Penn goalkeeper Carly Sokach saved a penalty stroke with 12 minutes left against Harvard Saturday, and the Quakers ultimately prevailed for their first Ivy win of the year.

The Crimson, who will take on the Quakers at Franklin Field on Saturday morning, have scored just three goals in five games so far this season.

Elizabeth Hitti’s goal with just over five minutes remaining gave Penn a 4-3 win over La Salle and the oh-so-desperate boost it needed heading into its Ivy home opener against Harvard on Saturday.

Big Red junior Hannah Balleza recorded her first career hat trick, notching three goals in the game’s first 22 minutes.

Rider’s stifling defense kept the Red and Blue (3-2) out of goalkeeper Alicia Carthan’s cage altogether, putting an end to a streak of four games with two scores or more for the Quakers.

Penn, which has already scored 16 goals through four games, will host Rider at Franklin Field on Wednesday night and look to avenge last season’s 7-1 loss to the Broncs.

But despite less-than-ideal conditions, Fink and her team have only prevailed. In 2011, Penn went 3-14 on the season. Four games into 2012, the Quakers have three wins and more goals than they had in their first 12 outings last year.

The Quakers fell short of achieving a team goal of beginning the year 4-0, but the 3-1 start is still the program’s best since 1997.

With just two matches under their belts, the Quakers are already 2-0 and off to their best start since 1997 after defeating Lehigh and Towson in a pair of weekend games at Franklin Field.

On Tuesday, Penn Athletic Director Steve Bilsky announced he would be installing an AstroTurf field in the Penn Park space between the tennis courts and the South Street Bridge.

In a short two-month span, the Red and Blue went from a 7-0 opening loss to American to playing powerhouse Princeton to a tie for most of the season’s final game.

Against the six-time defending Ivy champs, the Red and Blue were the ultimate underdog against Princeton — and they went the distance. The fact that the Quakers ultimately lost, 3-0, almost doesn’t matter

Friday night at Franklin Field, Penn has a chance to play spoiler in its season finale against Princeton, whose top four players have taken a leave of absence this season to play with the U.S. National Olympic Team.

This mentality played directly into the Penn field hockey team’s win over Brown, 3-2, on Saturday afternoon in Providence, R.I.

A problem Penn often faces when it travels to play a team with an AstroTurf field is that it needs to practice on AstroTurf, the default playing surface in Division I field hockey. Unfortunately for the Quakers, Franklin Field is composed of Sprinturf.

Despite an early 1-0 lead, the Penn field hockey team fell to nonconference powerhouse Rider, 7-1, Wednesday in Lawrenceville, N.J.

Despite a halftime lead, Penn field hockey fell to first-place Yale, 2-1, Sunday afternoon at Franklin Field.