Box Score
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell used a 4-0 run midway through the second half to take the lead and held on for a 10-9 win over Colgate on Wednesday evening at Tyler's Field. The victory evened the Big Red's record at 1-1, while the Raiders dropped to 1-2. The win was Cornell's 11th straight in the series.
Shannon McHugh scored three goals, while Katie Kirk had two scores and Libby Johnson added a goal and an assist for the Big Red, which got goals from seven different players in the win. Kristen Reese and Kyla Dambach combined for time between the pipes, making four saves. The Big Red held a decisive 31-21 edge in shots and a 9-4 advantage in free-position attempts while forcing six bad Colgate clears while advancing the ball 12-of-14 times. The Raiders won 11-of-21 draws and held a narrow 15-14 decision on ground ball wins.
Christina Roa was solid against strong Big Red pressure, making nine saves in the cage. She was backed up on the other end by Meghan Lawler's five points (goal, four assists) and three points apiece from Kate Bergstrom (three goals) and Colleen Bubnack (two goals, assists, five ground balls).
Despite out-shooting Colgate by a 2:1 margin in the first 30 minutes, the Big Red could only muster a 4-4 tie at the break thanks to seven first-half saves by Roa. Johnson scored a goal and added an assist, while Reese made a pair of stops for the Big Red.
Jessi Steinberg won the first two draws of the contest to set the tone early for Cornell, and Shannon McHugh put the Big Red on the board just 51 seconds into the contest. Johnson scored her third goal of the season two minutes later to put the visitors up 2-0 with just 2:41 off the clock. A turnover by the Raiders on the ensuing possession led to a leak-out and score by Katie Kirk to make it 3-0 just over a minute later as Cornell's offense continued to settle in.
Colgate finally stemmed the run with a Courtney Miller score, answering Kirk's goal just 29 seconds later to make it 3-1 with 25:43 left on the clock. That set up a 3-0 Colgate run to knot the score with 8:30 to play on a free-position score by Bubnack. Caroline Helmer put the Big Red back ahead 4-3 with 7:14 left in the half, but Colgate knotted the score again at 4-4 when Meghan Lawler found Kate Sullivan for a score with just over three minutes remaining before halftime.
Cornell held the big advantage in shots (18-9), but Roa was able to neutralize that statistic. The home team won five of nine draws and caused two turnovers to just one for the Big Red.
The lead was traded back and forth with the Raiders taking leads at 5-4 and 6-5 before Cornell knotted it up each time. The Big Red regained the lead with 16:09 left when Kirk scored on a free-position shot to make it 7-6. The Cornell run continued less than a minute later when Shannon Tierney caught a pass from Morgan Axenfeld and buried it to extend the lead to 8-6, then grew to 9-6 on a free-position goal by Olivia Knotts.
Lawler took a feed from Bubnakc to get one score back and made it 9-7 with under 15 minutes to play. Colgate was able to cut the lead to one on a free-position goal after a loose ball scramble when Bergstrom connected for the hat trick. That triggered a goalkeeper change for Cornell, as Kyla Dambach entered the game with 13:45 remaining for her first appearance of the season.
The Big Red got a little breathing room, regaining a two-goal lead when Lauren Halpern found the back of the net for her first career score with 5:45 remaining, but again, the Raiders responded. Sullivan scored with 4:29 left to cut the deficit to 10-9. Colgate won the draw and Quincey Spagnoletti drew a foul to eanr a free-position shot, but Dambach made the doorstep stop with just over three minutes to play. A Big Red turnover gave the ball bacl to the home team, and Colgate called a timeout with 1:53 remaining to set up a potential game-tying play. Dambach redirected a wide shot with a minute to play and Cornell won the ground ball, running out the final minute despite Colgate pressuring all over the field.
The Big Red returns to action on Saturday, March 6 at noon when it faces Hofstra at Schoellkopf Field in the home opener.