PHILADELPHIA – The 15th-ranked University of Pennsylvania women's lacrosse team gets back into Ivy League action this weekend, hosting 21st-ranked Harvard on Sunday afternoon at Penn Park.
 
PLEASE NOTE: This is a new date/time for the game, which was originally scheduled for Saturday.
 
GAME 8 – #15 PENN (6-1, 1-0 Ivy League) vs. #21 HARVARD (5-1, 1-0)
Sunday, March 24, 2024 | Noon
Philadelphia | Penn Park
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats
 
The Series with Harvard
*This is the 52nd meeting between the Quakers and the Crimson in women's lacrosse, Penn holding a 33-18 lead in the all-time series.
 
*The teams have split the two regular-season meetings in the post-pandemic world, Harvard earning a 9-8 win here in Philadelphia two years ago and Penn coming back with a 16-13 victory last year in Cambridge.
 
*Penn then won an Ivy League Tournament semifinal last year at Penn Park, 16-8, on the way to the ILT title.
 
Penn in the National Stats
*Penn is second in scoring defense (6.57 goals allowed per game), sixth in caused turnovers per game (11.43), eighth in clear percentage (.927), 10th in draw control percentage (.618), 18th in GB per game (18.14), and 20th in shots per game (33.0).
 
*Senior goalie Kelly Van Hoesen is second in goals-against average (6.37).
 
*Junior Erika Chung is 17th in assists per game (2.50).
 
*Senior Aly Feeley is 17th in caused turnovers per game (2.00).
 
Some Defensive Notes
*In addition to being second nationally in GAA, Penn has held its opponent scoreless for at least one 15-minute span in every game so far this season...
  Drexel (1): 15:35
  Johns Hopkins (1): 30:41
  Temple (2): 16:05 and 15:21
  Columbia (1): 20:10
  W&M (1): 24:13
  Georgetown (1): 29:15
  Michigan (1): 15:27
 
*Penn has four shutout quarters so far this season: the second quarter against the Hop, the second and fourth quarters against Columbia, and the third quarter against Georgetown.
 
*In last Saturday's game with No. 6 Michigan—a matchup of the top two defensive units in the country by GAA—the Quakers held the Wolverines to exactly half their average output heading into the game (12.0 gpg).
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn held its place in all three polls this week, staying 15th in the IWLCA and Inside Lacrosse polls but remaining 10th in the USA Lacrosse Magazine poll.
 
*Penn has won ten Ivy League regular-season games in a row going back to the 2022 season. That includes an undefeated 7-0 campaign last year when the Quakers won their 14th Ancient Eight title.
 
*The Red and Blue then defeated Harvard and Yale to win the Ivy League Tournament, earning the league's NCAA Championship automatic bid. In its 16th NCAA appearance, Penn beat UConn in the first round and gave eventual finalist Boston College all it could handle in the second round before falling, 9-7.
 
*Penn returns almost all the key components from last year's team including the reigning Ivy League Attacker of the Year (senior Niki Miles), Midfielder of the Year (junior Anna Brandt), and Defender of the Year (senior Izzy Rohr). The trio has garnered preseason All-America honors from Inside Lacrosse and US Lacrosse, and Miles and Rohr were named to the Tewaaraton Award's preseason watch list.
 
*The trio made history last year, as it marked the first time players from the same program won all three major positional honors since the Ivy League began awarding them in 2013. (Prior to that, the Ivy League did a Player of the Year and a Rookie of the Year.)
 
*Penn had 10 women earn All-Ivy last year; all of them are back this season.
  FIRST TEAM: Brandt (unanimous), Miles (unanimous), Rohr (unanimous)
  SECOND TEAM: Erika Chung, Kaitlyn Cumiskey, Grace Fujinaga, Maria Themelis, Kelly Van Hoesen
  HONORABLE MENTION: Aly Feeley, Natasha Gorriaran
 
*Not surprisingly, Penn was a unanimous pick to repeat as conference champion this season, scooping up all 16 first-place votes for 128 points in the Ivy League's preseason media poll that was announced on February 13.
 
*On top of the returning group, the Quakers secured two transfers for this season: Grace Turner (Stanford) and Carli Fleisher (Northwestern). Fleisher—named the 2022 National High School Player of the Year by USA Lacrosse Magazine—had her first two collegiate points at Temple, a goal and an assist.
 
*Miles has picked up where she left off last year, leading Penn with 24 goals and 31 points. She has multiple points in all seven games this season and has scored at least four goals in three of the last four contests.
 
*Miles reached the 100-goal milestone for her career in last week's win over Georgetown; she became the 14th player in program history to reach that milestone and the first since Zoe Belodeau in 2021.
 
*Miles also leads the team with 31 draw controls, followed by Brandt (25) and Feeley (18) who had six in last Saturday's 6-5 loss to No. 6 Michigan.
 
*Brandt might be the next to hit 100 career goals, as she enters Saturday's game with 92 after going for hat tricks in each of the last two contests.
 
*Block was Penn's second-leading scorer and got honorable mention All-Ivy recognition as a freshman in 2022; she is back after missing all of last season due to injury. She appears to be picking up where she left off, going for multiple points in all but one game and multiple goals in all but two. She scored twice last Tuesday against Georgetown.
 
*Freshman Catherine Berkery has 12 goals and hit for multiple goals in four straight contests (4 vs. Hopkins, 2 each against Temple, Columbia and W&M).
 
*Defensively, Feeley leads the team with 14 caused turnovers. She is followed by senior Sophie Davis (12)—who has eight in the last two games—junior Natasha Gorriaran (9) and Rohr (8).
 
*The Quakers will be led by four captains this season: Miles, Rohr, Maria Themelis, and Morgan Smith.
 
*Head coach Karin Corbett is in her 25th season at the helm. The coach for 12 of Penn's 14 Ivy titles and a two-time Ivy League Coach of the Year—the honor has only been given since 2015—she has been head coach for 260 of the program's 413 wins.
 
For the latest on Penn women's lacrosse, follow @PennWomensLax on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.