Penn senior co-captain Sara Shelley rallied the women's field hockey team Saturday afternoon in Ithaca, NY. Shelley's overtime goal, her first in collegiate play, led the Quakers to a 2-1 victory over Cornell. The Red and Blue are 2-0 in overtime games this season, and improved to 3-3 (1-1 Ivy) on the year.
All did not start out well, however.
"I think in the beginning we came out kind of slow," Shelley said. "We started playing more as a team later on. The chemistry kicked in at the end of the second half."
The Big Red (1-4, 0-2 Ivy) struck first, as Danielle Dunn tallied a goal with 14 minutes left in the first half. But Cornell's offense sputtered from that point. Shelley was involved with the tying goal, as she and junior Cara Calahan assisted junior Kristen Gray. Gray continued her three-game scoring streak with 18:37 left in the second half.
"In general everyone had a good game," Shelley said. "Our defense came up with some great saves. We had some good offense from our forwards."
Shelley and senior Liz Lorelli complemented Gray's five shots on goal with one shot on goal apiece. However, the Quakers could not capitalize on an overwhelming 15-3 advantage in penalty corners.
The contest was tied at 1-1 at the end of regulation, with both teams unable to come up with any offense. Shelley ended the offensive drought, as she scored 2:15 into overtime to catapult the Red and Blue to victory.
Penn sophomore Elizabeth Schlossberg made five saves in the cage, equaling her counterpart Lori Blutinger. Shelley deferred much of her success to Schlossberg's play.
"Our goalkeeper Liz Schlossberg made a huge save on a one-on-one in OT," Shelley said. "We were able to come up the field after that and score."
In comparing this to the Quakers' 3-1 loss to Harvard, Shelley acknowledged that Penn knew it had "a better team than Cornell. Harvard is a much better opponent than the Big Red."
The Quakers are optimistic of their Ivy League title chances with perennial favorite Princeton dropping a contest to Dartmouth. The 3-1 loss snapped the Tigers' 32-game Ivy League win streak, dating back to 1999.
The Red and Blue will face off with Rutgers at Franklin Field tomorrow night.
"We haven't played Rutgers," Shelley said. "They always have a pretty good team. They're definitely one of the hustle teams, so we want to keep our win streak up."
"Winning on Wednesday would be a huge boost, since it is a regional game and we will be playing a few more teams from our region in the next few outings."
