Box Score Box Score

AMHERST, Mass. — Caroline Growney scored seven goals last season for the women's soccer team, but none of them were quite like her strike to open the 2014 season. The junior forward converted her first collegiate overtime goal in the 110th minute on Friday evening, lifting the Big Red to a 1-0 victory over Massachusetts.
 
Sophomore goalkeeper Kelsey Tierney made six saves for her third career shutout as the teams battled through a sultry day at Rudd Field. The game remained scoreless until sophomore midfielder Elizabeth Crowell set up Growney for the winner on the rush with 10:59 remaining in the second overtime period. Growney tucked in a low shot past Minutewomen keeper Danielle Kriscenski, who hadn't been called on to make a save since the first half.
 
Cornell (1-0) survived a second half in which it yielded seven corner kicks to UMass (1-3-1). It was on the final one of those corners that the Minutewomen generated their only shot on target of the frame, with Tierney making a save on Danielle Farano with less than 15 minutes on the clock.
 
That proved to be the last shot on goal for either team until Growney's winner, which was in stark contrast to the first half. Already playing in its fifth game of the season, UMass held a territorial advantage in the opening 20 minutes while Cornell got up to speed in its debut. Tierney made five of her six saves in the first 38 minutes of the game. A pair of substitute forwards – sophomore Dempsey Banks and freshman Paige DeLoach – had the Big Red's three shots on goal in the first half, then freshman Erin Fitzgerald and senior Claire MacManus had shots sail over the crossbar in the waning minutes of the stanza.
 
Growney's eighth career goal gave Cornell its first victory against UMass in eight all-time meetings between the programs. The Big Red also improves to 18-10-4 in season openers with a 1-0 victory in its debut for the second year in a row (senior Kerry Schubert scored in the fifth minute last year at Sacred Heart).
 
Up next for the Big Red is a 1 p.m. Sunday clash at Marist before the team returns to home for its Berman Field debut with games against Virginia Military Institute and Temple as part of the Cornell Classic on Friday, Sept. 12 and Sunday, Sept. 14.