By Brandon Thomas
Cornell Athletic Communications

ITHACA, N.Y. – For 45 minutes, the Cornell women's soccer team stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the 18th-ranked team in the nation. For the next 45 minutes, the 18th-ranked team in the nation made some adjustments and showed why it's atop the Ivy League tables.
 
Angela Caloia scored twice inside the first nine minutes of the second half to disarm Cornell after its brilliant first half on Saturday, and Harvard ran its unbeaten run to 10 games with a 4-0 victory over the Big Red at Berman Field.
 
"I feel like we needed to do it for another 15 minutes – then it would have been a game. They would have started to panic," head coach Rob Ferguson said. "But they didn't. They came out hot and they caused us all sorts of problems. The second goal was coming once the first one went in."
 
For all of the trouble Cornell (3-7-2, 1-2 Ivy League) gave Harvard (9-0-1, 3-0) in the first half, it took the Crimson all of 58 seconds to break through in the second half. The palpable deflation was amplified by the relative ease at which the visitors struck, switching fields across their back line in the middle third, directly moving up the flank with a couple passes, and then in-swinging service that was guided in by Caloia's head at the top of the 6-yard box.
 
The deficit doubled a little more than seven minutes later. Senior goalkeeper Miranda Iannone pushed Sophie Hirst's shot from 20 yards onto the crossbar, but the rebound was never cleared from danger. There were eight touches of the ball in the next eight seconds – the last of which came off Caloia's right foot, which steered the ball inside the far post.
 
"We knew they were going to make adjustments, but needed five or 10 minutes to see what the adjustments were," Ferguson said. "But we didn't get five or 10 minutes, because we're 1-nil down in a minute. Then it was two a few minutes later."
 
Considering Cornell's path to the game and its performance in the first half, the result was harsh. The Big Red built up to the showdown with its first Ivy League victory in nearly five years, a formidable performance on the road against Penn and a resurgent non-league win over Colgate. It felt like a fitting moment to face such a challenge, and the Big Red answered the bell right off the bat Saturday.
 
Though Harvard held possession for more than 28 of the first half's 45 minutes, the teams were equal in terms of quality scoring chances. In the 10th minute, Harvard's first ominous offering came from Hannah Griffin at about 20 yards from goal, but Iannone elevated to push the shot over the crossbar. About two minutes later, sophomore Ava Laden earned a free kick about 20 yards out that senior Aidan Julia Reineman rattled off the far post.
 
In the 14th minute, Griffin's looping cross toward the 6 was redirected by the left foot of Gabby DelPico back toward the near post, but Iannone made a diving stop to her right. Ten minutes later, junior Emily St. John took a shot from 25 yards that curled just wide of the far post.
 
"At halftime, our message was 'Well done; well played; lots of positives – but now we reset,'" Ferguson said. "We tried to bring them right back to the mindset at the beginning."
 
The Big Red would eventually hit the woodwork again with 28:30 to play off the left foot of sophomore Reagan Pauwels from about 30 yards, but the Crimson would eventually salt the game away with strikes from Jordan Di Verniero and Ava Lung.
 
Cornell is next in action at 1 p.m. Saturday, when it travels to Yale for another Ivy League contest.
 
"If you want to improve, you've got to be critical in those moments," Ferguson said of the slow start to the second half. "But we need to also focus on that first half, because it was tremendous against one of the best teams in the country."

Assistant director of athletic communications Brandon Thomas is in his 11th season as his office's primary contact for the team. He can be reached at brandon@cornell.edu.