Following a victory over Marist on Wednesday in New Haven, the Yale women’s lacrosse team will embark on its third road trip of the season this weekend, beginning Ivy League play against Cornell on Saturday.
Entering the weekend undefeated at Reese Stadium and winless on the road in their four nonconference games, the Bulldogs (2–2, 0–0 Ivy) will look to draw from their successes at home as they take on an undefeated Cornell team (2–0, 0–0) that finished tied for third in the Ancient Eight last season. The matchup will be telling for the Elis, who finished sixth in the conference last season and are hoping to improve in 2016 under first-year head coach Erica LaGrow.
“We’re all super excited to start up in our Ivy League games,” defender Victoria Moore ’17 said. “They’re always extremely competitive because we always face these teams so there’s a history to the rivalry.”
Yale’s 11–8 win over Marist represented its strongest shooting performance of the season, as the Bulldogs needed only 20 shots to defeat the Red Foxes. Attacker Tess McEvoy ’17 led the team with her third hat trick of the season, while attackers Hope Hanley ’17 and Kiwi Comizio ’18 and midfielder Taryn Gallagher ’18 each contributed two goals.
On the defensive side of the field, goalie Sydney Marks ’18 made a career-high 10 saves on 18 Marist shots, including seven in the second half.
“I think in Marist our game plan really came together and allowed us to be successful,” McEvoy said. “We came out excited and determined and will definitely be bringing that energy and momentum to Cornell this weekend.”
Looking to start their Ivy season on a strong note and collect consecutive wins for the first time this season, the Bulldogs will need to bring their best to Ithaca to defeat Cornell, which has already proven its national competitiveness through two games. The Big Red opened its 2016 campaign with a home victory against Villanova before taking down then-No. 19 Albany 9–5 on the road last weekend.
Junior attacker Amie Dickson, who led the team in scoring and was named to the All-Ivy first team a season ago, netted three goals against Albany. Five other players either scored or assisted for Cornell.
Playing at home in last season’s conference opener, the Bulldogs lost 15–7 to a similarly balanced Cornell attack, which outshot the Elis 32–22. Though Yale owned more than half of the draw controls in that game, Cornell dominated the vast majority of statistical categories and rode an 8–3 first-half lead to victory.
Still, with just four games played out of the 15 on Yale’s schedule, a turnaround season for Yale in 2016 is still possible. And with a blank conference slate still ahead of the team, Marks remains confident.
“We’re just working on playing the game the way we know best — our way,” Marks said. “If we stick to that on Saturday, I really think we can come out of this game with a win.”
Yale’s game in Ithaca will begin at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Kevin Bendesky contributed reporting.