Harvard women's hockey stuck with the Golden Knights, scoring first, but couldn’t hold on as Clarkson rallied to hand the Crimson a 2-1 defeat in its home opener.

It used to be that a date with Cornell was a near-guaranteed win for the Harvard women’s hockey team. The Crimson had the Big Red’s number of late, winning 10 straight contests over the last three seasons—including sweeping Cornell out of the last two conference playoffs. And when Harvard traveled to Ithaca last weekend, the cards seemed to be stacked in its favor. The Crimson was picked to finish second in the ECAC this year; the Big Red was expected to finish seventh. Plus Cornell’s biggest threat, forward Rebecca Johnston, is away from the team this season to train with the Canadian Olympic squad. But this time, history didn’t repeat itself.

In a 42-21 blowout—a gap which could have been much bigger if Harvard head coach Tim Murphy hadn’t given his second team an entire quarter’s worth of playing time—it’s hard to find fault with the Crimson. But in Saturday’s matchup with Dartmouth, there was one area where the Big Green was clearly dominant—special teams.

Though the warm rain outside was a memory that it’s still fall in Cambridge, fans of Harvard women’s hockey got their first taste of winter Saturday afternoon. The Crimson took the ice against collegiate competition for the first time this year, defeating McGill, 4-1, in exhibition action at Bright Hockey Center.

The Crimson spread itself out over four different regattas, battling a variety of conditions and coming away with solid results. Both the co-eds and the women sailed in some of their most competitive races of the season, placing eighth and seventh at the Navy Fall Intersectional and the Yale Women’s Intersectional, respectively. Meanwhile, the co-ed team sent squads to the Captain Hurst Bowl—where Harvard didn’t fare as well, mustering only a 17th-place finish in limited racing—and the local-level Tufts Invite, where the Crimson finished sixth.

With eight consecutive losses to Harvard, the Lafayette football team didn’t need much extra motivation for Saturday’s game. But the Leopards got it in the form of freshman Peter Bross. Bross, a fullback from Allentown, Penn., was diagnosed with cancer just before his high school graduation. The rookie had been doing well in his first weeks on campus until a setback on Friday required hospitalization.

ITHACA, N.Y.—Even a quick glance at this year’s Harvard football roster would have shown that the Crimson would be relying on some different faces to win games this season. And on Saturday, Harvard was bolstered by some new names—just not the ones you would expect. On an afternoon where many of the Crimson’s big names were quiet, it was a pair of freshmen who carried Harvard to a 28-10 victory at Cornell.

In a weekend full of wild weather, it wasn’t rain that stopped the Harvard sailing team—it was the sun. Still skies on Sunday cut the co-eds’ weekend at the Smith Trophy short, and in limited racing, the Crimson finished in the middle of the pack in 13th place.

BETHLEHEM, Penn.—In a contest that could have been a trap game for Harvard football, the only person that felt trapped was Lehigh quarterback Chris Lum. The sophomore, who was making his first career start, was terrorized by the Crimson defense, which sacked him four times and picked off four of his passes. Senior linebacker Jon Takamura ran back a fourth-quarter interception 60 yards for a touchdown to ice Harvard’s (2-1, 1-0 Ivy) 28-14 win over the Mountain Hawks (0-4, 0-0 Patriot) Saturday in a non-conference matchup at Goodman Stadium.