By Eric Weiss

Senior Writer

The women’s soccer team suffered two tough losses at home this week, losing to Cornell 2-0 Sunday and to Mount St. Mary’s 3-0 on Wednesday.

The Bison and the Big Red traded blows in the first half but neither scored. The Ivy League school decided to quicken the pace in the second half, but Colleen Garrehy ’12 made three saves to preserve the stalemate.

Cornell scored at the 57:17 mark as a midfielder ripped a shot past Garrehy. The Bison almost equalized later in the half when Liz Dwornik ’14 found open space in the penalty area but Cornell’s goalie made a save to deter the effort.

Although Cornell scored again in the 71st minute, the Bison kept battling. Kelliann Doherty ’11 was robbed by the Cornell goalie with less than nine minutes to play as a lunging save preserved the shutout for the Bison.

“We are still not fully healthy, but when our team gets up to full speed we should be quite a force,” Doherty said.

In the game against Mount St Mary’s the Bison punished their opponent with 21 shots. The Mount goalkeeper was stalwart, making eight saves to secure the shutout for the visiting team.

In the first half the Bison played to a 0-0 score but controlled the pace most of the time. Mount St. Mary’s played an extremely physical game, with 18 fouls called against them compared to the Bison’s four.

In the second half Mount St. Mary’s exploded for a flurry of goals beginning in the 58th minute. By the time the home team had a chance to look up, Mount St. Mary’s had tacked on three goals in 10 minutes. The Bison dropped the contest 3-0.

The Bison will have one more weekend of non-Patriot League action as they play Marist and Iona before they begin their quest for a league title.

“We are very optimistic going into the Patriot League and we know that these games will help us be great in the long run,” Jules Harris ’11 said.