ITHACA — They sat in a crowded semicircle, three rows deep, staring intently at a single computer screen in a small room at the Cornell fieldhouse. Their postseason fate lay in the hands of a group of coaches voting far from Central New York.

Some analyzed the selections. Others paced. Hands clasped. Silent prayers were uttered. Head coach Jenny Graap furiously filled in a makeshift bracket.

Then, like a late-night entry into Doogie Howser’s computer journal, the letter “C” flashed across the screen, followed by an “O”, then an “R.” And pandemonium erupted. Teammates hugged. Tears flowed. The celebration boomed loudly enough to impede Graap’s bracket progress, as letters became lines and scribbles. Cornell, a laughingstock of a women’s lacrosse program only four years earlier, had earned an NCAA Tournament bid, its first postseason trip in a 25-year women’s lacrosse history.

‘We really were surprised,’ senior defender Sarah Graham said. ‘It wasn’t a given. We weren’t sitting around expecting to get (the bid). Hoping, obviously. But it was such an amazing feeling. Then, everyone’s like, ‘Oh my God, this is the first time we’ve even gone.’ “

Growing pains

Life had never been this way before. Not at Cornell, a school known more for its men’s lacrosse and strong academics. Graap played lacrosse and field hockey at Cornell during the 1980s and knew firsthand the program’s shortcomings. When interviewing for the head job in 1997, she understood that a daunting task lay ahead.

No scholarships to give. Annual dates with Ivy League powers that routinely made the NCAA Tournament. And a returning nucleus that could be described as shaky at best.

‘Princeton and Dartmouth were obviously concerns,’ Graap said. ‘They were beating Cornell in the early 90s. Everyone was beating Cornell. You know, Penn. You name it, Yale. Knowing the strength of our men’s program, it just never made sense to me that women’s lacrosse couldn’t be an outstanding team at Cornell.’

So Graap went to work immediately, bringing in 17 freshmen to compete for open slots and putting in 80-hour workweeks that topped 100 hours during the recruiting season. Recruiting became issue No. 1.

Issue No. 2? Scheduling quality opponents, even if that meant losing games.

‘To be competitive, you have to match your team up against the best,’ said Syracuse head coach Lisa Miller, who has built the Orangewomen into a contender in five years of existence. ‘Early on, you’re probably going to take some hits and deal with losses, but you hope your kids can recover. It makes you more competitive on the national level. It makes your kids hungry for the next step.’

Those growing pains were apparent in Graap’s first season, when the Big Red finished 7-7. More than half the freshmen and some upperclassmen quit, but eight freshmen decided to stay to later form the foundation for Cornell’s most recent success.

Gaining ground

Senior captain Lori Wohlschlegel points to the Big Red’s victory over Harvard her freshman season — Cornell’s first defeat of Harvard in 19 years — as the turning point. As Graap’s first recruiting class prepared for its second season, it seemed logical that improvement would follow. Graap noticed that recruiting players was already becoming easier. There was less, ‘Come here, play right away and help me build something,’ and more of, ‘Look at what we’ve already got going.’

But building a program takes time and, fortunately, Graap and her core of young players had that luxury. They improved to 9-6, qualifying for the ECAC Tournament for the first time since 1993. Graap sees her team’s first crucial turning point in a 16-4 dismantling of Johns Hopkins in the league championship game.

‘They were a quality team, and we beat them really handily,’ Graap said. ‘I remember in that game just relaxing on the sideline, and they were doing it themselves. I wasn’t signaling in offensive plays. I wasn’t calling any tricky defenses. It was really just that everything was jelling, things were happening.’

In two seasons, Graap and her 1998 recruiting class had restored Cornell to national prominence. The progression seemed so linear, so mapped out, the closest thing to a rebuilding success anyone associated with the program had ever experienced.

‘We have cheers after every practice, and one time someone busted out and said we would make the tournament,’ junior attacker Sarah Averson said. ‘We were like, ‘Uh-oh, don’t jinx ourselves.’ We didn’t make it that year. The next year it was all that we were about, then we went to the ECACs again. So we’re like, ‘OK, well now we won, so we can’t just be in the ECACs again. What kind of accomplishment is that?’ ‘

The next season, following Averson’s line of logic, it seemed imminent that the team — led by a core of juniors and more talented underclassmen than ever before — would keep with its progression.

At one point, Cornell controlled its Ivy League destiny, needing only a win over Dartmouth to secure an automatic berth. Assistant coach Adrian Walters said then-No. 11 Cornell got caught up in the rankings hype, something the program had never experienced. A triple-overtime loss, followed by a loss at Syracuse, and the Big Red were traveling to face No. 7 Yale in a game ripe with NCAA Tournament implications.

Which brings us to Graap’s second turning point, a convincing yet improbable 11-6 victory over Yale that gave Cornell new NCAA Tournament life.

“It was one of those days where I felt like, ‘Bring it on. Bring any team on,’ “ Graap said. “ ‘Bring the University of Maryland on, the eight-time national champs.’ We just sort of had the karma, we had all of the things going in the right direction.’

A stream of text on a small computer screen surrounded by 30 girls that hadn’t been so anxious since prom night confirmed the Big Red’s fate. It was a different kind of date, yet a somewhat familiar one — Cornell would face its current nemesis, Princeton.

Only Cornell wasn’t ready for the school’s first tournament appearance. A team that’s only goal for three years was making the tourney wondered if it really belonged with the Marylands and Princetons.

‘The difference was we were so excited to be there but weren’t really sure how to handle being there,’ said senior defender Katie McCorry, who has started every game in her Cornell career. ‘It was just different.’

This team had set Cornell records for Ivy League place (third) and wins in a season (13), but against Princeton, it reverted to pre-Graap form. Some players describe it as embarrassing, others as humbling, but most refer to it as a learning experience.

‘That’s one of those ones that kind of haunts you,’ Graap said. ‘Only at special moments can you break (the tape) out and really look at it. What really plagued me is that when I do watch it, I notice the many really good things we did do.

‘What it comes down to is we’re still learning on the game field. That (game) was really frustrating. Again, that’s learning a lesson, when the price tag on the learning is really high.’

The next step

Along the way Graap has built the foundation upon which a solid program now stands. It all started with the eight seniors remaining from her first recruiting class.

“We really started from nothing,” said senior goalie Carrie Giancola, last year’s Ivy League Goalie of the Year. “We didn’t have anything to lose. We started off our freshman year just playing to win more games.’

As each team has gotten better, so has each recruiting class. Graap attributed a large part of that to the senior class, which sells the program for her. After an NCAA Tournament appearance, Graap no longer could rely on the rebuilding speech. With eight seniors in the starting lineup, freshmen have to wait their turn. And, ultimately, it’s the seniors that make them feel comfortable.

‘In high school, it was so segregated, intimidating,’ freshman midfielder Kristen Smith said. ‘They’ll hang out. They’ll call you. I don’t feel weird. I look up to them more than anyone, but at the same time, I’m really comfortable around them.’

They do so from the first practice in January until the end of the season, each year raising the expectations. Hard work is emphasized, along with an element of fun, usually at Walters’ expense. The only male associated with the program is not only the brunt of many jokes, he’s also had his lacrosse stick placed atop a climbing wall and chandelier and had his stolen cross-trainer served to him on a platter during a dinner stop at Brown two seasons ago.

‘I fell for it hook, line and sinker,’ Walters said.

With increased production has come what freshman Annie Berkery terms positive pressure, and each Big Red member feels it. Couple that with a stronger schedule featuring eight ranked teams and three top-10s, along with plane trips to Stanford and Notre Dame. Then add a No. 11 preseason ranking, and Cornell certainly is a different program what it was four years ago.

Now, an Ivy League crown and a tournament victory are the only ways for a team that lost only one senior to continue its progression. Because Graap’s ‘babies’ are almost grown up, there’s only one more chance for them to add to the foundation they’ve helped establish.

‘We are by no means satisfied with how we did last year,’ McCorry said. ‘This is our final go-around. It’s important. We have one more chance, for us, to play for Cornell, get in the record books and make some history here.’

Published on April 16, 2002 at 12:00 pm