Box Score ITHACA, N.Y. – The Big Red scored three first half goals and then held off a late Harvard spurt to earn a 3-2 victory this afternoon at Marsha Dodson Field. Cornell senior Hannah Balleza assisted on all three Cornell tallies to lift the Big Red to a 7-5 record overall and a mark of 2-2 in conference play.

"I'm excited to get the win," said head coach Donna Hornibrook. "We had a great first half, but Harvard deserves credit for battling back. It was a good solid effort for us."

All three of Cornell's goals came off penalty corners, with Marissa Siergiej scoring twice and Katy Weeks scoring once. Additionally, Taylor Standiford earned two assists. The Big Red held the 13-7 edge in shots and a 9-4 advantage in penalty corners.

Harvard (4-6, 1-3 Ivy) scored a pair of goals in the final 20 minutes of the contest, taking advantage of the few chances they had offensively.

Both goalies – Carolyn Horner for Cornell and Jenn Hatfield for Harvard – finished with four saves.

Midway through the first half, Cornell had a flurry of penalty corner chances and after hitting a post, the Big Red finally managed to capitalize when Siergiej nailed a sweeping shot into the corner of the cage to make it a 1-0 game at the 21:13 mark. Balleza and Standiford were credited with the assist.

Both of Cornell's next two goals were indirectly set up by Georgia Lord, who drew penalty corners that gave the Big Red the 3-0 halftime lead.

After stealing the ball deep in the Harvard end, Lord drew the corner and once again Siergiej found the back of the net, with the assists going to Balleza and Standiford.

In the waning moments of the half, Lord drew another corner. Siergiej's initial shot was saved, but the rebound went to Maddie Parish, who calmly passed the ball to Balleza on the baseline. Balleza then sent the ball across the mouth of the goal to Weeks on the far post, who banked it home to make it 3-0 with 39 seconds to go in the half.

Harvard had its best chances to score off the restart when back-to-back shots were saved by Horner just before the buzzer to preserve the home team's halftime lead.

The Crimson scored on their first entry into the circle in the second half when Sophie van Weede sent a long pass into the circle. Noel Painter collected the ball, spun to her left away from the Cornell defender and sent a reverse stick shot over Horner to make it a 3-1 game at the 51:49 mark.

Harvard earned a penalty corner with just less than 15 minutes to play, but Horner made the save. Moments later, the Crimson made it a 3-2 game when Cornell fouled deep in the Harvard end. A long pass upfield found Marissa Balleza, younger sister of Hannah Balleza, behind the Big Red defense and she slid the ball to Sarah Finnemore to convert the two-on-one in the 58th minute of action.

The Crimson couldn't find the equalizer and Cornell held on for the 3-2 victory.

The Big Red will return to action tomorrow, Sunday, Oct. 20 when it hosts Lehigh in its Play 4 The Cure game at Marsha Dodson Field at 1 p.m.