Hat Trick Lifts Penn over Women's Field Hockey

Technically, the Harvard field hockey team lost, 4-1, to Penn on Saturday.

Perhaps more precisely, however, the Crimson lost to Penn senior captain Alex Iqbal, who scored her first hat trick of the season off of three identical penalty corners to lift the Quakers to victory at Ellen Vagelos Field in Philadelphia.

Iqbal started the scoring off early, giving Penn a 1-0 lead with her second goal of the season at the 11-minute mark. The senior converted a penalty corner set up by seniors Emily Corcoran and MaryRose Croddick to put the Quakers on the board.

However, it was in the last 10 minutes of the game that Iqbal really took control, taking advantage of two late penalty corners to put Harvard away. With just under seven minutes to play, Iqbal shot from the top of the circle to the right of Crimson goalkeeper Issy Davies to increase Penn’s lead to two goals.

Less than a minute later, Iqbal showed that her first two goals were anything but a fluke, once again converting on a penalty corner set up by Corcoran and Croddick to give Penn an almost-insurmountable 4-1 lead with just over five minutes to play.

Harvard played right with Penn for most of the first half, even taking a 7-6 shots-on-goal advantage into the second period. After Iqbal’s first goal, sophomore Marissa Balleza didn’t take long to even the score, and easily beat the Penn defense and goalkeeper to get her fifth goal of the season on a wide-open net.

But the Crimson’s momentum didn’t last long, as Corcoran scored her team-high eighth goal of the season, unassisted, to finish off the first half. Once again, Harvard was undone by a penalty corner, as Corcoran corralled the rebound after Davies saved Madison Hendry’s shot off of a corner and put it away to give Penn a 2-1 lead heading into halftime.

The second half opened with 25 minutes of scoreless play, as neither team was able to convert on multiple opportunities. Penn senior Allison Weisenfels made two of her five saves early in the second half, turning away shots from both senior Caitlin Rea and Balleza to keep Penn on top.

Penn struggled to put challenging shots on goal for the majority of the second half, but took advantage of the penalty corners late in the game to give Iqbal the hat trick and earn its third straight victory over Harvard. The Quakers led the Crimson in shots, 12-10, but its real advantage came in penalty corners, where Penn earned 10 opportunities to Harvard’s six.

—Staff writer Glynis K. Healey can be reached at ghealey@college.harvard.edu.