BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Junior goalkeeper Natalie Medugno made a season-high six saves as the Cornell women's soccer team played to a scoreless draw against Lehigh at the Ulrich Sports Complex on Sunday afternoon.

Medugno's six-save outing was her highest output of stops in a single match since making seven saves against Princeton on Sept. 22, 2023, in the program's first Ivy League contest.

The clean sheet for Medugno increased her career total to 5.5, one-half clean sheet shy of matching Meghan Cauzillo (1997-00) and Meghan Kennedy (2015-18) for the 10th-most shutouts in Big Red program history.

Maggie Ousouljoglou stopped all five Cornell shots she faced in the draw for Lehigh (1-3-2) as senior defender Lily Ellingson, senior midfielder Peyton Nichols, senior forward Laken Gallman, junior midfielder Tanum Nelson, and sophomore forward Emily Gibbons registered the shots on goal for the Big Red (1-1-3).

"I thought we showed a strong mindset and attitude to playing the game in front of us and created the better of the chances to score goals," Ferguson said. "At the other end, I thought Nat and the back line limited them to only a couple of moments where they got in behind and Nat came up big time to deal with them well.

"Fair play to Lehigh. They were stout in how they defended, were compact, and had numbers behind the ball all afternoon. We have to work out ways to create one or two more chances when faced with that scenario."

Both teams registered three shots on goal over the opening 45 minutes. Medugno was tested early, scooping up a dribbling shot by Lehigh first-year forward Esther Brossard in the second minute.

Following the early shot by Lehigh, Cornell posted five consecutive shot attempts over an 11-minute span, which included all three of Cornell's shots on goal in the first half coming from Nelson (ninth minute), Gallman (16th minute), and Nichols (21st minute).

Late in the first half, a through-ball following a Lehigh throw-in led to a scoring opportunity for Aminah Baruwa. Medugno came off her line to cut down Baruwa's shooting angle and deflected Baruwa's shot attempt out of bounds.

"I felt like we controlled the game pretty well in the first 20 to 25 minutes," Ferguson said. "They wrestled a bit of momentum to finish the first half. I felt like we stayed on the front foot the majority of the 45 minutes, which was good to see from the attitude and mindset standpoint."

The first scoring chance in the second half came from Gibbons in the 54th minute on a great pass from senior forward Ava Laden, where Ousouljoglou nabbed Gibbons' right-footed shot from the left side of the penalty area.

Lehigh tallied three shots on goal in the second half, coming from Taylor Latini (74th minute), Brossard (78th minute), and Zoe Schutter (81st minute).

Brossard's attempt came on a close-range set piece following a Cornell foul on the edge of the 18-yard box near the left flank.

MATCH NOTES
• Sunday was the fourth meeting between Cornell and Lehigh. The draw marked the second time the programs played to a tie as the Mountain Hawks continue to own the lead in the all-time series, 2-0-2.

• The scoreless draw was Cornell's first contest to end without a goal since Oct. 15, 2022, when Cornell and Yale played to a 0-0 tie on Berman Field. It was Cornell's first road match to feature no goals since Sept. 9, 2021, when it drew with Syracuse in double overtime. Eleven of Cornell's last 15 matches that have ended with 0-0 scores have come in road contests, including seven of the previous nine occurrences.

• Cornell's streak of matches with a goal was halted at 10, remaining tied for the second-longest streak in program history.

LONGEST STREAK OF MATCHES WITH A GOAL
Cornell Program History
1. 13 matches (Sept. 10, 2003 - Nov. 1, 2003) — 28 goals (2.15 goals per match)
T2. 10 matches (Sept. 17, 1988 - Oct. 22, 1988) — 24 goals (2.40 goals per match)
T2. 10 matches (Sept. 24, 2000 - Oct. 24, 2000) — 18 goals (1.80 goals per match)
T2. 10 matches (Oct. 29, 2022 - Sept. 27, 2023) — 15 goals (1.50 goals per match)
T2. 10 matches (Oct. 4, 2023 - Sept. 8, 2024) — 15 goals (1.50 goals per match)
T6. 9 matches (Nov. 4, 1992 - Oct. 12, 1993) — 22 goals (2.44 goals per match)
T6. 9 matches (Oct. 13, 1996 - Sept. 13, 1997) — 24 goals (2.67 goals per match)

• Freshman Amanda Polyniak made her collegiate debut on Sunday, playing in the final seven minutes of the contest. Junior defender Izzy Scott made her season debut, appearing as a substitute for the last 15 minutes of the first half.

UP NEXT
Cornell will continue its two-match road swing on Thursday when it travels to Queens, N.Y., for an Empire State battle against St. John's (3-1-2). First touch between the Big Red and Red Storm is scheduled for 7 p.m. Match action will be broadcast on FloFC.

Thursday's match will be the fifth meeting between the New York-based programs and the first since a Sept. 17, 2022, meeting on Berman Field, which resulted in a scoreless draw.

St. John's owns the series lead, 2-0-2, and has held Cornell scoreless over 295-plus minutes of action between the programs. Emily Knight is the lone Cornell goal scorer against St. John's after registering an 85th-minute goal in the championship game of the 2002 ECAC Tournament, also held at Belson Stadium, which resulted in a Red Storm victory in penalty kicks following a 1-1 draw. The game-tying goal was scored with 55 seconds left in regulation by Erin Henderson to force overtime, setting up Katie Schantz to net the game-winning goal in penalty kicks.