Women's lacrosse trounces Penn State to avenge tourney loss

Revenge is sweet.

One year after being knocked out 9-7 in overtime of the NCAA quarterfinals by Penn State, the women's lacrosse team made sure this year's contest against the No. 13 Nittany Lions (3-4) in University Park, Pa., would not be in doubt late in the game.

The No. 4 Tigers (5-1 overall, 1-0 Ivy League) jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first nine minutes, 43 seconds of the game on the strength of sophomore attack Kim Smith's four early goals. The Tigers would ride that early lead to a 19-8 win.

"Kim's a great scorer," sophomore midfielder Mimi Hammerberg said. "Those goals that she scored early on really excited the whole team."

Smith was especially motivated to come out strong after having been red-carded in the first half of last year's game and being forced to sit out and watch Penn State celebrate the end of Princeton's 1999 campaign from the sidelines.

"In the back of my mind I was thinking about how tough it was to sit on the sidelines," Smith said. "After last year I think we all had that bitter taste in our mouth and wanted to come out strong."

After the Tigers made the score 7-0, Penn State responded with two goals in the next four minutes by attackers B.J. Lucey and Julie Tice, but Princeton would not lose the momentum. The Tigers came back to take control of the game once again. Sophomore attack Charlotte Kenworthy finished off the half by firing a shot past Nittany Lion goalie Megan Ames with only three seconds left to give the Tigers a 12-3 lead going into the locker room.

Distribution

Princeton did not let up after halftime as freshman attack Liza Hillenbrand notched one of her two goals only eight seconds into the second half. After two more quick Tiger goals put the score at 15-3, head coach Chris Sailer put some of her reserves in to rest the starters. Freshman attack Sarah Small and junior midfielder Jen Gray responded by each scoring their first goals of the season.

"It was not only nice to see a bunch of people get into the game but it was also good to see a bunch of people get to score," Kenworthy said.

Nine Tigers were able to notch goals on the day, led by Smith's five. Kenworthy and junior attack Julie Shaner tallied three of their own and senior midfielder Hilary Maddox and Hillenbrand each had two. Small, Gray, Hammerberg and freshman attack Whitney Miller each put up goals in the win as well.

"It makes it hard for other teams to key on any one player, since we all could step up and score two or three goals if someone has a bad day," Shaner said.

Turnovers were the key statistic in the Princeton win as the Tigers controlled just nine of the 28 faceoffs but had only eight turnovers to Penn State's 26. Those turnovers led to numerous transition opportunities for the Tigers and helped ignite the early attack.

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"We were focusing on creating turnovers in the middle of the field in the beginning," Smith said. "By doing that, I think it gave us a good chance to score quickly without giving them a chance to come back."

The Princeton defense was not tested often, but when it was, senior goaltender and last week's Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week — Laura Field — came up strong. She made six saves on 12 shots in the first 50 minutes before being replaced by junior Jennie Platt, who made two saves in the final 10 minutes of the contest.

With the win over another ranked opponent, the Tigers proved that they are deserving of such a high national ranking and are prepared for Friday's home showdown with No. 3 Virginia.

"We felt like we should have been able to win this game without it being too close," Shaner said. "We're going to have to play another strong team game to beat Virginia, though."