Box Score NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Rebeka Roth scored in the 80th minute for Yale surrounding a pair of excruciatingly close scoring opportunities for the Cornell women's soccer team on Saturday, allowing the host Bulldogs to slip away with a 1-0 Ivy League victory at Reese Stadium.
 
With the game still scoreless in the 74th minute, Cornell (3-8-2, 1-3 Ivy League) sprinted away on a counterattack set in motion by senior Evanthia Spyredes. Her long service sent senior Aidan Julia Reineman into space up the left side. From 15 yards out, she guided a left-footed shot that got under the hands of Marisa Shorrock, with the ball bobbling inches wide of the far post.
 
Playing against a compact Big Red formation that employed a high back line and depended on a sweeper-keeper type of effort from senior Miranda Iannone, Yale (2-11, 1-3) found only minimal success in building the play up the field or turning Cornell defenders around. The offsides flag went up six times against the Bulldogs and Iannone stymied handfuls of long balls with quickness of her line on the fast artificial surface at Reese.
 
Yale only cracked the code twice. The first time came in the 60th minute on Ellie Rappole's run that drew Iannone sliding outside of the 18-yard box only to end up with a shot sailing over the crossbar. The second produced the game-winner, when Roth took Nana Yang's through-ball and touched the ball around Iannone's charge before calmly slotting the ball into the net just behind Cornell's last retreating defender.
 
The Big Red still nearly equalized with just 3:48 left on the clock. After a corner kick flew over a pack of players in the middle of the field, senior Mofoluke Obiri collected the ball and sent a menacing cross looping toward the back post. With Shorrock fighting the sun and a hefty breeze, Spyredes was first to get her head onto it – but it hit the junction of the crossbar and the post before bouncing out of play.
 
While the final phase was eventful, the early moments were not. After nothing significant to speak of through 40 minutes, both teams had serious threats to break through in the waning moments of the first half. After a defensive miscue gifted Yale's Alanna Butcher with possession in the Big Red's 18-yard box, Iannone – from nearby Hamden – delivered the biggest of her three saves on the day with high hands on a point-blank shot.
 
After the ensuing corner kick was cleared by the Cornell defense, Reineman stole the ball away from a Yale defender and had a breakaway running into the offensive half. Noticing Shorrock about 20 yards off her line, Reineman was winding up for a chip over the keeper from 45 yards – but she was fouled by the last retreating defender. It proved to be a key moment in the game, with on a yellow card being shown on the play and allowing Yale to continue with 11 players through the remaining 49 minutes.
 
Cornell returns home for its next contest, a Senior Day clash against defending league champion Brown at 1 p.m. Saturday at Berman Field in Ithaca, N.Y.