April 20, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -
F ollowing a pair of away victories, two Penn State women's lacrosse players earned Big Ten weekly awards on Monday afternoon. Sophomore attacker Steph Lazo (Stevensville, Md.) and junior goalie Emi Smith (Denver, Colo.) were named Big Ten Offensive and Co-Defensive Players of the Week, respectively.
Lazo, the team's leader in goals with 31, registered a pair of hat tricks and tossed an assist during a seven-point week in wins over Cornell and No. 7 Northwestern. Lazo won her first weekly honor of any kind.
At Cornell, Lazo tallied three goals, two ground balls, a draw control and a caused turnover. Two of her goals came early during a 7-0 Penn State first-half run. Against Northwestern, Lazo had four points to beat the Wildcats for the first time in 19 tries. PSU's last win came 12 years to the day in 2003. Lazo tallied her seventh game of 3 or more goals with all the tallies coming in the game's opening 30 minutes as PSU built a 10-4 lead over the Wildcats.
Smith again was vital to Penn State's success, tallying 16 saves in a two-win week. At Cornell, Smith had six saves, four of which came in the first half as Penn State used a 7-0 run to build an 8-5 win.
At Northwestern, Smith rose to the occasion, stopping 10 Wildcat efforts in the upset victory. Smith saved five shots in each half, staving off Northwestern's comeback bid from six goals down. The junior netminder currently ranks second in GAA (8.80) in the Big Ten with the second best save percentage at .468.
Lazo and Smith represented Penn State's second straight two-honoree week.
The eighth-ranked Nittany Lions (12-3, 4-0 Big Ten) are riding a seven-game winning streak heading into Thursday's conference finale at No. 1 Maryland. Both teams are undefeated in conference play and the winner will take home the inaugural Big Ten championship and earn the No. 1 seed to the Big Ten Tournament.