Oct. 19, 2008
EVANSTON, Ill. - The No. 10 Penn State field hockey team continued its winning ways, toppling Northwestern, 4-0, in Evanston, Ill. for its seventh consecutive win. The victory, coupled with Michigan's victory over No. 4 Michigan State Friday, elbows the Nittany Lions into first place in the Big Ten with three conference games remaining on their schedule.
Penn State (11-4 overall, 3-0 Big Ten) used 22 penalty corners and 17 first-half shots to command its way over the Wildcats. Jen Beaumont (Chalfont, Pa.) and Ali Meves (Lower Gwynedd, Pa.) combined to make five saves and earned the team's seventh shutout of the season.
Allison Scola (Hummelstown, Pa.) scored two goals and added one assist for a total of five points as she increased her point streak to six games.
After a seemingly back-and-forth first ten minutes that saw the Wildcats and Nittany Lions trade penalty corners and shots, Scola broke open the scoring when she dribbled the ball into midfield and backhanded a shot past Northwestern goalkeeper Emily Kyle to add one to the scoreboard at 11:50.
Scola, who had nine of her 10 shots on goal, scored her first multi-goal game since she tallied three goals the last time Penn State played in Evanston in 2006. She scored her second penalty shot of the season when she was fouled inside of the circle at the 30-minute mark.
After Scola's first goal, the Nittany Lion offense flickered. Christine Dudek (Harleysville, Pa.) bagged the team's second goal at 15:07 when she picked up a loose ball off a blocked Amy Bonenberger (Palmyra, Pa.) shot and laced it into the back of the net.
Penn State secured its first penalty-corner goal with 15 seconds remaining left in the first half to give itself a four-goal lead going into the second half. Daneen Zug (Manheim, Pa.) knocked in her team-leading eighth goal of the season off a corner opportunity set up by Scola and Jen Long (Doylestown, Pa.). Zug has netted a goal in four of the past five games.
The Nittany Lions out-shot Northwestern, 23-7. It had a distinct advantage, 22-10, in penalty corner opportunities. Northwestern's Kyle had 12 stops to surpass 100 for the season.
Head coach Char Morett's defense held an opponent scoreless in the second half for the 11th time this season.
Penn State returns home this weekend for two conference bookings. On Friday, the Nittany Lions host Indiana at 5 p.m. on Friday. The match against the Hoosiers is field hockey's Code Blue Day, which features an opportunity to win a semester's worth of textbooks, and "You Can Win a Car" Day, in which a selected student will have a chance to hit a half-court shot for a new vehicle. Penn State plays its Senior Day game at Michigan at home at noon on Sunday. The game against the Wolverines is the final event at home this season.