The Yale women’s lacrosse team fell to Cornell this past weekend 8–7, unable to take the victory in a game characterized by narrow leads throughout.
“I’d say we were two evenly matched teams and the game in the end just didn’t go our way,” midfielder Lauren Wackerle ’16 said in a message.
Both Yale and Cornell suffered from a slow offensive start, but Cornell ultimately scored the first goal. The squad’s lead never exceeded two goals, however, and Yale in fact took the lead three different times in the rest of the first half.
Yale quickly equalized after the Big Red’s first tally as attacker Jen Devito ’14 claimed the first Eli goal, fed to her by Kelly Anne Sherlock ’16 at 15:24. Soon after, midfielder Erin Magnuson ’16 brought Yale to a 2–1 lead. Less than a minute later, Cornell brought the game to a tie when Emily Tripodi scored an unassisted goal at 10:54.
Devito and Tripodi then traded goals to bring the score to 3–3. Yet Yale was the last to strike in the first half, taking a 4–3 lead into the break after midfielder Cathryn Avallone ’15 scored off of a free position shot with 3:34 remaining in the half.
“We had some great plays throughout the game but we were just were not able to capitalize at the times where we really needed a goal,” defender Maggie Moriarty ’16 said in an email.
Cornell jumped out to a swift start at the beginning of the second half, rattling off three straight goals to take a 6–4 lead with 21:32 remaining in the game. Two of those tallies came via Cornell’s Chelsea Rowe, who recorded a total of three shots on goal for the game.
Yale responded with two goals to even up the game again. Midfielder Erin Magnuson ’15, who made the Ivy League honor roll for her performance, scored two straight free position shots to knot the game at two. But Cornell regained its two goal lead in the next four minutes and led 8–6 with 11:36 remaining in the contest.
The Bulldogs attempted to push past Cornell’s lead with 1:47 to go with a goal by midfielder Kerri Fleishhacker ’16, which brought the game within one point of a tie at 8–7. But the Big Red prevailed over the last moments of the contest, and the game ended with the score still at 8–7.
“I think we fought hard until the last whistle,” attacker Nicole Daniggelis ’16 said in an email. “Unfortunately it didn’t end how we wanted it to. Now we have to get back to work and finish strong with a win against Brown this Friday.”
Cornell kept Bulldog goalkeeper Erin McMullan ’14 on her toes during the contest, but the senior goaltender was able to make an impressive 10 saves. Her strong performance, as well as Magnuson’s three goals, did not go unnoticed and highlighted the high level of competition. McMullan’s counterpart, Carly Gniewek, also put forth a solid performance, making seven saves on the afternoon.
Because this Saturday’s action marked its annual Pink Game, the Big Red sported pink uniforms to support breast cancer awareness. Yale also contributed by wearing pink shoelaces.
Yale also scored 7 goals in last year’s game against Cornell, but the Big Red had a wider margin of victory, winning 13–7.
In the final game of the season, Yale will host Brown at Reese Stadium on Friday at 7 p.m.