April 25, 2009
BALTIMORE - The Penn State women's lacrosse team (8-7, 2-2 ALC) eked out a 12-11 victory over Johns Hopkins (5-11, 0-4 ALC) on Saturday afternoon at the Blue Jays' Homewood Field in Baltimore, securing it the No. 2 seed in next week's ALC Championship. The No. 2 seed is the Nittany Lions' highest in the history of the three-year tournament.
Junior Erica Mihm (Annapolis, Md.) scored a game-high four goals to lead the PSU attack against the Blue Jays. For the second consecutive game, senior Marisa Lozano (Pittsburgh, Pa.) tallied three assists and reigning ALC Rookie of the Week, freshman Theresa Zichelli (Severna Park, Md.), netted three goals.
After Johns Hopkins took a 1-0 lead at the 26:25 mark, Zichelli got Penn State on the scoreboard and knotted the game with her 16th goal of the season off a free position attempt. Mihm gave the Nittany Lions their first lead of the game a short time later, when she scored off a pass from Lozano. The Blue Jays recouped their advantage with back-to-back goals in the span of just over a minute to go up 3-2.
A 3-0 run, which included goals by Mihm, Laura Lincicome (Berwyn, Pa.), and Laura Lesnick (Jarrettsville, Md.), provided Penn State with its largest lead of the game to that point at 5-3 with 11:17 remaining in the first half. Each team would net two more before the break, resulting in a 7-5 Nittany Lion halftime advantage.
Penn State came out strong in the second half, upping its lead to 10-5 with two goals from Erica Mihm and one from Theresa Zichelli. Johns Hopkins responded though, putting together a 3-0 scoring rally to pull back within two goals. A goal by PSU's Theresa Bucci (Hudson, Ohio) at the 13:45 mark halted the scoring stretch but the Blue Jays weren't done yet. After the teams traded goals over the next five minutes, JHU nearly pulled off the upset, scoring two to pull within one goal with 2:56 remaining. Penn State, however, was able to hold on and gain its eighth win of the season.
The Nittany Lions will serve as hosts of the 2009 ALC Championship from April 30-May 2 at Jeffrey Field. They will face No. 3 seed Ohio State (11-5, 2-2 ALC), a team they defeated by a score of 13-9 last weekend, in a semifinal match-up on Fri., May 1 at 5:30 p.m. Fourth-seeded Vanderbilt (9-5, 1-3 ALC) and No. 5 seed Johns Hopkins will play in the opening round game of the championship on Thurs., April 30 at 3:00 p.m. Top seed Northwestern (17-0, 4-0 ALC) will take on the winner of the Vanderbilt-Johns Hopkins game on Friday at 3:00 p.m. The title game is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Sat., May 2.
Tickets for the 2009 ALC Championship will be sold on game day at the gate only. Ticket prices are $7 for Adults, Student/youth $4. Groups of 20 or more (any age) are $3.