PRINCETON, N.J. – The University of Pennsylvania men's soccer team fell 1-0 in the 2025 Ivy League tournament semifinals to second-seed Cornell at Princeton University on Thursday night.
 
Second-seed Cornell advanced to Championship Sunday with the sole goal scored in the match in the 23rd minute.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Keeper Phillip Falcon III worked hard in the box, stopping four of five shots faced.
 
*Cornell dominated the pace of the game, recording 13 shots compared to Penn's eight.
 
*The Red and Blue attempted one shot on goal coming from Marco Bottene.
 
*Connor Dawson, Falcon, Malachi Neal, Joaquin Niehenke, and Oliver Pratt played the full 90 minutes. Bottene and George Herbert docked 85 minutes on the pitch.
 
How It Happened
The Quakers tried to get things going in the semifinals battle as sophomore Dahlen had a good chance from the box that was blocked by a Big Red defender. Cornell's first shot of the day was blocked by Jack-Ryan Jeremiah, which resulted in a corner in the tenth minute, resulting in a shot from Westin Carnevale that keeper Falcon leaped in the air to save.
 
Junior Falcon tallied back-to-back saves in the 15th minute, as Nate Hovan and Andrew Johnson both looked like they were going to hit the back of the net, but Falcon stood on his head to keep the game scoreless with 30 minutes left of the first. Not even a minute later, midfielder Bottene attempted two straight shots, with the second reaching goalie Ryan Friedberg, which the senior easily saved.
 
Cornell eventually figured it out in the 23rd minute, as Sergio Zapata slammed one right past Falcon to put the score at 1-0. The Big Red kept applying pressure with a pair of shots in the 27th and 28th minutes, but both were misdirected before any more damage could happen.
 
With less than seven minutes left of the first, Cornell tried to capitalize on a Quaker turnover as Balazs Feher was blocked by defender Pratt, and Connor Miller went to the left of Falcon to end the offensive attempts of the half.
 
The Big Red carried their momentum into the second half, as Zapata slammed one at Falcon five minutes in that was quickly scooped up. Justin Melly kept the ball in Penn's defensive zone a few minutes later, soaring the ball above the crossbar to add a shot to the board. The Quakers recorded their first shots on the second in the 68th minute, as Patrick Cayelli, defender Neal, and Bottene all tried shots that were blocked by Cornell's defense before they could reach keeper Friedberg.
 
The next shot in the match wasn't registered until the 77th minute when Daniel Samways tried a wide shot. Penn's final offensive opportunity came from a blocked shot from midfielder Cayelli in the 81st, which resulted in a corner, but the Quakers couldn't capitalize to hold the game at its final score of 1-0.