Women’s Lacrosse Falls to Princeton

Story posted March 20, 2018 in CommRadio, Sports by Tom Shively

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Kyla Sears and Elizabeth George both notched three goals for the visiting Princeton as the No. 16 Tigers (4-2) took down No. 17 Penn State (6-4), 13-12, on Wednesday afternoon at Panzer Stadium.

It was a rematch of last year’s NCAA quarterfinals, when the Nittany Lions took down the Tigers by two goals to advance to the Final Four for the second straight year.

However, today’s result went the other way, and the defending Ivy League champions showed why they are one of the premier teams in the country.

Penn State had the hot start as the Nittany Lions jumped out to a 4-0 lead less than 10 minutes into the game. The Nittany Lions opened the lead to as high as five two different times, pushing the score to 7-2 before Princeton finally got on the board.

The Nittany Lions and Tigers exchanged goals in the last three minutes of the half, and Penn State took an 8-5 lead into the locker room at halftime.

After a Katie O’Donnell goal for Penn State, Princeton completely started to shift the feel of the game.

The Tigers ran off five straight goals to grab the lead for the first time, 10-9 just under 10 minutes into the half.

Princeton goalie Sam Fish was key in keeping Penn State off the board during this run with a couple of huge saves. She finished with 11 on the night.

“Our defense made some really good settled stops, I think we got a little more aggressive on our double-teaming,” Penn State head coach Missy Doherty said. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t put our shots away in the second half. We had some really good looks and they made some really good saves.”

Penn State came back to tie twice, but two more Princeton goals later in the half gave them a multi-goal lead.

Kayla Brisolari was able to cut the Tiger lead to one with 4:12 remaining on her second goal of the game.

The Nittany Lions had one final chance to tie as they had possession with 40 seconds left on the clock, but a shot that would have sent the game to overtime went wide of the net in the final seconds, sealing the Princeton win.

“We need to do a better job of finishing down the stretch,” Brisolari said. “Yeah, we’re up in the middle of the first half and we need to pull on that momentum the whole game as oppose to letting it slip through our fingertips.”

Despite being outshot by 10, Princeton had the advantage in both ground balls and draw controls, playing a more aggressive style than Penn State down the stretch.

“They’re a scrappy team and did a good job hustling out some balls in the second half,” Doherty said.

The Nittany Lions have a quick turnaround, as they next play Thursday at home against No. 22 Johns Hopkins. It will be the team’s third game in six days.

 

Tom Shively is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email shivelyt97@gmail.com.