April 30, 2011
PRINCETON, N.J. - The No. 13 Penn State women's lacrosse team saw a three-game winning streak snapped on Saturday afternoon, as the Nittany Lions dropped a 19-10 non-conference road decision to No. 15 Princeton (9-6) in their 2011 regular season finale.
Penn State (9-7) employed a balanced attack, as four different players, Jackie Eastman (Springfield, Pa.), Molly Fernandez (Baltimore), Jen Steadman (Sykesville, Md.), and Theresa Zichelli (Severna Park, Md.), scored two goals each. Eastman added an assist to give her a team high three points while freshman Mackenzie Cyr (Westminster, Md.) notched her 10th goal and her team best 20th assist of the year. American Lacrosse Conference Player of the Year candidate Maggie Dunbar (Cockeysville, Md.) played an all-around standout game, contributing one assist, five draw controls, three ground balls, and three caused turnovers.
After Princeton's Lizzy Drumm netted the first of her five goals at 24:54 to begin the scoring, Cyr would earn the Nittany Lions their lone tie of the game two minutes later with an unassisted goal. A subsequent 3-0 run by the Tigers, including two free position conversions, made the game 4-1, forcing PSU head coach Missy Doherty to burn an early timeout.
The stoppage worked in Penn State's favor, as just 21 seconds later Fernandez scored to cut into the Princeton lead. However, that momentum shift was temporary, as the Tigers then blew the game wide open, outscoring the Lions, 5-1, throughout the remainder of the half, including a goal with three seconds left on the clock.
Down 9-3, Penn State headed into the break aiming to summon a third consecutive come-from-behind second half effort. Very early on, things look good, as Zichelli scored her second straight goal to slice the Princeton lead to five. However, that would be as close the Nittany Lions would get.
Princeton would put together two 3-0 runs over the next 11-plus minutes, interrupted only by an Aly Adams (Springfield, Pa.) goal at the 21:47 mark and Fernandez's second with 16:11 remaining, to make the game 15-6.
The teams would trade scores over the next eight minutes but back-to-back goals by Princeton at 6:40 and 4:20 provided the Tigers with a commanding 19-8 advantage.
Late goals by Steadman and Eastman pulled Penn State to within nine but it was too little too late. The postseason begins for the Nittany Lions next week when they travel to Nashville, Tenn. and the host campus of Vanderbilt University for the 2011 ALC Championship. Third-seeded Penn State will play No. 6 seed Johns Hopkins at 6:30 p.m. ET in a quarterfinal match-up on Thursday, May 5. The first round will begin earlier in the day when the fourth and fifth seeds meet at 4 p.m. ET. Semifinal action is scheduled for Friday, May 6 and will feature top-seeded Florida taking on the 4-5 seed winner (4 p.m. ET) and No. 2 seed Northwestern clashing with the 3-6 seed victor (6:30 ET). The ALC Championship title contest will take place on Saturday, May 7 at 2 p.m. ET. All games will be played at the home of the Commodores, Vanderbilt Lacrosse Stadium.
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