SPARKS, Md. -- The Cornell women's lacrosse team endured its first loss of the season on Sunday afternoon, falling to No. 15 Virginia, 20-11, at William G Tierney Field. The Big Red dropped to 2-1, while the Cavaliers improved to 4-1.
Cornell's offense was led by junior Kylie Gelabert, scoring two goals and handed out two assists, making it the first time she has had four points or more in a game since a 17-6 win over Colgate in Ithaca on March 9, 2022. The attacking duo of senior Maggie Pons and Josie Vogel also put together a multi-point afternoon, recording two goals and an assist each. Bridget Babcock was the other lone multi-point performer for the Big Red, securing two assists in the first half. Cornell's other five goals came from Ellie Bergin, Alexa Donahoe, Caitlin Slaminko, Sophie Ward, and Ella Wilmot.
Virginia had three players net four goals in the victory from Madison Alaimo, Katia Carnevale, and Mackenzie Hoag. Morgen Schwab also had a successful day at the office, finding the back of the net once and passing out a season-high six assists. Mel Josephson earned the win in net for the Cavaliers, making seven saves on 18 attempts.
Cornell would get the scoring started in the opening fifteen thanks to Maggie Pons, as the senior continued her opening season tear with the first two goals of the game to push the designated visiting team ahead, 2-0. Virginia immediately answered the opener with a 4-0 run on four consecutive possessions over just two minutes to take the lead back, 4-2. The back-and-forth momentum swing came back in favor of the Big Red after the Cavalier run, as Ward found the back of the net, and Vogel answered with a woman-up goal a possession later to tie things up at four. Virginia would have the last laugh of the quarter thanks to a Kiki Shaw goal with 0:30 left to grab a 5-4 lead after an entertaining first that included a combined 13 shots on goal.
Virginia had the first answer just 0:26 into the second stanza, thanks to Schwab finding Carnevale for her third goal to jump back ahead by two. Cornell's offense answered the call again, as Gelabert found the net for the first time, slicing through the Virginia defense to cut the deficit back down to one. That would be as close as Cornell would get in the quarter, as a Cornell foul led to another goal by Carnevale that turned into another 4-0 sprint over about five minutes of game action to build a 10-5 cushion. UVA's run would end thanks to Bergin's first career goal off a feed from Babcock to cut the deficit to four. Cornell would tally two more goals to end the period from Ella Wilmot and Gelabert, but the Cavaliers kept the hammer down with four more goals to head into halftime up 14-8.
The stoppage did nothing to cool Virginia's offense, as it ripped off another 4-0 over the opening 11 minutes to grab its largest lead of the day at 18-8. Cornell's offense finally found the back of the net with 1:57 to go in the third on a free position attempt by Slaminko to knock the gap back down below double digits. Virginia answered Slaminko's goal with another tally a little over a minute later to take a 19-9 lead heading into the final quarter.
Cornell did not give up in the final period despite a running clock, recording more shots on goal (5-4) than its opponent and securing two goals on Donahoe's first of the season and a free position shot by Vogel with 0:30 left to close out the scoring on the day.
BIG RED NOTABLES
- Sunday's game was the first matchup between the two teams since the Cavaliers took a 5-4 win in Ithaca on April 29, 1988.
- Freshman Ellie Bergin scored her first career goal during the second quarter. It is the third consecutive week a Big Red athlete has netted their first goal, as Bergin joins Dillyn Patten (vs. Cal-Berkeley) and Ella Wilmot (at Le Moyne).
- Senior defender Hilary Hoover picked up a season-high six draw controls during Sunday's game. It is the most the Rye, N.Y. native has secured in her career for the Big Red since having eight during her freshman season in 2020. Annie Thomas also secured four draw controls, putting her 12 away from becoming the first Big Red athlete to have 200 in a career.
- Sophomore Mackenzie Clark recorded a career-high four ground balls in relief for Ellie Horner after coming in during the third quarter.
UP NEXT
Cornell will head home to Ithaca to open up Ivy League action against Dartmouth College on Saturday, March 2. Game action will begin at 3 p.m. and will be available to stream on ESPN Plus.
