ITHACA, N.Y. – The No. 12 University of Pennsylvania women's lacrosse team used a five-goal run that bridged the second and third quarters to pull away from Cornell on Saturday afternoon at Schoellkopf Field. The Quakers ended up defeating the Big Red, 11-7.
Cornell led 4-3 midway through the second quarter, but Penn scored the final three goals of the second and the first two of the third while holding the Big Red scoreless for 18:53 of game time. Penn's lead was six until Cornell scored twice late—just their second and third goals in more than 34 minutes of game action—to set the final margin at four.
Penn snapped its two-game Ivy League losing streak and improved to 9-3, 3-2 in Ivy play. Cornell fell to 7-6 overall, 2-3 in conference action.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn outshot Cornell 33-27 and also won the draw control battle, 11-10.
*Junior
Anna Brandt once again led Penn in scoring Saturday, finding the back of the net four times. It was her second four-goal game this season and her ninth straight game with at least two goals.
*Senior
Niki Miles was back to her old tricks, scoring three goals and dishing out two assists for a five-point day. It's her sixth five-point game this season and extended both her goal and point streaks to 32 and 36 games, respectively.
*Miles also led all players with six draw controls.
*Freshman
Catherine Berkery scored twice on Saturday, her second straight multi-goal game and seventh this season.
*Senior
Maria Themelis dished out two assists, her first multi-point game this season as she doubled her output for 2024.
*Penn's other goal scorers on the day were juniors
Erika Chung and
Keeley Block.
*At the other end, senior
Kelly Van Hoesen had eight saves for a .533 save percentage on the day.
*In front of her, Brandt had four caused turnovers (her season high) while senior
Sophie Davis had three. As a team, Penn caused 11 turnovers.
*Cornell got six points from Kylie Gelabert (4g/2a) while Caitlin Slaminko scored twice and Josie Vogel dished out two assists.
How It Happened
Berkery got Penn on the board three minutes in thanks to a nice play by
Natasha Gorriaran, who scooped up a loose ball in traffic and seemingly in one motion got the ball to the freshman in front for the conversion. Cornell tied it a little less than two minutes later, then scored twice in less than a minute to go up 3-1. Brandt cranked home a shot from the left side of the 8-meter fan late, and the Big Red led 3-2 after one.
Miles tied it up early in the second on a free-position goal, before the Quakers had some rotten luck when a Cornell free position shot bounced off the crossbar, hit Van Hoesen in the back, and bounced into the goal for a 4-3 lead. However, less than two minutes later Penn was again level, this time Brandt rocketing a shot from the top of the fan. Miles took it from there, scoring on a free-position chance with less than three minutes left and then using a nifty attack from the left side in the final seconds to send Penn to the locker room up, 6-4.
The third quarter was scoreless for the first six minutes, before a Brandt free-position goal extended Penn's lead to three. Just 90 seconds later, Miles found Chung wide open in front for a dunk, and at that point the Quakers were doubling up the Big Red, 8-4. Cornell got one back a few minutes later, but Block and another Brandt free-position goal had Penn doubling up their hosts again as the third quarter ended.
Penn had another stalwart defensive effort for much of the fourth quarter, the only goal in the first 11 minutes coming from Berkery as she made a nice move to receive a feed from Miles and finish. Cornell finally ended another lengthy drought—this one covering 16:30 of game time—and then scored again just 11 minutes later, but that was all the Big Red could muster the rest of the way.
Up Next
The Quakers are back at home twice next week, hosting Loyola (Md.) in their final non-conference game of the season on Wednesday at 4 p.m. and Brown next Saturday at noon.
For the latest on Penn women's lacrosse, follow @PennWomensLax on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.
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