Women's Lacrosse's Late Comeback Attempt Falls Short Against Cornell

After falling behind, 5-2, in the first half, the Harvard women’s lacrosse team (1-1, 0-1 Ivy) made a run to pull within one goal of Cornell early in the second. But the Big Red closed the game with a fury, putting away seven goals in the last 18 minutes to secure a 12-6 victory on Saturday at Soldiers Field Lacrosse Stadium.

“We came out a little slow against a very good Cornell team,” junior Jennifer VanderMeulen said. “They capitalized on our early turnovers. We started a nice comeback but then relaxed a little, and once again, Cornell continued to put the ball away, and we weren’t able to respond.”

The Big Red got on the board first when senior Olivia Knotts scored off an assist from senior Shannon McHugh 2 1/2 minutes into the contest.

Harvard responded quickly with an answer of its own. Junior Danielle Tetreault put away a score one minute later.

Cornell then exerted a dominant run, scoring four straight goals to grab a 5-1 advantage with 2:45 left in the half.

Freshman Lindsay Toppe started the Big Red run when she attacked the net and lofted a shot between two defenders and past the goalie for the score. Junior Caroline Salisbury ripped a shot past the Crimson goalie, giving Cornell a 3-1 lead. Salisbury followed by bouncing in a free-position shot.

“It’s all about momentum and building off your run,” VanderMeulen said. “That’s when you become a really good team, when your run turns into a consistent game plan.”

Tetreault finally brought an end to the Big Red run with 1:40 to go in the half, firing a low free-position shot that was initially stopped by the goalie before rolling into the net to bring the Crimson within three, 5-2 at the half.

“The first half it takes some time to feel things out, and we have struggled with this in the past as a team,” VanderMeulen said. “In this game I think we came out trying to feel them out. We definitely need to come out harder from the start and avoid the need to catch up.”

For the opening minutes of the second frame, it appeared as if the Crimson had moved past its first-half woes. VanderMeulen started the comeback surge by finding sophomore Jenn Leffew cutting in front for a score.

The Crimson maintained the momentum as Leffew cut to the goal, drawing the defense before finding junior Micaela Cyr in front of the goal. Cyr flung the ball into the net, pulling Harvard within one with 19:51 to go.

“We started to work together as a team and understood that we can’t win individually,” VanderMeulen said. “When we started working together we pumped each other up, and that’s when we started putting some goals away and making a comeback.”

The Crimson had several good opportunities to tie the game up a minute later, but Big Red goalie Kelly Weis kept Harvard off the board. Cornell then extended its lead to three, as senior Jessi Steinberg scored consecutive unassisted scores.

“There was a point at 5-4 where we were within reach but then unable to build upon momentum. It’s a point we need to look back on to figure out what went wrong,” co-captain Melanie Baskind said. “Unfortunately, and credit to their team, they were able to respond to the effort we brought out in the start of the second half.”

Cyr orchestrated one last comeback attempt by winning the ensuing draw control, sprinting in front of the Cornell defense, and rifling a low bounce shot past the goalie to pull the Crimson back within two goals.

But that was as close as Harvard got. The Big Red closed out the game with a 6-1 run that ended the Crimson’s hopes of a comeback.

Harvard is anxious to get back on track Tuesday when they take on James Madison at home.

“How we respond to this game is going to be huge,” Baskind said. “The hope right now is that we are going to study this game and really learn from it as a team. We need to take a step back and focus on the things that went wrong that we will be able to improve upon. Every season has its highs and lows, but the lows are really only defined at the end of the season by how much you were able to take from them.”

—Staff writer Cameron Dowd can be reached at camerondowd14@college.harvard.edu.