Box Score ITHACA, N.Y. – Cornell scored two quick goals in the first nine minutes of the contest and then held off a late surge by Davidson to defeat the Wildcats, 2-1, this afternoon on Marsha Dodson Field. The win is the sixth consecutive for the Big Red, which improves its record to 7-6 overall.
“After an emotional win over Harvard on Saturday, I'm glad we got out to a quick start today,” said head coach
Donna Hornibrook. “I thought Davidson played really well. They were a scrappy, hard fighting team, but we were able to hold on for our sixth win in a row, so I'm very pleased about that.”
The Big Red used some balanced offense, with goals from
Hannah Balleza and
Kat DiPastina and assists from
Elly Plappert and
Taylor Standiford, to go along with six solid saves from goalkeeper
Carolyn Horner to earn the victory.
Cornell had a slim edge in shots (12-7) and penalty corners (7-5), but the Wildcats got seven hard-earned saves from goalie Sarah Fisher.
Cornell opened the scoring less than two minutes into the contest when
Ann DiPastina carried the ball to the right baseline. She sent a perfect pass back to the center of the circle, where Plappert one-touched it to Balleza, who tipped it up and over Fisher.
Just over seven minutes later, Cornell struck again when Standiford took a shot from just inside the circle and
Kat DiPastina redirected it past Fisher to give the home team a 2-0 advantage.
With just over 15 minutes remaining in the first half, Davidson got its best opportunity to that point, but Horner made a brilliant save on a Finley Amato breakaway. Sara French collected the rebound and put another shot on cage, but Horner turned it away to keep the clean slate.
Davidson (7-8) turned up the pressure in the second half, earning all five of its penalty corners in the final 35 minutes, and using one to get on the board in the 58th minute when Brooke Osbourne tipped a shot by Finley into the far post to account for the 2-1 final.
Cornell is back in action this weekend when it travels to Brown on Saturday, Oct. 20 for a contest at noon.
