ITHACA, N.Y. -- Junior Uma Käding scored twice, including the game-winner in the fourth quarter, as the Cornell field hockey team held off Columbia 3-2 on Friday afternoon at Marsha Dodson Field in the Ivy League opener for both teams. Cornell improved to 2-4 overall and 1-0 in Ivy play, while Columbia fell to 3-2 and 0-1.
"I thought we played really well in the first quarter and really well in the fourth quarter," said head coach Andy Smith. "I am really proud of us today because we found a way to dig out a win."
The Big Red raced out to a 2-0 lead in the game's first 10 minutes. Käding opened the scoring just over five minutes in, finishing off a feed from senior
Rease Coleman. Sophomore
Stella Thibeault made it 2-0 five minutes later, redirecting a pass from classmate
Colomba Infante through the middle of the circle. The game went into the break with Cornell holding the two-goal advantage.
Columbia clawed back in the third quarter behind a pair of direct-hit penalty corner goals from Jacinta Solari Etcheberry, who tied the game at 33:49 off assists from Mckenzie Bloom and Morgan Dwyer, then leveled it again at 40:17 with helpers from Delfi Gonzalez Lobo and Dwyer to make it 2-2.
Cornell responded by taking over the game. After out-shooting the Lions 4-0 in the first quarter, it was an even more dominant 7-0 in the fourth. Käding delivered the go-ahead score, smashing a direct hit a penalty corner at 46:59 with assists from Coleman on the stop and senior
Julia Ramsey on the insert to put the home team back in front for good, 3-2. The Big Red pressed for insurance down the stretch but couldn't add to the lead, and Columbia's Margot Houle made a flurry of saves — four in the final quarter alone — to keep it a one-goal game.
Cornell out-shot Columbia 15-6 for the game, with Käding accounting for seven shots on her own. Senior goalkeeper
Martha Broderick made two saves to collect the win for the Big Red, while Houle finished with seven saves for the Lions.
The Big Red will go on the road for the first time in Ivy play when it visits nationally-ranked Yale on Saturday, Sept. 26 at 12 p.m. in New Haven, Conn.
