UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Freshman Annie Thomas won a school-record 11 draw controls, but Penn State's Taylor Suplee had 20 saves, including 14 in the decisive first half, and the 25th-ranked Nittany Lions cruised to a 19-9 win over Cornell on Sunday afternoon at Panzer Stadium. Penn State remained unbeaten at 4-0, while the big Red suffered its first loss of 2020 and slipped to 2-1.

The 11 draw controls by Thomas surpassed the previous Cornell record of 10 set by Sarah Hefner vs. Albany in 2013 and matched by Joey Coffy vs. Dartmouth in 2018 as Cornell held an 18-11 edge in that category for the game. Suplee took away many of those extra possessions with her big day. Shannon Brazier had two goals, two assists and four draw controls to lead the Big Red, while Caroline Allen registered a hat trick and chipped in a pair of draws in the loss. Katie Castiello added a pair of goals and both Grace Paletta and Isabel Zachara tallied once each to round out the scoring. Both Hilary Hoover and Taylor Lis caused a pair of turnovers in front of Katie McGahan, who made seven saves of her own for the Big Red. Cornell held a narrow 37-36 edge in shots.

Four different players had at least three goals for the home team with Maria Auth posting four to go along with two assists. Lauren Craft and Yasmain Hamood each had three goals and an assist and Quinn Nicolai added three. Suplee, in addition to her heroics in net, also came out of the crease to capture six ground ball wins. Nine of Penn State's goals came on free position attempts and the Nittany Lions led by as many as 13 goals in the second half.
 

FIRST HALF

• Penn State jumped out to a 5-0 lead a little over 10 minutes into the game, but Cornell settled in and answered with two scores of its own.
• Shannon Brazier dented the scoreboard with a free position goal by Frazier, and the midfielder assisted on Katie Castiello's score 33 seconds later to cut the deficit to three.
• Annie Thomas won the ensuing draw and Caroline Allen got a good shot on goal that was saved by Penn State's Suplee. 
• Within a minute, Lauren Craft put one in the back of the net to trigger a 4-0 run that pushed the home team's advantage to 9-2.
• Allen scored her first goal of the day with 10:55 left on the clock on a free position shot and Brazier tallied her second two minutes later to get within 9-4.
• Penn State scored the final three of the stanza and went into the break with a 12-4 lead after Suplee stopped three Big Red shots in the final minute.
 

SECOND HALF

• The Nittany Lions put the game away in the first six minutes of the second half, scoring the first three goals to extend its run to six consecutive and the lead to 15-4.
• Allen broke the streak with the first of her two goals in the second 30 minutes of play, but the Nittany Lions were never threatened despite the Big Red scoring the game's final three goals.
• Thomas won seven draws in the second half to get her total to 11, a school record.
 

UP NEXT

• The Big Red opens up Ivy League play with a road contest at Harvard on Saturday, Feb. 29 1 p.m. at Jordan Field in Cambridge, Mass.
• Harvard holds a 24-17 lead in the all-time series, but the Big Red is 17-5 since 1999.
• The Crimson holds a 13-7 edge in games played in Cambridge.
• Harvard won the first 19 matchups between the teams until Jenny Graap '86 led the Big Red to a 10-9 overtime victory in 1999 in Ithaca.