A day after being named to the Tewaaraton Trophy Watch List, senior Caitlin Slaminko scored six goals and the Cornell women’s lacrosse team held off a furious rally to defeat Brown 16-14 on Friday evening at Schoellkopf Field. The Big Red (5-1) handed the Bears (4-1) their first loss of the season in the Ivy opener for both teams.
Slaminko added an assist to her six goals for seven total points, while both Ella Wilmot (one goal, two assists) and Kylie Gelabert (two goals, one assist) had three-point nights. Slaminko added five draw control wins and Ellie Horner made five saves in picking up her 17th career victory in goal. The offense scored on 16 of its 26 shots and put 19 of its shots on goal in another accurate evening for the Big Red offense.
Sydney Rathjen notched three goals and four assists, while Greta Criqui scored four goals to lead six players with multi-point nights. Paige GIllen had a solid all-around night, posting five draw control wins, three ground balls and two caused turnovers. The Bears tried three different goalkeepers, collecting just three total saves.
Cornell held the nation’s top-scoring offense at bay most of the night and held a lead of three or more goals nearly the entire second half. That was a turnabout from the early stages of the game when Brown raced out to a 3-0 lead just five minutes in, before give consecutive goals to end the quarter put the home team ahead. The Bears would tie the contest at 5-5, but a 4-1 Big Red run put Cornel lahead for good.
The Big Reed led 16-10 when Maggie Pons cashed in on her eighth goal of the season with 4:48 remaining, but the Bears had one last run in them. Brown scored four goals over a span of 1:32 of game time and won the ensuing draw down two with a minute to play, but Cornell’s Annie Parker knocked down an attempted pass to get Cornell the ball back and the Big Red ran out the clock for the Ivy-opening win.
NEXT UP
The Big Red will welcome #7/6 Stanford to Schoellkopf Field on Sunday, March 9 at 12 p.m.
Kyle leads sports coverage and hosts the Concrete Jungle podcast. Have a lead or question? Send it to [email protected].