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Box Score | Postgame Comments | Highlights University Park, Pa. • Holuba Hall • Attendance: 193 | 11 |
Feb. 25, 2014
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Senior Mackenzie Cyr (Westminster, Md.) and junior Maggie McCormick (Eldersburg, Md.) led the Nittany Lions with three points each as the No. 8/8 Penn State women's lacrosse team defeated Duquesne, 11-7, at Holuba Hall Tuesday night.
An Eldersburg, Md., native, McCormick netted her 12th career three-goal game, while Cyr added two markers and an assist. Both juniors Tatum Coffey (Toms River, N.J.) and Jess Loizeaux (Mullica Hill, N.J.) recorded a goal and an assist each, while juniors Kristin Brent (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) and Kelly Lechner (Silver Spring, Md.) and freshmen Abby Smucker (Bel Air, Md.) and Natalie Schmitt (Malvern, Pa.) all scored.
Senior defender Evan Foulsham (Madison, N.J.) paced the squad with a career-high three caused turnovers, while sophomore Ally Heavens (Garnet Valley, Pa.) collected a personal-best four ground balls. Classmate Jenna Mosketti (Fallston, Md.) secured a game-high five draw controls, and Emi Smith (Denver, Colo.) earned the victory in net.
Penn State out shot the Dukes, 30-11, and held advantages in ground balls (23-13), draw controls (12-8) and caused turnovers (15-14). The Nittany Lions finished 13-for-14 on clears and 4-for-8 on free-position shots, while Duquesne went 11-for-19 and 1-for-3, respectively.
Penn State will return to action Saturday, March 1 when it visits No. 9/16 Virginia for a noon matchup.
In a tightly-played first half, Penn State was unable to pull away from an opportunistic Duquesne team. The Nittany Lions jumped out to a 2-0 lead thanks to a pair of McCormick strikes, but Amanda Kidder, who finished the game with three goals, tallied twice to pull the Dukes even with 14:09 left in the half.
Cyr then scored twice, the latter coming with 9:56 remaining the opening stanza, to retake Nittany Lions' two-goal lead. The Dukes and Penn State then exchanged the final three goals, including a free-position strike from Brent, in the frame as the home team ended the first half with a 5-4 advantage.
In the second half, Duquesne opened with three of the first four goals as it took its only lead of the game at 7-6 with 23:42 on the clock. After Kidder's go-ahead goal, the Nittany Lions responded with five unanswered tallies to end the game.
With 22:22 left, Schmitt scored a free-position goal before Smucker gave Penn State an 8-7 lead at 10:09. Loizeaux extended the advantage with a free-position marker of her own before Lechner and Coffey scored with 4:10 and 1:24 remaining, respectively, to account for the 11-7 final.