Women's lacrosse climbs atop Ivy League with clutch 8-7 win over Cornell

After dragging behind the Big Red for the first 45 minutes of Saturday’s game at Sherrerd Field in the Class of 1952 Stadium, the Princeton women’s lacrosse team (9-3 overall, 4-0 Ivy League) bounced back to claim the title for first in the Ivy League and to beat No. 20 Cornell 8-7 (10-2, 4-2). The team remains undefeated in their conference and is ranked No. 11 in the NCAA.

Before the game, junior midfielder Olivia Hompe commented that the team’s goal was first and foremost to beat Cornell, but also to avoid the stress of a one-goal victory — which has been the ending result of five of their games already this season. The team’s objective was to compete consistently throughout the entire game and, as Hompe said, “to play a full 60 minutes.” However, it seems as though the Tigers cannot escape this stressful pattern, as Saturday’s triumph was far from a steady game but rather a nail-biter until the very end.

Cornell began the game strong with a goal from Olivia Mattyasovszky, who proved to be a force to be reckoned with as she scored once more about 15 minutes later and again at the end of the game. The Tigers were able to respond to this first goal almost immediately with a goal from sophomore midfielder Abby Finkelston, but this would be one of the Tigers’ only two goals in the first half. Cornell was able to score two more goals before junior defender Amanda Leavell netted her fourth goal of the week. The Big Red then scored a fourth goal to leave the Tigers at a two-goal deficit going into halftime.

In the second half, the team shifted their offensive strategy by substituting in some different players. Sophomore midfielder Ellie McNulty said that this season, one of the greatest lessons these nail-biting victories have taught the team is “the importance of taking care of the ball at the end of the game and finishing out the game strong.” McNulty certainly proved this to be true as she notched two goals past Cornell’s goalie in the second half of the game. Each one of McNulty’s goals was set up by freshman midfielder Kathryn Hallett, who was one of two underclassmen who stepped up to the plate in this tough game. Finally, 14 minutes into the second half, freshman attack player Allie Rogers scored to give the Tigers their first lead of the game with a score of 6-5.

Princeton’s four-goal run was broken by a goal from Mattyasovszky, but the Tigers still fought and finished off the game with two goals in the last four minutes from Hompe and Cornell’s Taylor Reed to clutch the victory with a final score of 8-7.

This was an extremely exciting and important game for the whole team, but especially for junior goalie Ellie DeGarmo, who achieved a career-high record of 16 saves. Considering the fact that Cornell outshot Princeton, outperformed them on five of the draws and beat the Tigers by eight on ground balls, DeGarmo’s saves were definitely a critical factor in the team’s thrilling victory.

The Tigers have a tough stretch of Ivy League games ahead of them, battling against Penn, Columbia and Brown in their next three games. Wednesday’s game against the Tigers’ long-time rivals, the Penn Quakers, will be at home at the Class of 1952 Stadium at 7 p.m. The game will be covered by ESPN 3 and the Ivy League Digital Network.