Hosting the Bill Field Invitational this weekend, the women went 3-0, defeating defending national champion Kentucky in the final match, while the men finished 2-1, winning over Kentucky and Colorado State before falling to Virginia.

After knocking out Skidmore, 21-6, the women (10-0) faced U.V.A., a team they defeated on the road a week earlier. Going up against the Cavaliers for a second time, the Red was able to anticipate more of Virginia’s playing techniques, earning a decisive win, 18-4.

The Red started off the U.V.A. match with an 11-0 lead, before its opponent answered back with two goals of its own by the half.

 “It was good for us to go down there and see how they played, because then we were able to cater our team to our arena and our horses and focus on beating them strongly,” said junior Ali Hoffman.

The squad advanced to the championship match along with Kentucky, and defeated its rival, 21-15. Kentucky, returning with its complete national championship team, put up a strong effort and a tough fight, battling back and forth with Cornell for the lead.

“They are very rough when they play and very aggressive, but we are too and we know how to match them and their playing style. What helped us was how cleanly we played,” Hoffman said.

After Cornell took a 17-10 lead going into the fourth chukker, the Wildcats responded with four straight points, before the Red struck back with four goals of its own to pull ahead. Penalties proved to be one of Kentucky’s weaknesses.  

“We have more of an awareness of when we can push the boundaries on plays and when we can’t, and that really helped us,” Hoffman said. “It allowed Lizzie [Wisner] and Kayleigh [Sullivan] to go in and nail a lot of penalties to get us on the scoreboard more.”

“This tournament reflected what we’ve been working on. We’ve been looking to enhance our teamwork and play off of each other,” Hoffman said.  “[Coach David Eldredge] has been focusing on having us shoot to each other’s strengths and cater our individual games to one that everyone will be able to capitalize off of. That’s what is going to help us in the long run.”

The men started off their weekend with a win over Kentucky, 23-17.

“With the Kentucky match, [senior Max Constant], [sophomore Connor Pardell] and I started off the tournament really well and came out of the gates hard and came out running,” said sophomore Branden Van Loon. “We played consistently throughout the match which is something we’ve been focusing on.”

The squad started off holding a close lead, 6-3, and kept control of the pace for the rest of the match.

“We were converting our foul shots, we were playing intelligently as far as placing the balls well and we just kept the game moving,” Van Loon said. “We played in our own style of play instead of playing in Kentucky’s style of play.”

Colorado State took the early lead, 4-0, before the Red fought back and sped up its own play to eventually win the game, 24-20. The Red fought for the lead in the fourth chukker, before scoring nine goals to secure the lead, with five knocked in by Constant.

“They are a very quick team and they came out much quicker than Kentucky came out against us, and they caught us a little bit flat-footed,” Van Loon said. “But then we woke up and caught up.”

The men advanced to take on U.V.A. in the championship game. After losing to the Virginia by one point at its away match last week, Cornell was anxious to overtake its opponent, but fell to the Cavaliers, 19-10.

“We went into an area with U.V.A. that no team has gone so far this year, as far as at the half we were up by one. We had held them for five goals by the half and that [hadn’t] happened for another team so far this year against the U.V.A. men,” Van Loon said.

Cornell claimed a 6-5 lead at the half, but Virginia jumped ahead, 7-2, in the third chukker, eventually capturing the tournament win.

“We came into the second half really prepared to keep fighting because we knew they were going to come back just as hard and probably harder. They outperformed us in the second half,” Van Loon said.

“Very rarely do we get the chance to play a team that’s so talented … that when they decided to step up their game, it took us a couple of minutes to catch back up to the new speed that they were going,” Van Loon said. “The fact that we stayed close to them and actually led them for a period of time really bodes well for the national tournament.”