19:59, Third Period

The referee dropped the puck onto the ice.  It was slapped backward to a Cornell player.  The rink was still buzzing with excitement from the tying goal we had just scored in the last minute of the third period.  Then before anyone knew what was happening, we saw a shot fly toward the goal, past the goalie’s arm, and hit the back of the net.  Amidst the yelling and cheers, we looked up at the clock and read 1.0.  With exactly one second left in the game, Cornell had scored the winning goal.

To say that the women’s quarterfinal playoff games against Colgate were exciting is a slight understatement.  On Friday, Cornell had to come from a goal down three times to force the game into overtime.  After thirty-nine seconds of overtime, we came away with a 5-4 win.  On Saturday, the team went into the third period trailing 2-0.  A minute into the third period, they scored a goal.  At that point, the band started hoping they could at least push it into overtime so that it wouldn't go to a third game that we would have to play at on Sunday.

With less than a minute left, Cornell scored the tying goal.  The band started hoping we could win in overtime, again, so we wouldn't have to come back on Sunday.  I guess the team didn't want a third game either, because they scored within the next forty seconds.

We encountered a similar situation a few weeks ago at women’s basketball.  We were playing Brown, and we were up by eight or ten points at halftime, but the team hadn't been playing too well after the first few minutes.  Brown continued to eat away at Cornell’s lead throughout the second half until they were leading.  Somehow, Cornell managed to stay in the game until the very last minute.  With about half a minute left, we were down a point, and we had possession.  After some ridiculous number of timeouts, a Cornell player took the ball to the basket and went up for the shot.

This was a shot we had to make, and the entire gym was watching as the basketball fell through the hoop.  With the additional foul shot, we had a two point lead.  Possession went to Brown, and they immediately sprinted down the court.  They took one shot that bounced off the rim, but they caught the rebound.  With seconds left, they took one final shot that once again, everyone was watching, this time hoping for a very different result.  When the ball crashed off the rim and to the ground, the crowd went about as crazy as I've ever seen at a women’s basketball game.

Apparently our teams have a flair for the dramatic.