ITHACA, N.Y. — In what promised to be a close-to-the-vest defensive battle, the women's soccer team ended up conceding goals twice in the second half to suffer a 2-0 loss to Penn on Saturday afternoon at sunny Berman Field.
 
Though Penn (7-1-1, 1-0-1 Ivy League) had a decided advantage in possession and attempted shots on goal, few opportunities were particularly ominous through a scoreless first half.
 
But a skilled play led to breaking the ice, when Emma Loving's deep service along the ground into the penalty area was backheeled by Emily Sands into the net from close range in the 59th minute. Having yielded just three goals through nine games, that was all the stingy Quakers needed to post their seventh clean sheet and extend their current shutout streak to over 380 minutes.
 
Cornell (1-7-1, 0-1-1) forced three saves out of Penn goalkeeper Kitty Qu, all after the visitors had taken the lead. Kennedy Yearby's header led to the first stop in the 69th minute, and she had another attempt sail high a couple minutes later. The other shots on target came from Nicole Long and Naomi Jaffe.
 
Penn secured an insurance goal in strange form in the 82nd minute. Long had retreated to make a defensive play and clear the ball toward the touch line deep in Cornell territory, but the ball improbably hit the corner flag squarely to stay in play. The Quakers' Jadyn Wilensky was first to it and quickly served a ball into the box, where Allie Trzaska headed it inside the far post.
 
Meghan Kennedy made seven saves for the Big Red, which also got a goal-line clearance from defender Abby Adams in the 58th minute.
 
Cornell hits the road for its next two games, starting with a visit to Harvard for an Ivy League contest at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 6.