Women's Lacrosse Weekly Release - Week 4

Complete Women's Lacrosse Weekly Release in pdf format

Photos courtesy of Cornell Athletic Communications and Dartmouth Athletics Communications

PRINCETON, N.J. -- Two weeks into the Ivy League women’s lacrosse season and each squad has opened its conference slate. Four teams are undefeated in League play, with Cornell (4-0, 2-0 Ivy) standing at the top.

Dartmouth (4-1, 1-0 Ivy), Princeton (3-1, 1-0 Ivy) and Penn (1-3, 1-0 Ivy) are also unbeaten in Ivy action. The Big Red held Columbia (1-3, 0-2 Ivy) to its lowest scoring output of the season in a 14-7 victory and is now averaging 15.5 goals per game in conference play. In its other game on the week, Cornell took down Colgate, 17-5.

After dropping a heartbreaking 6-5 loss at Rutgers, its third-straight defeat, Penn picked up its first win of the season with a 14-5 victory over Harvard (0-3, 0-2 Ivy). Princeton opened its conference slate with an 18-11 win over Brown (3-1, 1-1 Ivy), marking the Bears’ first loss of the season.

The League continued its trend of tough non-conference games, as Dartmouth took on No. 21 Boston University and No. 2 Florida. The Big Green acquitted itself well, defeating the Terriers, 12-7, before falling in a hard-fought contest to the second-ranked Gators, 14-9.

Yale (3-2, 0-1 Ivy) went 2-0 on the week, with wins over Bryant (14-13) and Hofstra (9-7). The Pride came into the game in the receiving votes category of the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) poll, but were stymied by the Bulldogs’ defense, which held Hofstra to a season-low in goals.

The upcoming week features a number of big games. No. 14 Cornell will host No. 7 Penn State on Wednesday, while Columbia will take on Villanova. Then on Saturday, Princeton and Harvard will take to the road to face No. 8 Virginia and No. 4 Northwestern, respectively. The week closes with a matchup between No. 13 Dartmouth and No. 6 Duke in Durham, N.C., as well as a contest between Cornell and Albany, which was in the receiving votes category of the IWLCA poll at the beginning of the season. In the lone Ivy contest of the week, Yale will face Penn in Philadelphia on Saturday.

CO-OFFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Cornell continued its hot offensive start with 31 goals in two games last week, and sophomore Lindsay Toppe (Bedford, N.Y.) scored 10 of them. Toppe finished with a career-high six goals to lead her squad to a 17-5 win over Colgate, and then followed that with four goals in the Big Red’s 14-7 victory over Columbia.

Toppe takes home her second-straight Offensive Player of the Week award to become the first Big Red to earn back-to-back weekly awards since 2002, when Jaimee Reynolds accomplished the feat twice, earning Offensive Player of the Week on April 22 and 29 and Defensive Player of the Week on March 18 and 25.

Toppe’s Weekly Statistics
6G, 6 Pts., 2 GB, 2 DC, 1 CT, 75.0 Shooting % vs. Colgate
4G, 4 Pts., 1 DC, 1 CT, 100.0 Shooting % at Columbia

Dartmouth junior Liz Calby (Darien, Conn.) was involved in more than a third of her team’s scoring last week, finishing with four goals and four assists as the Big Green scored 21 goals in two games. Calby finished with two goals and two assists in each contest. She scored twice early in the first half of Dartmouth’s win over Boston U., with her second goal giving the Big Green a 5-1 lead it would not relinquish. Calby also scored each of her two goals in the first half against No. 2 Florida, the second bringing the Big Green to within one, at 5-4.

Calby earns her first career Ivy League weekly award and becomes the second Big Green to earn Offensive Player of the Week this season, joining Hana Bowers (Feb. 25). It marks the first time Dartmouth earned two Offensive Player of th Week awards in one season since 2005, when Whitney Douthett and Katie Lewis-Lamonica were the recipients.

Calby’s Weekly Statistics
2G, 2A, 4 Pts., 1 GB, 50.0 Shooting % at Boston U.
2G, 2A, 4 Pts., 2 GB, 66.7 Shooting % vs. Florida

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Penn went 1-1 on the week, but it was not for lack of effort from sophomore goalie Lucy Ferguson (Montclair, N.J.), who finished with 21 saves, a 5.50 GAA and a 65.6 save percentage as the Quakers fell at Rutgers, 6-5, before bouncing back to beat Harvard, 14-5.

Ferguson stopped seven shots in the loss to the Scarlet Knights and a season-high 14 in the win over the Crimson. She helped Penn build a 9-0 halftime lead over Harvard with seven saves in the first half. It marks the first career Ivy League weekly award for Ferguson.

Ferguson’s Weekly Statistics
1 GP-1 GS, 60:00 Mins., 6 GA, 6.00 GAA, 7 Svs., 53.8 Sv. %, 2 GB, 0-1 at Rutgers
1 GP-1 GS, 60:00 Mins., 5 GA, 5.00 GAA, 14 Svs., 73.7 Sv. %, 1-0 at Harvard

HONOR ROLL
Courtney Bennett, Dartmouth (Sr., M/D – Darien, Conn.)
1A, 1 Pt., 5 GB, 6 DC, 1 CT at Boston U.
1 GB, 4 DC, 2 CT vs. Florida

Paige Cuscovitch, Columbia (Jr., M – Longmeadow, Mass.)
3G, 3 Pts., 4 GB, 1 DC, 2 CT, 30.0 Shooting % vs. Cornell

Courtney Gallagher, Cornell (Sr., GK – Yardley, Pa.)
1 GP-1 GS, 60:00 Mins., 5 GA, 5.00 GAA, 6 Svs., 54.5 Sv. %, 3 GB, 1-0 vs. Colgate
1 GP-1 GS, 60:00 Mins., 7 GA, 7.00 GAA, 9 Svs., 56.2 Sv. %, 3 GB, 1 CT, 1-0 at Columbia

Bre Hudgins, Brown (Jr., A – Syracuse, N.Y.)
4G, 4 Pts., 1 GB, 4 DC, 57.1 Shooting % at Princeton

Lexi Mazur, Columbia (Fr., D – Media, Pa.)
4 GB, 2 CT vs. Cornell

Erin McMunn, Princeton (So., A – Westminster, Md.)
5G, 1A, 6 Pts., 1 GB, 2 DC, 55.6 Shooting % vs. Brown

Devon Rhodes, Yale (Sr., A – East Northport, N.Y.)
3G, 1A, 4 Pts., 1 GB, 2 DC, 50.0 Shooting % at Bryant
1G, 1A, 2 Pts., 100.0 Shooting % at Hofstra

Adrienne Tarver, Yale (Jr., D – Pikesville, Md.)
2 GB, 3 DC, 1 CT at Bryant
3 GB 1 DC at Hofstra

Audrey Todd, Harvard (Fr., A/M – Baltimore)
3G, 3 Pts., 2 GB, 1 CT, 42.9 Shooting % vs. Penn

Iris Williamson, Penn (Fr., M – Philadelphia)
2G, 2 Pts., 1 GB, 1 DC, 50.0 Shooting % at Rutgers
4G, 4 Pts., 66.7 Shooting % at Harvard

UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Tuesday, March 12
Sacred Heart at Yale, 4 p.m.
Holy Cross at Brown, 4 p.m.

Wednesday, March 13
No. 7 Penn State at No. 14 Cornell, 4 p.m.
Villanova at Columbia, 7 p.m.

Friday, March 15
Quinnipiac at Brown, 4 p.m.

Saturday, March 16
Columbia at Vermont, 11:30 a.m.
*Yale at No. 20 Penn, 12 p.m.
Princeton at No. 8 Virginia, 12 p.m.
Harvard at No. 4 Northwestern, 2 p.m.

Sunday, March 17
No. 13 Dartmouth at No. 6 Duke, 12 p.m.
^Albany at Cornell, 1 p.m.

KEY
*-Ivy League contest
^-at Baltimore