Cornell's field hockey team will make its second Ivy League Tournament appearance Friday, facing ninth-ranked Princeton at 2:30 p.m. at Harvard's Berylson Field in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The third-seeded Big Red enter at 7-9 overall and 4-3 in the league, according to Cornell Athletics. A victory over the second-seeded Tigers would put Cornell in Sunday's championship game, one win from the Ivy League's automatic NCAA Tournament berth. Both tournament days will stream on ESPN+.
Cornell returns after two tiebreaker misses
The Big Red finished among the league's top four in each of the past two seasons but missed the tournament both times on tiebreakers. Their only previous appearance came in the inaugural tournament in 2023, when Princeton won their semifinal 1-0 at Harvard on an Ottilie Sykes penalty corner. Six current Cornell players appeared in that game.
Cornell secured this year's berth when Princeton beat Columbia the night before the Big Red's regular-season finale. A 3-2 victory at Penn on Oct. 31, combined with Harvard's win over Yale, then settled Cornell into the third seed.
Senior Julia Ramsey scored the winner against Penn with 1:06 left. Junior goalkeeper Martha Broderick made 11 saves and tied Cornell's career record with her 25th victory. The win followed a 6-1 victory at New Hampshire, giving Cornell two consecutive wins entering the tournament.
Top-seeded Harvard, the regular-season champion and host, is 15-1 overall and 7-0 in Ivy play. It faces fourth-seeded Yale, 12-3 and 4-3, in Friday's first semifinal. Cornell beat Yale 3-2 on Sept. 26. The championship is Sunday, Nov. 8.
Princeton brings an eight-game winning streak
Princeton is 12-4 overall and 6-1 in conference play after finishing as the 2025 NCAA runner-up. The Tigers have won eight straight games and lead the series against Cornell 40-6-3, including the past 10 meetings. Cornell's most recent victory was a 3-2 double-overtime win on Oct. 29, 2016.
The teams' Oct. 16 meeting in Ithaca went to overtime before Princeton prevailed 2-1. Uma Käding scored on a first-quarter penalty corner, assisted by Ramsey and Rease Coleman, but Cornell was outshot 26-2 and faced 12 penalty corners while earning two.
Broderick made a career-high 13 saves, including a penalty-stroke stop against Anna Faulstich in the third quarter. Sophia Grimm also recorded a defensive save. Molly Nye tied the game in the fourth quarter, and Pru Lindsey scored the winner 3:17 into overtime; Reese Milone assisted on both Princeton goals.
Princeton ranks third nationally and first in the Ivy League with a 0.69 goals-against average. Senior goalkeeper Olivia Caponiti has six shutouts, while Lindsey leads the offense with 10 goals and 24 points. Coaches Carla Tagliente and Dina Rizzo are 130-60 since taking over in 2016.
Big Red leaders approach career milestones
Cornell is the only unranked team in the tournament field, but it leads the Ivy League and ranks 16th nationally with 2.56 assists per game. Senior Coleman has 15 assists and ranks third nationally at 0.94 per game. Her 30 career assists leave her three short of tying Cari Hills for third in program history.
Käding, a junior, leads the league with 0.69 goals per game and has 10 goals and 23 points. Her 27 career goals tie Kelley Boutin for 10th at Cornell.
Ramsey holds the program's career assists record with 43 and has moved into the career top 10 with 69 points. Broderick needs one victory to hold the career wins record outright; her 215 career saves rank 13th in program history.
Head coach Andy Smith, in his seventh season, has 65 Cornell wins, third on the program's all-time list. His team now has another opportunity to get past Princeton and reach its first Ivy tournament final.
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