No Place Like Home For Penn State Women’s Lacrosse

Story posted April 18, 2013 in CommRadio, Sports by Dan Cronin

It was home sweet home once again for the Penn State Women’s Lacrosse team.

Penn State defeated Lafayette by a final score of 19-10 at the Penn State Lacrosse Field. With the victory the No. 6 ranked Nittany Lions improve to 10-4 on the season and finish the year 6-0 at home. This was Penn State’s first undefeated home record since 1991.

Head coach Missy Doherty said she is very proud of what her team has done so far.

“It’s a great accomplishment for our team and a credit to the girls,” Doherty said. “They’ve worked really hard and it’s really fun to have some big wins at home.”

Senior Molly Fernandez who finished with four goals and one assist led the Nittany Lions. The captain went out with a bang in her final home game. Penn State also got a significant contribution out of Mackenzie Cyr, who had a goal and four assists.  

Lafayette took the opening faceoff and got out to a quick start. Junior midfielder Laura Klieber got the Leopards on the board first with a goal at the 29:17 mark of the first half.

Penn State responded quickly to the early deficit with a flurry of three goals in a span of less than a minute. The goals came from Maggie McCormick, Ally Heavens, and Kelly Lechner.

Heavens was starting in place of sophomore midfielder Tatum Coffey who suffered a rib injury during pre-game warm-ups. Heavens finished with three goals on the evening. Coffey entered the game with 19:12 remaining in the first half.

Penn State allowed a Lafayette goal to trim the Nittany Lion’s lead to 3-2, but they buckled down defensively from there. Penn State’s defense forced the Leopards into a drought of 10:57 without a goal.

The upstart Lafayette team would not go away for most of the first half thanks to very good execution of their offensive and defensive schemes.

Penn State was able to open up a 6-4 lead following a McCormick goal, but Lafayette quickly knotted the score up at 6-6 with 7:50 left in the first half after getting a pair of spectacular goals from freshman Carlianne Mccabe.

After the tie Penn State took control of the game by scoring five unanswered goals to finish the half and took an 11-6 lead into the break.

“Our offense has worked well all year,” Doherty said. “Having those runs was key to changing the momentum of the game." 

Lafayette scored the first two goals of the second half to cut the deficit to 11-8, but Penn State responded once again with quick goals from Fernandez and Coffey to get the score back to 13-8.

Coffey appeared to be playing tentatively in the first half, but looked ok later on when she scored a goal.

“ I still feel a little nauseous and a little pain under there,” Coffey said.

Coffey’s injury looked serious at first, but now she does not expect to miss any time.

The Nittany Lions would cruise to victory the rest of the way, leading by as many as 10 goals. Doherty took the opportunity to get playing time for some of the less experienced players on her roster.  

Penn State is in action again this Sunday when they visit Johns Hopkins at noon in their final conference game of the season.  

Dan Cronin is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him email djc5353@gmail.com.