ITHACA, N.Y. -- On Senior Day, Courtney Farrell (Fayetteville-Manlius HS) etched her name in the Cornell record books and the Big Red won a key Ivy League contest with an 8-6 victory over No. 14 Yale on Saturday afternoon at Schoellkopf Field. The Big Red won its fifth straight to move to 9-4 (4-2 Ivy), while the Bulldogs ended their season at 11-5 (4-3 Ivy).

Farrell scored a pair of goals to end her afternoon with 206 career points, two more than former national player of the year finalist Jaimee Reynolds '02. Her game-tying score just 1:24 into the second half was the record breaker. Tissy O'Connor added two big goals early in the second half, while Kathryn Dewey was a dominant force with a goal and two assists in the Big Red victory.

Not to be outdone, the defense was exceptionally strong in front of sophomore goalkeeper Kristen Reese, who stopped eight shots in improving to 4-1 on the year. Reese added an interception and a ground ball in the victory. The core unit of Amanda Linnertz (Cicero-North Syracuse HS), Kelly Hansen, Tissy O'Connor and Deirdre Lafferty was joined by midfielders Katherine Simmons and Morgan Hale in playing lock-down defense on the Bulldogs, limiting All-Ivy selection Lauren Taylor to just two goals and three shots, one coming on a free-position attempt.

Senior Charlotte Schmidlapp won four big draw controls and classmate Noelle Dowd won three ground balls, while Simmons came up with a goal and an assist. Freshman Libby Johnson (Skaneateles HS) scored twice, including cashing in on a free-position attempt that gave the Big Red momentum heading into the break.

Yale jumped out to a 3-1 lead in a low-scoring first half on the strength of two free position goals, one each by Taylor Fragapane and Jessica Sturgill. The Big Red scored on a free-position shot of its own when Johnson broke a nearly 15-minute scoring drought by beating Ellen Cameron with a perfectly placed shot to make it 3-2 with 3:19 left. The game would go into halftime with that score, setting up a strong second half effort.

Reese came up big after the break, asserting herself with six saves in the final 30 minutes. The momentum from Johnson's goal came through after halftime, as that launched a 5-0 and 7-1 run that turned a two-goal deficit into a four-goal lead when Johnson scored on a pass from Simmons with 12:43 left. Farrell's score just 1:24 into the half tied the contest, and O'Connor's goal just 52 seconds later gave the home team its first lead of the game at 4-3. Dewey then gave O'Connor a great feed and the sophomore buried the shot past Cameron to make it 5-3.

A goal by Dewey from the arc was the first of three consecutive free position goals, with Yale's Taylor breaking the Big Red run with her 40th tally of the season with 22:38 left on the clock. Farrell answered back after another eight-minute defensive struggle to push the lead back to 7-4, and when Johnson capped off the Big Red scoring 1:41 later it was all up to the defense for Cornell. The Bulldogs scored on a Taylor goal from a feed by Jenna Block with 7:43, but then couldn't capitalize again until Block scored with 1:30 left. Schmidlapp won the ensuing draw for Cornell and the home team ran out the clock.

Cornell returns to action on Tuesday, April 22 at 7 p.m. when it meets Syracuse in the home finale at Schoellkopf Field.

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Two teams looking for a win to build a case for an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament collided Saturday afternoon at Schoellkopf Field, and in the end No. 18 Cornell emerged with an 8-6 win over No. 14 Yale. The Bulldogs held an early 3-1 lead but were outscored 7-1 in a span of just over 20 minutes from the end of the first half until late in the second half. Two late goals by the Bulldogs were not enough to overcome the deficit.

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2008-04-19