PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania women's lacrosse team matched up with the Ivy League's most potent offense on Saturday, and Harvard did not disappoint as the Crimson pinned 13 goals on the Quakers at Franklin Field.
 
At the other, the ninth-ranked Red and Blue showed that they have a little bit of firepower, too.
 
How about 24 goals, one shy of the program record set against Franklin & Marshall all the way back in 1977. Heck, before Saturday Penn hadn't hit the 20-goal mark in the incredibly successful Karin Corbett era. (Incidentally, the last time they did hit the mark was in 1982, against West Chester.) But they blew past it on this day.

Penn improved to 11-2 overall, 5-0 in Ivy League play, and officially clinched a bid into the Ivy League Tournament in two weeks. Harvard, meanwhile, fell to 5-9 overall and is 1-5 in Ivy play.
 
Zoe Belodeau (5g, 4a) and Emily Rogers-Healion (4g, 5a) both recorded nine-point days. Erin Barry scored five goals. Caroline Cummings, one of five seniors honored prior to the opening draw, had four goals and dished out two assists. Alex Condon, another honored senior, had five points (3g, 2a). It was quite a spectacle.
 
The two teams kept up a goal-a-minute pace through the first 19 minutes of the game—for real—as Penn went up 3-0, Harvard got it back level at 5-5, and then Penn reeled off eight unanswered before the Crimson made it 13-6. Fans got a breather after that, more than three minutes went by before Harvard scored again to make it 13-7, and another Crimson goal just 1:14 after that made it 13-8. Things really slowed down after that, just one goal in the first half's final six minutes as Rogers-Healion got the teams to the break with Penn up, 14-8.
 
The pace picked back up to start the second half. Harvard scored 54 seconds in, but Penn knocked home three over a span of 1:25, two of them quickly answered by the Crimson. A five-minute drought was ended by Belodeau, and then four minutes later Condon scored to make it 19-11. Harvard's Keeley MacAfee answered one of those Quakers goals, but Penn scored the next four in a row over an 11-minute span to put this game out of reach.
 
Mikaila Cheeseman and Maggie Smith split time in the goal, as both sides switched goalies at least once during the course of the game. They combined for nine saves, while Harvard's goalies had a total of 13 stops.
 
Up Next
Penn is on the road twice this week, starting at Princeton on Wednesday night and continuing at Yale next Saturday. The Quakers and Tigers will draw Wednesday night at 7 p.m.