Strong second half secures women's lacrosse win over Ivy foe Cornell

Determination. It is what makes a team great — its ability to overcome difficulties and still come up with victories. Since its only loss of the season against Loyola, the women's lacrosse team has been on track and unbeatable. Aside from a difficult win over Penn State, the Tigers have beaten teams by no less than three goals. Saturday, Princeton paid a visit to Cornell and continued their streak of victories, leaving with another Ivy League win, 9-5.

Although the Big Red (6-1 overall, 2-1 Ivy League) scored first behind an unassisted goal from Jaimee Reynolds, the Tigers (6-1, 2-0) soon got into their game plan and took control of the contest. Junior attack Charlotte Kenworthy struck first with an unassisted goal, her first of the day. She was followed by goals from sophomore defense Rachel Becker and sophomore attack Whitney Miller, who was assisted by Kenworthy.

Cornell then managed to beat the Tiger defense and freshman goalkeeper Meghan McInnes to pull within one at 3-2. Princeton was undaunted, however, and answered with Kenworthy's second unassisted marker, pushing the score to 4-2. The Big Red took one step closer to the Tigers with less than a minute remaining in the half with a goal from Erica Holveck, making the Princeton halftime lead far from comfortable.

"There were some mistakes made that can be learned from and also great plays that can be remembered," McInnes said. "I don't believe that it was our best game but it was definitely one of the more exciting games."

Cornell came out with renewed intensity in the second half. After tying the game at 1-1 less than four minutes into play, it looked like the No. 14-ranked team would rally behind the goal to go for the win against No. 3-ranked Princeton. But through a captain-to-captain exchange — a great pass from senior midfielder Julie Shaner to junior attack Lauren Simone — the Tigers quickly put the ball in the cage against the Big Red goalkeeper. The goal would prove to be the game-winner. Cornell would never come close to the Tigers again. Freshman midfielder Theresa Sherry struck next, shredding the defense and scoring the next two goals for the Tigers, which helped put some distance between Princeton and the Big Red. Freshman attack Tara Hardiman scored the last goal with five seconds remaining off an assist from Miller.

"The game was close in the second half," head coach Chris Sailer said. "I am happy that our team was able to take control and win the game."

Two Tigers — Sherry and Kenworthy — each scored twice in the win against Cornell. Kenworthy finished with three points, including her assist in the first half. In addition, Hardiman posted her second game in a row in which she has scored.

The Tigers also had a strong performance from McInnes. Recovering from some difficult games earlier in the season, the freshman goalie finished with only five goals scored against her, in contrast to the 11 saves she made.

"I do believe that my confidence in the cage was greater," McInnes said. "Defense did their job, which made my job a little easier."

Princeton did make some mistakes though. The Tigers turned the ball over eight times but only caused seven turnovers. They also went 0-for-3 in free position shots.

With its second win in the Ivy League, Princeton moves up in the national rankings to the No. 2 spot right behind Maryland, whom the Tigers will visit on April 25th. The Tigers also now sit atop the Ivy League, tied with Yale at 2-0. In addition, their winning streak has now improved to five consecutive games. In fact, the Tigers have not been held to fewer than nine goals all season since the Loyola loss, and aside from the Penn State game, no team has scored more than seven goals against the Tigers.

"We're not really concerning ourselves too much with rankings," Sailer said. "We just want to get better every day and play the best that we can on the field. [The rankings] will get sorted out."