ITHACA, N.Y. — Princeton scored twice on corner kicks in the opening 12 minutes of the second half before adding a late insurance goal for a 3-0 win over the Cornell women's soccer team in Ivy League play Saturday afternoon at a blustery Berman Field.
The Big Red fell to 5-6-2 overall and 1-3-0 in Ivy League play with three league matches left, while the Tigers improved their record to 6-5-1 on the year and is now 2-2-0 in Ancient Eight play.
Through 45 minutes, Cornell's game plan held. Junior defender
Amanda Polyniak tested Princeton goalkeeper Sydney Romano with a low shot to the bottom right corner in the third minute. It was the Big Red's only shot on goal of the afternoon. At the other end, freshman goalkeeper
Sofia Kerrigan made three first-half saves, stopping Julia Johnson's eighth-minute shot, Maddie Recupero in the 18th minute and Dylan Jovanovic's try in the 41st minute. Princeton generated five corner kicks in the half but couldn't convert any of them, as the teams went to the break scoreless. The Tigers held a slim 4-3 edge in shot attempts.
"Really good first half, really bad second half," said Cornell head coach
Rob Ferguson. "We spoke all week about outworking them, outrunning them, running faster than them and being sharper, and we did it really well in the first half. We didn't do it in the second half and they came out with extra energy. That changed the game."
Set pieces swung the match as Princeton earned back-to-back corners in the 46th and 48th minutes. On the second, Kayla Wong served the ball to the near post, where Stella Monberg headed in her sixth goal of the season. Wong produced nearly the same result in the 57th minute, this time finding Zoe Markesini at the far post for a header and Markesini's first goal of the year.
"The goals from set pieces were disappointing," Ferguson said. "I think they're the first ones we've conceded from set pieces this year, besides PKs. We had highlighted one of the players who scored as a threat in those moments, so that's disappointing as well."
Cornell's lone shot attempt of the second half came from junior midfielder
Lauren DiPierri, whose attempt in the 54th minute sailed over the crossbar. Princeton outshot Cornell 7-1 after halftime and earned all six corners in the half. Kerrigan kept the deficit at two with a save on Blane McElroy in the 82nd minute, but Jovanovic sealed it in the 86th minute, running onto a through ball from Johnson and finishing with her right foot for her fourth goal of the season.
"I thought we defended really well in the first half," Ferguson said. "Our block was set in a really good part of the field, and that comes from having the ball and moving it into the attacking part of the field. We didn't do that well in the second half. In games like this, you have to work harder than them, and you have to win first balls and second balls. The team that does that generally comes out on top, and they did it in the right moment."
For the match, Princeton held advantages of 11-4 in shot attempts, 8-1 in shots on goal and 11-1 in corner kicks. Kerrigan finished with four saves across 90 minutes, while Romano and Cecilia Cerone split time in goal for Princeton and shared the clean sheet.
Cornell returns to action next Saturday, Oct. 24, when it wraps up its three-match homestand against Penn (6-5-2, 1-2-1 Ivy). Kickoff between the Big Red and Quakers is set for 1 p.m. at Berman Field, with match action streaming on ESPN+.
