On Saturday, Feb. 19, the Villanova women’s lacrosse team lost to Cornell University, 14-9. This was the Wildcats’ third straight loss to open the season. 

The leading scorer for the Wildcats was junior midfielder Addie Fischer, who scored three goals. In addition, senior midfielders Alexa Tsahalis and Caroline Curnal provided two goals each for the team, and fellow senior midfielder Libby McKenna scored one. The final scorer for the Wildcats was junior attacker Cara Moreau, who scored once. It was also senior goalkeeper Alexa Moro’s debut for the season, and she saved 14 shots. 

The Wildcats started the game with the majority of the possession but turned the ball over, resulting in a Big Red breakaway. Down at the Wildcat net, Cornell was fouled, which led the way for Maggie Pons to score the first goal of the game from a free position attempt. Only a minute later, the Big Red scored again, when Katie Castiello fired the ball in the back of the net off an assist from Genevieve Dewinter to jump out to a 2-0 advantage.

Moro was able to help the Wildcats hang on in the first quarter with a couple of key saves after Cornell continually bombarded the Villanova goal with shots. However, Dewinter scored again with 3:29 left. The Wildcats were quick to respond as Tsahalis provided an assist to McKenna, which allowed her to score the team’s first goal of the game. This did not affect the Big Red for long, as they scored three straight goals within the last two minutes, ending the first quarter with a 6-1 lead. 

The Wildcats started the second quarter more aggressive, as Fischer scored two goals off free-position attempts. However, the Big Red was able to cut this streak short by going on a 4-0 scoring run, sending the Wildcats back to the locker room trailing 10-3. 

The start of the third quarter was stagnant at first, with neither team making any leeway until six minutes in when Fischer scored her third goal off a free-position shot to try to keep the Wildcats in the game. The Wildcats kept this run going, scoring two more goals in the next three minutes and cutting the lead to four. The first goal was from Tsahalis on an assist by Curnal, who then turned around a minute later and scored a goal for herself off a free-position attempt. 

Nevertheless, the Big Red were able to regroup and respond to these two goals, as Amanda Cramer found Sophie Ward who got the ball past Moro. However, it was during this quarter that Moro allowed her team to stay in the game as she made multiple key saves in the net and held Cornell to only one goal. The end of the third quarter left the Wildcats down, 11-6. 

At the start of the fourth quarter, Cornell built its lead with an early goal by Brazier, followed by another goal for Ward, making it 13-6. The Wildcats were not done yet, as they countered with three goals of their own. The first was scored by Curnall after an assist from freshman attacker Grace Gately. With this assist, Gately secured her first collegiate point as a Wildcat. The second was scored off a free-position attempt from Tsahalis, and the last came from Moreau with seven minutes left in the game. The remaining minutes of the game did not have too much action until the final minute of the game where McKenna received a yellow card by one of the referees, and she was removed from the field with 56 seconds left in the game. About five seconds later, the last goal of the game was scored by Cornell’s Castiello.

The Wildcats will be back at home on Wednesday, Feb. 23 when they will face George Washington University at noon. These two teams have not met in more than a decade, with their last match occurring on March 14, 2012, which the Wildcats lost, 11-7. The game will also be streamed on FloSports.