PHILADELPHIA – The 16th-ranked University of Pennsylvania women's lacrosse team closed out the home portion of its 2025 regular season in style on Saturday. That was especially true of senior middie
Anna Brandt, who punctuated her last regular-season home game by tying the program record for goals in a game as the Quakers dunked Cornell, 18-10.
The win also clinched an Ivy League Tournament spot for the Quakers, who improved to 4-2 in league play. That has the Quakers tied with Yale and Brown for second place, one game behind 5-1 Princeton. Cornell falls to 3-3.
Penn used a five-goal run in the first quarter to break an early tie, and led by as many as 11 in the third quarter on the way to the statement win. The Quakers are now 8-5 overall while the Big Red fell to 9-5.
Quaker Notemeal
*Brandt's nine-goal day ties a mark set originally by Alison Irving (1977 vs. Swarthmore) and matched by Lisa Romig (1981 vs. Dartmouth) and Lori Frutkin (1995 at West Chester).
*The nine goals also obviously bests her career high, which was eight set against Princeton at last year's Ivy League Tournament.
*
Catherine Berkery had three goals on Saturday.
*
Keeley Block and
Gracie Smith both scored twice against the Big Red, Block adding three assists for a five-point day and Smith assisting another for three points.
*Smith also led the defense with three of the Quakers' five caused turnovers.
*
Erika Chung also had a five-point day, dishing off four assists and scoring once.
*Freshman
Meryl Docking was Penn's other goal scorer on Saturday while
Paige Lipman and
Lela Greene had one assist apiece.
*
Maggie Bankowski had a massive game on the draw with nine draw controls, while
Natasha Gorriaran had six and Brandt added four. Overall, the Quakers won the draw game 20-11 over Cornell.
*At the other end, freshman goalie
Orly Sedransk made 13 saves while allowing just the 10 goals for a .565 save percentage.
How It Happened
Brandt set the tone early on Saturday, sandwiching a pair of goals around a Cornell quick stick to make it 2-1 Quakers less than 90 second in. The Big Red again tied it, at 2-2, but Brandt converted a spectacular low-to-high shot while facing away from the goal, then converted a free-position shot a little over a minute later.
That was the start of a five-goal run as Block scored her first of the day and then fed Smith in the middle of the defense for a conversion. Cornell called timeout, but Brandt added her fifth of the day shortly after that to make the score 7-2. The Big Red scored in the final minutes, but Penn's lead was 7-3 after 15 minutes.
Berkery got a nice pass from Chung on the doorstep, putting Penn back up by five, but Cornell scored twice in an 80-second span to make it 8-5 with 10 minutes still left in the second. However, the Big Red would not score again for 23 minutes and 45 seconds of game time, and during that span Penn put this game to bed.
Berkery started what would be an eight-goal run with 5:12 left in the half, cutting into the middle and finishing a Smith feed. Brandt tacked on another free-position shot, and then in the final two minutes first Docking and then Block finished feeds from Chung to make it a 12-5 game at the half.
The third quarter saw Penn continue its onslaught. Smith got around her defender and scored as she was being knocked to the ground, and just 31 seconds later Berkery scored on the left post. After feeding to everyone else, Chung finally got on the board when she cut backdoor and Block found her, then Brandt added still another free-position shot. By this time the game was into a running clock, the Red and Blue up by a 16-5 score.
To its credit, Cornell didn't quit. The Big Red scored late in the third, then tacked on four unanswered in the first 4:07 of the fourth quarter to make it a 16-10 game. However, Penn shut the door the rest of the way, and then Brandt tacked on a pair in the game's final minutes—the last an empty-netter—to close out the day's scoring.
Up Next
Penn is on the road for its final two games of the regular season, making a day trip to Towson Wednesday for a 6 p.m. start with the Tigers. The Quakers then close out Ivy League play at Brown next Saturday at 1 p.m. A share of the Ivy League title is still in play for both teams next Saturday, with Princeton playing at Dartmouth and Yale hosting Cornell. Both of those games will start 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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