By Brandon Thomas
Cornell Athletic Communications
 
ITHACA, N.Y. – The first intercollegiate competition on Cornell's campus since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic would have been reason enough to celebrate on Friday night at Berman Field, but the Big Red women's soccer team added to the excitement by surging to a 2-0 win over Canisius.
 
Freshman Peyton Nichols scored her first collegiate goal, then fifth year Naomi Jaffe provided an insurance tally late to power Cornell to victory in its first game since Rob Ferguson was named the program's head coach. Freshman Erica Fox made two saves to earn the shutout.
 
"It's always important to start off on the right foot, but it's more important when you've been out for (so long) and you're on the back of three or five or 10 years of being pretty unsuccessful result-wise," Ferguson said. "It's good juju for the team. It's good energy, and we can feed off that to fight through some of the adversity we've faced this week."
 
After a 657-day wait to see the field since its last game on Nov. 9, 2019, the Big Red found itself delayed a little longer – but this time, fortunately, just for an additional 30 minutes while a thunderstorm to the east narrowly missed the area.
 
The teams then sparred through a scoreless first half, with the best chances coming on a couple opportunities via senior Aidan Julia Reineman. The first came on a feed to sophomore Reagan Pauwels that would have created a Grade-A shot from inside the 18-yard box – had it not been deemed offside. About three minutes later, Reineman had her own offering from the left corner of the box scoot wide of the near post.
 
Fox's biggest save came just minutes into the second half when a free kick from at least 40 yards rode the wind and threatened the top corner of the goal, only to have the keeper push it onto the crossbar and keep the score level.
 
Cornell started to create more space and eventually broke through in the 63rd minute on Nichols' strike after a lengthy buildup. Sophomore Ava Laden collected a ball deep in the middle third and simply ran past all Canisius (0-2-1) up the right flank to the corner, then cut back to enter a dangerous position. She served it back to the top of the box for sophomore Sophie Weeter, who one-touched a beautiful ball outside the far post for Nichols to tap in.
 
"Ava Laden changed the game for us offensively, when we moved her out to the right, Ferguson said. "She was catalyst to get in front."
 
After some nervy moments holding the lead, Cornell doubled its lead on Jaffe's third career goal – all coming either in the season's first or second games. Unlike the first two, this tally came on scorer's preferred angle, when she stepped into the box and redirected junior Kendall Patten's perfect feed past the Canisius goalkeeper.
 
"I thought the players that impacted the game the most were our junior class," Ferguson added. "I thought (Isabella DeLew) and Kendall (Patten), who played left and right center back with very few minutes in those positions here, played 90 minutes and made great decisions throughout."
 
With the win, Cornell improves to 23-11-5 in debuts over its 39-season program history – including a 6-1-1 mark over the last eight.
 
The Big Red continues its home-heavy start to the season with a 3 p.m. Sunday clash with UAlbany at Berman Field.

Assistant director of athletic communications Brandon Thomas is entering his 11th season as his office's primary contact for the team. He can be reached at brandon@cornell.edu.