April 19, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The sixth-ranked Penn State women's lacrosse team will close out American Lacrosse Conference play Sunday, April 21 when it travels to No. 19 Johns Hopkins for a noon matchup. The game at Homewood Field will broadcast live on ESPNU.
With one ALC game remaining, Penn State (10-4, 3-1 ALC) can finish as high as the No. 1 seed or as low as the No. 4 seed for the ALC championships based on a variety of scenarios. In addition to the Penn State-Johns Hopkins (9-5, 1-2 ALC) game, both the Florida-Northwestern matchup Saturday, April 20 and the Johns Hopkins-Ohio State clash April 28 have playoff seeding implications that affect Penn State.
Regardless of the other two matchups, if the Nittany Lions defeat the Blue Jays Sunday, Penn State will earn no worse than the No. 3 seed for the ALC championships, which is slated for May 2-5 at Homewood Field. In addition to playoff seeding, the Nittany Lions are looking to secure their first 4-1 conference mark since 2006.
Penn State, which earned its fourth straight 10-win season with a victory against Lafayette April 17, will face its seventh ranked opponent of the season when it clashes with the Blue Jays. The Nittany Lions boast the NCAA's 16th-ranked offense, while ranking 20th in points and 25th in draw controls per game.
Sophomore attacker Maggie McCormick (Eldersburg, Md.), who paces the Nittany Lions in assists and a career-high 36 goals and 63 points, ranks 19th in the country in points per game and 25th in assists. The Eldersburg, Md., native and junior attacker Mackenzie Cyr (Westminster, Md./25g, 21a), who has recorded at least one point in a team-high 21 straight games, are the only Nittany Lions with at least 10 goals and 10 assists.
Sophomore midfielder Kelly Lechner (Silver Spring, Md.) paces the team with 37 draw controls, while senior defender Katie Guy (Whitby, Ont.) leads Penn State with a career-high 33 ground balls and 24 caused turnovers.
The Blue Jays will enter the game as winners of their last two games and have held their opponents to 10 goals or fewer in seven of their nine victories. Johns Hopkins has played three common non-conference foes and has won all three games against Bucknell (19-4), Loyola (11-8) and Virginia (9-8).
Junior attacker Taylor D'Amore, who leads the team in ground balls (24) and draw controls (47), ranks ninth in the country in assists and is 20th in points. Junior midfielder Sarah Taylor paces the team with 33 goals and is tied for the team lead with sophomore Octavia Williams with 13 caused turnovers. Between the pipes, goalkeeper Cosette Larash has garnered an 8-5 record with a 10.09 goals-against average and .428 save percentage.
The Nittany Lions, who went 1-1 against the Blue Jays in 2012, lead the all-time series against Johns Hopkins by a 9-4 margin. Last season, Penn State defeated the Blue Jays by a 12-9 margin in the regular season before falling to the squad, 13-12, in the ALC quarterfinals. In their two games last season, McCormick (5g, 2a) and Cyr (4g, 3a) led the Nittany Lions with seven points each.
Following Sunday afternoon's game, the Nittany Lions will close out the regular season Saturday, April 27 when they travel to No. 13/17 Princeton. Game time is set at 1 p.m.