Women's Lacrosse Powers Past Marist, 18-12

Eldon Lindsay/Cornell Athletics

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – Behind an offensive explosion of 18 goals, the Cornell women's lacrosse team picked up its fourth consecutive win Monday afternoon with an 18-12 decision over Marist at Tenney Stadium at Leonidoff Field. This marks the most goals in contest for the Big Red since its 2017 season-opener against Villanova.

Leading the way was senior captain Sarah Phillips, who registered a career-high six goals.Tomasina Leska and Olivia Jensen also had a career days. Leska had a career-high three assists and five point, also a new career high. Jensen finished with a total four points with two goals and two assists, all of which are career highs. In total, the Big Red had seven players with multipoint performances.

Phillips opened the scoring with a goals just under five minutes into the contest, finding the back of
the net on an assist from Tomasina Leska. The Big Red added two more with a free position goal from Caroline Allen and an unassisted tally from Shannon Brazier to go ahead 3-0.

After Marist's Devon Connolly scored the Red Foxes' first goal of the afternoon, the Big Red responded with four unanswered goals.

Phillips started the burst with her second goal of the afternoon with 20:42 left in the opening stanza. Allen followed up with her second of the afternoon 45 second later to put the Big Red ahead 5-1. Phillips completed the first-half hat trick with a tally with 18:06 left with the helper credited to Olivia Jensen. Less than a minute later Jensen scored to give the Big Red the 7-1 advantage.

The Red Foxes then went on a scoring burst of their own, scoring six of the game's next seven goals. The last of Marist's first half tallies came with 54 seconds remaining in the half and cut the Big Red's lead to one.

Though, Marist's late score would not be last of the opening frame. Phillips scored a player up goal with just nine seconds remaining in the first half to give the Big Red some momentum heading into the break.

Cornell opened the second half with three straight goals in the first 3:24. Allen score the first before Grace Paletta netted a pair in the span of just over a minute, putting Cornell ahead 12-7.

Red Foxes leading-scorer Samantha Mehalick ended the Big Red's 4-0 scoring run with 24:31 left in the second half, but Phillips answered back 27 seconds later to give the Big Red its five-goal lead back. Tomasina Leska added to the lead with a goal just under three minutes later.

Marist looked like it might go on another scoring burst as it scored the contest's next two goals to cut the Big Red's lead to four just before the midway point of the second half. Cornell answered back with three straight goals, capped off by Leska's second goal of the afternoon.

Jensen netted her second goal of the game with 5:54 remaining to set her new career high and give the Big Red its most goals in a contest since Feb. 18, 2017.
  Katie McGahan started in net for the Big Red and made a total of six saves.

Cornell returns to action on Saturday when it takes on No. 17 Stony Brook at 1 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field.
 

NOTES TO KNOW

• Four consecutive wins is the most for the Big Red since 2017, when it won eight-straight from March 4-April 8.
• This was the first-ever meeting between the two schools.
• Freshman Genevieve DeWinter notched 10th goal of the season. She has scored a goal in each of the Big Red's contests this year.
• Allen registered her fourth four-point performance of the year with three goals and an assist.
• Leska's two goals is a season high.