to Cornell's 19, while Fava recorded a career-high 14 saves in goal.
"Our defense was really doing a great job in forcing them to take some bad shots and off-angle shots, and though they ripped a lot of shots, they were missing high, missing wide," Graap said. "When it came down to it, they were a taller team than we were, they were a little bit faster than we were, and some of those things ultimately play into the outcome."
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W. Lacrosse Hopes To Halt Eli Streak

After getting its first two Ivy wins of the season last weekend, the women's lacrosse team aims to up its conference record to .500 when it faces off against No. 14 Yale (11-4, 4-2 Ivy) tomorrow at Schoellkopf Field at 1 p.m. The Red (3-8, 2-3 Ivy) can spoil the Bulldogs' hopes of getting an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament by getting the upset.

Cornell snapped a five-game losing streak last Friday with an 11-9 win at Brown, buoyed by hat tricks from juniors Lindsay Steinberg and Kristen Smith. The Red's game on Sunday against Columbia was interrupted near the end of the first half due to lightning. When play resumed, the Lions mounted a comeback in the second half, but Cornell held on for the 10-8 win. Senior co-captain Jaime Quinn recorded four points on the day, while freshman Lindsey Moore came off the bench to net two goals and an assist.

This weekend, the Red will need to shut down Yale's prolific offense, which is averaging 12.53 goals per game.

"Yale has three really significant scoring threats, and two of the three are very tall, one is six foot tall and the other is 5-11," said head coach Jenny Graap '86. "In preparing for [Yale], we're trying to get our defense ready for denying some of these feeds to the tall girls inside and lots of communication on the defensive end so that we can be really solid in our effort in the backfield."

The trio of Miles Whitman, Sophie Melniker, and Katherine Sargent has combined for 135 of the Yale's 188 goals this season. Melniker is the reigning Ivy League Player of the Week after scoring 16 goals in Yale's three games last weekend.

The Red has struggled in the past few games in shutting down its opponents' fast break scoring chances, which it will need to do tomorrow if it hopes to win.

"Yale does play a fast break transition offense at times, and so definitely we have been working on that, stopping the team's fast break off of the draw control, off of a clear, or any broken situation," Graap said. " Yale actually has one of the fastest players in the country in their leading scorer, Miles Whitman. She's wicked fast."

Whitman is the fourth leading scorer in the nation as of last weekend, and has recorded 52 goals and 26 assists on the year. Last year against the Red, Whitman found the back of the net seven times in the Bulldogs' 11-5 win. Shutting down Whitman will not be enough, as Sargent and Melniker are also big threats in the attacking end.

" Yale presents multiple challenges, so I think it's going to take a whole team effort in the backfield to contain those players," Graap said. " Just like in any game, there's just one ball so you just have to figure out how you can get multiple defenders on the ball without leaving dangerous people wide open. It's a matter of shifting and adjusting and working together."

With four games left in the season, the Red has a chance to end the spring on a positive note by extending its winning streak.

" I think for us to have a great showing against all the remaining teams would be wonderful. By the eleventh, twelfth game of the season, the freshmen that have been playing for us and even the upperclassmen who are first-time starters, they're not so young anymore because of all the games we've played and all the experience they've had. We need to show in the remaining four games what we've learned," Graap said.

Freshmen Prove Valuable for W. Lacrosse

After fielding senior-laden teams the past few seasons, the women's lacrosse team entered this year with one of the youngest squads ever coached by Jenny Graap '86. The 10 members of the class of 2007 outnumber the seniors and juniors combined, and they have already become key contributors on the field. The newcomers have gelled into a cohesive unit, and have made the jump to the college game with ease.

"We spend a lot of time together off the field. We go to dinner after practice, and we kind of just bonded, which really helped with our chemistry on the field," said freshman Lindsey Moore.

Moore got off to a quick start at the beginning of the season, scoring two goals in her collegiate debut in the team's first game against Georgetown. This was the first time a freshman scored two goals in her first match since 2001. Classmate Margaux Viola started the game against the Hoyas, and three other freshmen saw playing time in the game as well.

"I was really nervous, I remember lining up for the national anthem, and it felt so much more important than a high school game," said Viola. 

Moore echoed those sentiments about their first game.

"I think there's a lot more to think about when you're on the field. I know I was subbing in for the two co-captains, and I think those are really big shoes to fill, and I was kind of nervous about that," she said.

Despite their nerves, Moore and Viola have shined so far this season. Moore has netted seven goals and three helpers, while Viola has three goals and two assists.

The rest of the freshmen have been getting into the act as well. Freshmen Anne Riordan and Ashleigh Smith both started last week against Princeton, and Smith has started in six of the team's eight games. Riordan is the fastest player on the squad, and her speed will help her excel in the midfield, while Smith's stickwork and positioning will be an asset for the team's defensive unit.

Three members of the class of 2007 were already very familiar with each other when they came to the East Hill in the fall. Moore, Colleen O'Hara, and Kendall Tupper were teammates at West Genesee High School, which is the three-time defending New York State champion. O'Hara is rebounding from tearing her ACL during her senior year and has yet to see playing time this season, but Tupper has been involved in six games in the backfield.

"I know how they play, they know how I play, so we already have an advantage. We can look for each other on the field because we already have that bond," Moore said.

But as good as these freshmen have proved to be, the team's upperclassmen have played a pivotal role in the helping them adjust to the college game and college life off the field.

"The best part about the team is the girls, I can't imagine Cornell without them. [Jaime Quinn] and Kate [Hirschfield] are incredible captains who lead by example on and off the field. All the upperclassmen are amazing and they've helped to make this year as great as it is," Smith said.

While the team's record has not been what it was in past seasons, the freshmen have benefited from the playing time they've seen, and will only continue to improve throughout this year and beyond.

"The record doesn't look so good right now, but I think there's still a chance to turn the season around. We can definitely make it better, I think we have the potential," Viola said "We might be a young team, but that's not really an excuse, and I think that we've started to see it, like in our game at Princeton. We started to see people do things that we hadn't seen before, and I think we can build on that."