The field hockey team fought hard to take co-Ivy League leader Cornell to the wire but fell short in a 4-2 loss on Saturday on Warner Roof. The loss to the Big Red (10-4, 5-0 Ivy) leaves the Bears winless (0-5) in Ivy play and drops their overall record to 3-11. Still, they view it as an encouraging performance despite the loss.
"I'd definitely say it's disappointing, but it was another great day for us morally," said Katie Hyland '11. "We all stayed in it mentally and physically, (but) we just came up short."
The Bears had trouble kick-starting their offense in the first half, but they used a suffocating defense to stay close with only a 2-1 deficit at halftime, and then turned it up in the second half.
"We weren't generating in the first half as many attacking opportunities that we wanted to generate, but we were playing good defense, playing smart and communicating well," said Head Coach Tara Harrington '94. "In the second half, we played good defense and we were able to win the ball, and then we were able to connect it to our attack and start generating much, much more attack."
Cornell struck early after a penalty corner. Brown goalkeeper Caroline Washburn '12 stopped the initial shot, but the rebound bounced right to Sara Sanders, who knocked it home to give the Big Red the lead just 2:27 into the game.
But the Bears rallied to control a defensive half. Brown limited Cornell to just a 7-4 advantage in shots and prevented them from taking another penalty corner in the first half. Bruno tied the score at 21:42 on Brown's only penalty corner of the half. Leslie Springmeyer '12 pushed the ball in to the top of the circle, Michaela Seigo '10 stopped it and Hyland found the back of the cage, continuing a recent string of successful corner conversions.
"Our kids have really taken a mentality of, every attacking corner we have, we're executing," Harrington said.
It looked like the game might go to halftime tied, but Cornell took advantage of Bruno's defensive breakdown to take the lead with 2:24 left in the half. Kelley Kantarian took the ball up the left side of the field before passing to Catie De Stio, who was streaking to the right post. De Stio lifted a shot to the upper right corner of the net.
"I think it was just a little bit of a breakdown in communication," Hyland said. "They had really fast forwards, but we (couldn't) let that get us down.... I think we came back with a really good attitude of being ready to take them on in the second half."
The Bears came out strong to open the second half, but they were not able to tie the game. Kantarian scored at 14:25 to expand Cornell's lead, but Harrington said the Bears were not fazed by the deficit because they are confident in the team's growth.
"Believing in our improvement, believing in each other and believing in themselves, there was a confidence that they were going to find a way... and work as hard as they could to scrap back into that game," she said.
Just 3:42 after Cornell had scored, Brown answered on another penalty corner. Situated at the right post, Kit Masini '12 redirected a pass to the middle of the field, where Tacy Zysk '11 knocked it home to close to within 3-2.
"We didn't give up," Hyland said. "We kept hounding them and hounding them. Tacy found the back of the cage, and it really brought our morale up. (We thought), you know what, we can do this."
The Bears almost did tie the score, getting a golden opportunity with four penalty corners in a row with less than nine minutes remaining. Brown got several shots off but could not find the cage.
"We kept getting corner after corner," Hyland said. "We didn't let it out of the circle. It just was frustrating to not capitalize on any of them when that's what we're really good at."
Kantarian added another goal with 42 seconds left to seal the 4-2 victory for Cornell. The Big Red held a 13-7 advantage in shots in the final period, but the Bears won the penalty corners, 5-4, fulfilling a team goal. Washburn made 11 saves, while Zysk led the offense with three shots, but Harrington reserved her strongest praise for the defense, including center back Sara Eaton '09.
"She allows us to put the ball in to the inside pocket outletting it out of our backfield," Harrington said. "When that ball gets put in to her, she can receive it under pressure and get around people, or if the opponent steps towards her she can distribute it back to the outside.... She's been really helping us work the ball out of our backfield and link the ball from our backfield to our midfield, and even pushing up a lot and creating some attacking opportunities in our attacking end."
Another key to the defensive effort was the heady play of the forwards.
"Our front line, especially in the second half, was just relentless on tackling back and really trying to cause their side backs to turn the ball over," Harrington said. "Our forwards participated in helping us win the ball back in our midfield, and then breaking hard and wide quickly to help (the) counterattack."
Hyland and Harrington both said that playing so well against a strong Cornell team only adds to the team's growing confidence. The Bears will travel to Worcester, Mass., on Wednesday to take on the Holy Cross Crusaders (5-10) in their final non-conference game of the season.
"We're going to keep our attitude up," Hyland said. "This isn't going to faze us at all. Holy Cross doesn't know what's coming."
