ITHACA, N.Y. - Junior Courtney Farrell tied a school single-game record with six assists and added two goals as No. 16 Cornell exploded for a 19-7 win over Central New York rival Colgate on Wednesday afternoon at Schoellkopf Field. The win evened Cornell's record at 1-1, while Colgate slipped to 0-3 with the loss.

Farrell's six assists tied former teammate Allison Schindler '06 and Linda Miller '84 for the single-game record, while her eight points was also a career high. Four of her assists led to goals by classmate Noelle Dowd, who found the back of the net a total of five times. Dowd added two assists for a career-best seven points. Junior Katherine Simmons also had five goals to go along with four ground balls. Senior Alison McKeown notched two goals, while freshman Kathryn Dewey had a goal and an assist for her first collegiate points. The 19 goals was the most by a Big Red team since defeating Delaware 19-4 during the 2003 campaign.

Cornell dominated the draw, winning 20-of-27, including 11 of the 13 draws in the decisive first half. The Big Red also dominated in shot (38-23). Senior Margaux Viola won four draws to go along with a goal, while junior Amanda Linnertz won three draws. Senior Ashleigh Smith caused a pair of turnovers in the victory. In goal, Renee Hughes played the first 47:53, allowing six goals and making seven saves with four ground balls before giving way to senior Mary Montague, who allowed one goal and made a save with a ground ball in the final 12 minutes.

Molly Carroll and Ashley Didio each had two goals for the Raiders, who held a 23-16 edge in ground balls. Carroll filled up the stat sheet with four ground balls, three draw controls and three caused turnovers as well. Sara Drexler made some spectacular saves en route to 12 stops, but was victimized by Cornell's crisp passing attack that assisted on nine of the 19 goals.

Coming off an 11-10 overtime loss to Rutgers, the Big Red came out fired up, but the visiting Raiders struck first blood with consecutive goals by Didio and Lindsay Pittard, younger sister of Cornell men's lacrosse player Eric Pittard. Trailing 2-0 just 4:15 in, the Big Red wasted no time turning the game around, scoring the next four goals, including a score by defender Lis Christie in transition. After Colgate whittled the lead to 4-3, Cornell went on a 3-0 run with Dewey, Dowd and Simmons scoring to make it 7-3. The Raiders scored with 2:29 left in the half on Carroll's first score of the night, but two deflating goals in the final nine seconds by Cornell silenced any upset ideas Colgate might have had. Farrell assisted on a Simmons goal with nine second left, and then after a long draw ended in the stick of Dowd, the junior fed a streaking Farrell who deposited the goal with two seconds left on the clock to make it 9-4.

The second half was all Cornell, as the defense featuring Ashleigh Smith, Lis Christie, Kelly Hansen and Jessica Dwinell held Colgate without a goal for the first 15:37 and opening the half on a 5-0 run thanks to five different goal scorers. When Carroll's second goal of the game with 14:23 left on the clock made it 14-5, Cornell began to substitute liberally. Consecutive scores by the Raiders with less than 12 minutes to play narrowed the advantage to eight (15-7), but the Big Red ran off the final four goals, including one by Farrell and two more to Dowd that she assisted on to tie the record.

Cornell returns to action when it plays host to No. 7 Notre Dame on Sunday, March 4, at noon at Schoellkopf Field.

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2007-02-28