Sep 6, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State began its regular season home schedule on Friday evening by hosting Temple in an intrastate clash. The Owls were exceptionally opportunistic in the match and knocked off the No. 6 Lions by a final of 3-0.
The story of the match was the penalty corner production, as Temple found the cage on 3-of-4 attempts, while Penn State's 12 efforts resulted in no goals.
PSU started off strong with a penalty corner in just the second minute of the game. Unfortunately, they were unable to capitalize on the attempt.
Minutes later, the visitors did what the Nittany Lions could not and found the back of the cage on their first penalty corner opportunity of the match. Nicole Kroener sent the ball to stopper Rachel Steniman, who laid off a pass to Maddy Doyle who finished past the outstretched keeper.
Temple struck again in the 28th minute, coming from another penalty corner situation. Amber Youtz fired a shot off of a pass from Doyle to give Temple a 2-0 lead.
With just 90 seconds left in the opening frame, Penn State's Laura Gebhart (Mount Joy, Pa.) fired an impressive shot forcing Temple's Lizzy Millen into making a tough save.
The Nittany Lions led the match in every statistical category at the break but were down by a score of 2-0. PSU outshot the Owls by a total of 5-3 and attempted five penalty corners to Temple's three.
Unfortunately for the Nittany Lions, the second half played out much like the first. The Blue and White attempted seven second half penalty corners but were unable to capitalize on any of the opportunities. In the 45th minute, the Lions had an impressive corner that produced three shots on goal but all three shots were turned away by Millen to keep PSU scoreless.
Like in the first half, Temple made good on its opportunities off penalty corner set pieces. The Owls added to their lead with just under 13 minutes remaining in the game off their only shot in the entire second half. Doyle scored her second goal of the contest to give the Owls the 3-0 victory.
Despite dominating the statistics, the hosts just could not produce the finishing touch. Penn State ended up outshooting the visitors by a count of 16-4 and attempted 12 corners to Temple's four but was unable to produce any goals. The loss drops PSU's record to 1-2 on the season.
The Nittany Lions wrap up their homestand on Sunday, Sept. 8, when the team hosts No. 4 Connecticut at the Penn State Field Hockey Complex. PSU has played UConn 36 times in program history with the series record knotted up at 16-16-4. The match is slated to start at noon.