Meg Ryan’s Two Goals Propel Field Hockey to 4-3 Victory

Tuesday, October 24

Ithaca, NY

7:00 p.m.

Syracuse University

Cornell

Senior forward Meg Ryan scored twice in the victory

Meg Ryan’s Two Goals Propel Field Hockey to 4-3 Victory

10/24/2006 9:48:43 PM | Field Hockey

Box Score

ITHACA, N.Y. – Senior forward Meg Ryan (Lancaster, Pa.) scored twice as the Syracuse University field hockey team defeated Cornell, 4-3, in overtime this evening at Schoellkopf Field. The win improves the Orange to 9-9, while the Big Red move to 5-8.

“We were down 2-1 and they scored with 20 seconds remaining to send the game into overtime, but we just kept coming back,” said head coach Kathleen Parker. “Individually Meg Ryan was terrific in the middle and Alison Babbitt had a lot of touches.”

Cornell’s Katlyn Donoghue scored a goal with 20 seconds remaining in the contest to force an extra period, but sophomore forward Alison Babbitt (Spencer, N.Y.) score the game winner at 74:24 when senior back Michelle Sola (Blandon, Pa.) stole the ball deep in the Cornell defensive end and streaked up field on a breakaway. Big Red goalie Shannon Prescott charged off her line, forcing Sola to center the ball back to the middle of the field where Babbitt one-touched it into the back of the net.

Just moments earlier, Cornell had forced overtime when the Big Red was awarded a penalty corner with less than a minute to play. Lindsay Moyer ripped a shot towards the center of the net, where Donoghue was set up in front of sophomore goalkeeper Heather Hess (Lititz, Pa.). Donoghue managed to get a stick on the shot and popped it up, and over the stick of Hess to knot the game at 3-3 at 69:40.

Syracuse got on the board first, scoring at 29:17 when Ryan stole the ball from a Big Red defender and sent a perfectly placed shot into the far, left hand corner of the goal.

Cornell responded just over three minutes later when Sarah Miller carried the ball down the right sideline, turned her defender along the endline and then centered a pass back to the middle of the crease. Lizzie Auer had her initial shot saved by Hess, but Mandy Malzberg collected the rebound and sneaked the ball past Hess to even the score at 1-1.

The Big Red would break the stalemate at 46:23 when Moyer and Donoghue would score on a penalty corner in the same exact manner as the tally that sent the game into overtime.

Cornell carried the 2-1 lead late into the second period before back-to-back goals by Syracuse in the final six minutes of regulation gave the Orange the 3-2 advantage. The first goal came on a penalty corner attempt for Syracuse. The ball was pushed in to Sola, who sent a long pass across the mouth of the goal to sophomore forward Brittany Shannon (Ronks, Pa.), who played it into the far post to tie the game at 2-2 at 64:28. Less than three minutes later, the Orange would go up, 3-2 when a shot by junior back Brittany Angellella (Manahawkin, N.J.) was saved by Prescott, and Ryan made a lunging dive at the rebound, pushing it over the goal line.

Syracuse outshot the Big Red, 16-11, including a 4-0 margin in the second half, but Cornell held a slim 7-5 advantage in penalty corners. Hess stopped three shots in the victory, while Prescott made seven, including on in the overtime period.

The Orange will conclude its 2006 campaign with a road game at Dartmouth on Sunday, October 29 at 1 p.m.