Quakers sprint past Big Red

Senior midfielder Giulia Giordano had heard the No. 4 women’s lacrosse squad called a “second-half team.” But yesterday against Cornell, the Quakers defied that label by bucking a recent trend of slow starts.

Penn sprinted out to a 5-0 lead in the opening 15 minutes and survived a Cornell run to finish off a 10-6 victory, rebounding froman upset loss to unranked Johns Hopkins last week.

“I think the first half of the first half, we played some really good lacrosse,” Penn coach Karin Brower Corbett said. “We moved them a lot on defense and had a lot of open opportunities.”

Giordano credited a newly installed motion play for providing various players with scoring opportunities. Penn (7-1, 3-0 Ivy) effectively spread the wealth with goals by seven different players.

But despite the early run, Cornell (3-5, 1-2) didn’t go down easily.

Following a timeout, the Big Red reeled off three consecutive goals, two by leading scorer Jessi Steinberg.

Over a 28-minute stretch, the Quakers were held to a single goal, and Steinberg’s third goal cut Penn’s lead to 6-5 early in the second period.

Sophomore Maddie Poplawski ended the scoring drought with an 8-meter shot, but the Red and Blue weren’t able to pull away until Brennan netted a tough unassisted goal with 7:30 remaining to extend the lead to 8-6.

“At that point we had had a couple good options, and they just didn’t fall,” Brennan said, “but we did a good job of just coming up with those second chances.”

Throughout the game, Penn made up for mistakes with scrappiness and hustle on loose balls. Despite an uncharacteristic 15 turnovers, the Quakers finished with a 16-13 advantage in ground balls and a decisive 12-6 edge in draw controls.

In a scary moment late in the first half, Giordano went down to the turf and was helped off the field.

It turned out to be nothing more than a sprained ankle, and she soon successfully lobbied to re-enter the game. But with her mobility slightly limited, she was forced to move from her usual midfield spot to low attack.

After Giordano’s injury, the new offensive motion became a double-edged sword. Corbett said the long scoring dry spell was partially attributable to miscommunication between young players in unfamiliar positions.

“With Giulia not in there, we probably needed to be doing something else,” Corbett said. “There was confusion, like people weren’t going where they needed to be going.”

The victory extended Penn’s regular season Ivy League winning streak to 32 games. After a trip to No. 1 Maryland, Penn will look for win 33 against Columbia next Sunday.

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