ITHACA, N.Y. — Senior forward Laken Gallman's 73rd-minute goal aided the Cornell women's soccer team to its 1-1 draw with Villanova at an unseasonably warm Berman Field on Sunday afternoon.

Fellow senior forward Reinna Gabriel assisted on Gallman's tally, registering her first point since scoring against Colgate on Oct. 5, 2021.

Junior goalkeeper Natalie Medugno made one save for the Big Red (1-2-4) in the draw.

Susanna Soderman logged the lone goal for Villanova (3-4-1) and Hannah Dickinson made five saves between the pipes for the Wildcats, who registered its first tie of the season.

Soderman opened the scoring on a penalty kick 51 seconds into the contest after Medugno was assessed a yellow card inside the penalty area.

The goal by Villanova snapped its scoreless drought of nearly 300 minutes (296:37), dating back to its 1-0 victory over Jacksonville on Aug. 29.

"I'm proud of the grind they showed today," Cornell women's soccer head coach Rob Ferguson said. "One-nil down in the first minute to a PK is not a nice picture, and after that, they stuck to the game plan pretty well. I thought they used the ball and possession pretty well. I thought we kept it and controlled long parts of the game, at least in terms of possession, and certainly got the ball in some good areas and created some half-chances. Villanova has been tight defensively all year and [Laken] scored a really good goal."

Despite Villanova taking the early lead, Cornell allowed just five shot attempts over the remainder of the contest, conceding just one shot on goal, which came in the 84th minute.

"We wanted to press like we almost always do. Whenever we press, we're successful. Whenever we pressed with all our players and good numbers, we made it hard for them to get out into the field," Ferguson said. "Our organization was largely very good when they got the ball down in our half. There were no big gaps and no open players. We just did our jobs right."

Cornell leveled the match in the 73rd minute off a pass by Gabriel from the right wing inside the goal area that was one-touched by Gallman into the goal past Dickinson.

"I thought in the second half it was coming," Ferguson said of Cornell netting the equalizer. "[Reinna] was causing them all sorts of trouble out on the right side and Laken had a wonderful finish."

Both teams registered a shot on goal over the final 10 minutes of action, with both attempts getting saved by the respective goalkeepers.

"In the last five to eight minutes, it became pretty open," Ferguson said. "We looked like we were a bit too stretched. That was the only time in the game, after the early PK, that I was worried about them from an attacking perspective."

MATCH NOTES
• Sunday was the seventh all-time meeting between Cornell and Villanova and was the third consecutive year the programs played each other. The Wildcats continue to own a slight edge in the series, 3-2-2, despite Cornell going unbeaten over its last three meetings with Villanova (1-0-2).

• Gallman's 73rd-minute goal extended Cornell's already-established program record for consecutive home matches with a goal to 14. Over its 14-match streak, the Big Red has scored 22 goals (1.57 goals per match).

LONGEST STREAK OF HOME MATCHES WITH A GOAL
Cornell Program History
1. 14 matches (Oct. 29, 2022 - Present) — 22 goals (1.57 goals per match)
2. 12 matches (Sept. 13, 2013 — Oct. 3, 2014) — 32 goals (2.67 goals per match)
3. 10 matches (Oct. 16, 1985 - Sept. 30, 1987) — 24 goals (2.40 goals per match)
4. 9 matches (Sept. 22, 1996 - Oct. 14, 1997) — 20 goals (2.22 goals per match)
5. 8 matches (Sept. 23, 2011 - Oct. 2, 2012) — 13 goals (1.63 goals per match)

• After scoring against St. John's on Thursday, Gallman has registered goals in consecutive matches for the second time in her Cornell career. The other instance where she scored in back-to-back contests was on Sept. 1 (at Niagara) and Sept. 4 (vs. Villanova) during the 2022 season. Gallman is the first Big Red player to score in consecutive matches since Reagan Pauwels concluded the 2022 season with game-winning goals against Princeton (Oct. 29, 2022) and Dartmouth (Nov. 5, 2022).

• Dating back to 2022, Cornell has scored in 12 of its last 13 matches, 22 of its previous 24 outings, and 25 of its latest 29 fixtures. Under Rob Ferguson, Cornell has scored in 39 of its 54 contests, scoring in 72.2 percent of the contests played under the fifth-year head coach.

• Cornell registered its fourth draw of the season, matching Drake (1-4-4), Hofstra (1-3-4), Lehigh (1-3-4), Lousiana (5-1-4), South Carolina (2-0-4), Tennessee Tech (0-6-4), UC Santa Barbara (1-3-4), and Wagner (1-3-4) for the fourth-most draws by a Division I program this season. Only Abilene Christian (2-1-5), Fairleigh Dickinson (0-3-5), and Towson (2-2-5) have registered more draws this year.

MOST DRAWS
This Season (through 9/15/24)
T1. Abilene Christian (2-1-5)
T1. Fairleigh Dickinson (0-3-5)
T1. Towson (2-2-5)
T4. Cornell (1-2-4)
T4. Drake (1-4-4)
T4. Florida (3-1-4)
T4. Hofstra (2-1-4)
T4. Howard (1-3-4)
T4. Lehigh (1-3-4)
T4. Louisiana (5-1-4)
T4. South Carolina (3-0-4)
T4. Tennessee Tech (0-6-4)
T4. UC Santa Barbara (2-3-4)
T4. Wagner (1-3-4)

UP NEXT
Cornell will make a rare trip out to California for its final two non-conference matches of the season, facing Long Beach State (2-4-1) on Friday, Sept. 20, and No. 18-ranked Pepperdine (4-2-2) on Sunday, Sept. 22. Friday's contest with Long Beach State will not be streamed, but Sunday's match at Pepperdine will be available on ESPN+.

Both matches will be the first time on record in Cornell history that the Big Red is playing Long Beach State or Pepperdine in any sport.

The trip to the Golden State will be the Big Red's first since falling to Stanford, 1-0, on Oct. 12, 1991, and defeating San Francisco, 1-0, on Oct. 13, 1991.