After a three week layoff that included winter vacation, the Harvard women's hockey team returned to action rested and somewhat rusty but turned around its recent woes and watched a milestone in the process.

The Crimson split its first series of the new year, falling to No. 3 St. Lawrence, 3-2, on Saturday and defeating Cornell 5-3 yesterday at Bright Hockey Center.

The No.5 Crimson (9-6-0, 9-2-0 ECAC) failed to complete the regular season sweep of the Saints, having already defeated St. Lawrence (10-3-3, 7-1-2 ECAC) 2-1 on its home ice on Dec. 3.

However, Harvard completed its sweep of the Big Red (5-8-1, 3-8-1 ECAC), beating Cornell1 3-1.

A victory against St. Lawrence would have given the Crimson sole possesion of first place in the ECAC, since No.1 Dartmouth fell to No. 8 Northeastern on Friday.

Its win against Cornell did move Harvard into the top spot, but the Crimson could eventually be overtaken by Dartmouth, Northeastern or St. Lawrence. All have played fewer conference games.

The highlight of the weekend came yesterday against the Big Red, when Crimson senior forward Tammy Shewchuk broke former teammate A.J. Mleczko's '99 record for career scoring.

Shewchuck scored her 258th career point, passing Mleczko's mark of 257.