Check Monday's edition of The Cornell Daily Sun for additional coverage

Men's hockey 5, Dartmouth 1

Cornell opened its ECAC Hockey season with a convincing statement, piling on three third-period goals to seal the 5-1 victory in a chippy, physical game against Dartmouth. Forwards Blake Gallagher scored twice, Colin Greening had one goal and two assists; and goalie Ben Scrivens made 21 saves.

Cornell's special teams shone on the opening night of league play. The Red took advantage of 49 Dartmouth penalty minutes, going 4-of-7 on the power play. Cornell's penalty kill turned away all but one of Dartmouth's seven man-advantage opportunities, including a 5-on-3 in the second period.

Women's hockey 4, Union 0

“Dartmouth Slips Past Volleyball” reads the headline on the Cornell Athletics website for this weekend. But while the scores for all four sets against the Green may have stayed within five points, at the end of the night the Red had lost another 3-1 match, with final totals of 25-20, 25-22, 24-26 and 25-20. The possibility for redemption on Saturday was not fulfilled, either, as the Red lost to a strong Harvard club in straight sets, 25-21, 25-17 and 25-18.

After an unsuccessful trip south to take on Penn and Princeton, the Red will try its luck up north against Dartmouth and Harvard, taking on the Green tonight before facing the Crimson tomorrow afternoon. If able to sweep the weekend’s matches, the Red is in position to move into third place after this weekend.

Cornell (6-13, 3-5 Ivy) opens play with a match against Dartmouth (7-11, 3-5). The two squads currently share the fifth place spot in the league behind Cornell’s other opponent — fourth-place Harvard (8-13, 4-4).

The volleyball team broke from recent tradition and did not split its weekend away matches - it lost both of them. The Red (6-12, 3-4 Ivy) dropped two to finish the first half of its Ivy season, losing to the league-leaders Penn (14-4, 7-0 Ivy) on Friday night, 25-16, 25-16, 25-19 before falling to Princeton (6-12, 4-3 Ivy) in four the next day, 25-14, 27-29, 25-11 and 25-21.

“[The weekend] was disappointing,” said head coach Sarah Bernson.

The Friday match was less than the Red’s best work; not that losing to the undefeated Quakers is cause for shame. Penn beat last year’s champions, Yale, and has consistently outgunned its opponents this season with a relentless attack and strong defense.

After a three-week home stand the Red are back on the road. Cornell will have its first all-Ivy weekend away from Ithaca, taking on Penn tonight and Princeton tomorrow afternoon. The Red are currently tied for third in a wide-open Ivy League race.

First up for Cornell (6-11, 3-3 Ivy) are the first-place Quakers (14-4, 5-0). Penn has paraded through the rest of the Ivy League, opening its conference schedule with five-straight wins on the road. Their match with the Red will be their first chance to play against a conference opponent at The Palestra this season.

The volleyball team may not have been completely satisfied with its homecoming performance, but it did at least one-up the football team, winning one of its two matches this weekend. Cornell (6-11, 3-3 Ivy) bested Brown (4-12, 0-5 Ivy), 3-1, on Saturday, but was not as successful on Friday night, losing to a tough Yale squad (14-2, 4-1 Ivy) in straight sets, 3-0.

Check Monday's edition of The Cornell Daily Sun for more coverage

Fordham 39, Football 27

Fordham quarterback John Skelton picked apart Cornell's defense on Saturday afternoon, throwing for 421 yards and five touchdowns on 21-of-27 attempts. Jason Caldwell caught four of the touchdown passes, a school record, but Asa Lucas had the play of the game. Facing a third-and-nine from his own two-yard line on the first snap of the second quarter, Skelton found Lucas about 40 yards downfield, and the wideout took it to the end zone to put the Rams up, 13-3.

After last week’s thrilling victory over Dartmouth, the volleyball team is gearing up for another big performance in this weekend’s back-to-back matches against Yale and Brown.

The Red (5-10, 2-2 Ivy) will play host to the Bulldogs (12-2, 2-1 Ivy) tonight in Newman Arena, and will then face off with the Bears (4-10, 0-3 Ivy) tomorrow afternoon. The back-to-back matches will be a chance for the Red to prove its ability to perform consistently, and emerge with a win on both Friday and Saturday.

Following a trend that is becoming more and more predictable, the volleyball team split its weekend matches at home during Fall Break, losing to Harvard, 25-21, 20-25, 18-25 and 17-25 on Friday evening, before defeating its higher-ranked opponent, Dartmouth, the next afternoon, 25-17, 25-22, 22-25 and 26-24.

“A split weekend is an example of our inconsistency,” said head coach Sarah Bernson. “I think we beat the better of the two teams.”

On subsequent weekends at the end of September and beginning of October, Dartmouth (7-7, 3-1 Ivy) defeated Harvard (6-9, 2-2 Ivy) in straight sets. Cornell (5-10, 2-2 Ivy) will face both teams once more this season.

On a day when neither team could get much going through the air, Harvard's ground game picked up the slack, rushing for 251 yards and all four touchdowns and giving up only 62 to a struggling Cornell running attack that has averaged just 57 yards over its last three games. The win boosted Harvard (3-1, 2-0 Ivy), the preseason favorite to win the Ivy League, to the top of the conference standings, while dropping Cornell (2-2, 1-1) into a fourth-place tie with Yale.