By Justin Paley
The No. 9 Pride women’s lacrosse team continued its impressive start to the season with a 14-7 win over the No. 20 Big Red of Cornell University on Saturday.
With the victory, the Pride improved to 4-0, tying the 1985 team for the best start in school history.
The Big Red took an early 1-0 lead nearly five minutes into the game.
That lead was short lived as the Pride scored seven straight goals and at halftime, led 7-1. Senior attack Jill Wienecke and sophomore midfielder Casey McGrath each had two goals during the run.
Pride women’s lacrosse head coach Shelley Klaes-Bawcombe stressed the importance of jumping out to early leads. “
The game of lacrosse is a roller coaster ride,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. “When you have a high powered offense, you can score a bunch of goals quickly and that can give you a lot of motivation and confidence. It’s been important to attack the cage. That was the mindset knowing Cornell was a team that was capable of beating us if we came out flat.”
As she has done the first three games, Klaes-Bawcombe started freshman goalie Maisie Osteen and replaced her at halftime with senior Lisa Papa.
Junior midfielder Becky Thorn gave the Pride an 8-1 lead just 38 seconds into the second half.
Cornell made it a contest in the second half, scoring five straight to cut the Pride lead to two at 8-6 with just over 18 minutes left in the contest. Kristen Smith scored three goals for the Big Red during the stretch.
“I felt we were losing control of the game because the referees were calling the game tighter,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. “We’re a fast, aggressive team and a lot of calls were going towards Cornell. We needed someone to settle us down. I made a crucial call to put Maisie Osteen back in. She gave us that one save we needed to calm the defense down and made us realize we were still in control of the game and that we could come up with a big win if we took our time.”
The Pride re-gained the offensive flow it showed in the first half and ended the game on a 6-1 run.
The offense was spread around as six different Pride players scored during the run. Wienecke, McGrath, and Thorn each scored their third goals of the game.
The defense was led by senior Bridget Eder, who tied for the game-high with five ground balls and had team-highs with four draw controls and three caused turnovers.
Osteen continued her solid play, finishing with seven saves in 49 minutes of action. Klaes-Bawcombe praised her freshman goalie. “She’s just an exquisite player,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. “She has raw talent, tremendous size and she is agile with that size. She’s intuitive in the cage and we seem to keep the other team from shooting when she’s in the cage.”
Osteen has earned the win in three of the Pride’s four games this year and has a goals against average of 4.31 and a save percentage of .643.
Klaes-Bawcombe said no one should be surprised by the Pride’s 4-0 start. “I do think people were expecting a good season from us as we returned every point from last season,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. “We have a lot of returning experience and talent and solid throughout our roster.”
The Pride earned its highest ranking ever as it was No. 9 in last week’s Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association Poll. Klaes-Bawcombe knows there are still a lot of tough teams ahead.
“It’s still early in the season,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. “We’ve had two good weeks of lacrosse. If we concentrate on hard work, defense, and everybody being a potent power for us, we can continue that early success the rest of the season.”
Kim Hillier and Becky Thorn jump for joy after scoring a goal in action last week. The Pride has a 4-0 record, the first time since 1985. (Photo Courtesy Athletic Dept.)