| 14 | 13 |
| Penn State Lacrosse Field | University Park | |
| RUNDOWN | ||||
| F | |||
| OSU | 7 | 6 | 13 | |
| PSU | 9 | 5 | 14 |
| SHOTS | 1 | 2 |
OT -->FOSU1712- -->29PSU139- -->22
| SAVES | 1 | 2 |
OT -->FOSU32- -->5PSU63- -->9
| GBs | 1 | 2 |
OT -->FOSU66- -->12PSU65- -->1
| DRAWS | 1 | 2 |
OT -->FOSU116- -->17PSU66- -->12
April 4, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Behind precise shooting, timely saves and pressure defense, the No. 12 Nittany Lion women's lacrosse squad held off No. 18 Ohio State, 14-13, Saturday evening at Penn State Lacrosse Field. Steph Lazo (Stevensville, Md.) had five first-half points and Tatum Coffey (Toms River, N.J.) tossed in four of her own to pace the Nittany Lion offense.
"It's always a battle with them (Ohio State), all the time," head coach Missy Doherty said. "I mean, it's always a good game. We've had a couple hard one-point losses, and this was a great one-point win. We came up big when we needed to, and thankfully we played really well."
Penn State (9-3, 2-0 Big Ten) connected on 11 of its first 15 shots of the game to build a four-goal lead in the second half, and held off a furious Ohio State (10-3, 1-1 Big Ten) charge for the victory. PSU shot 63.6 percent for the game.
Lazo notched three goals, two assists in the opening 30 minutes, while Coffey scored two of her three goals in the second half, while Kelly Lechner (Silver Spring, Md.) and Katie O'Donnell (West Chester, Pa.) each scored two goals. Goalie Emi Smith (Denver, Colo.) made nine saves, six of which came in the first half to help steer PSU into the halftime lead, 9-7.
Penn State scored on its first four shots of the game to open a 4-2 lead as Haley Ford (White Hall, Md.), Lechner, Jenna Mosketti (Fallston, Md.) and Lazo scored in the opening 8:15.
The Buckeyes answered back with a pair of tallies while keeping PSU off the board for over 11 minutes. Lazo scored her second of the game on an Ally Heavens (Garnet Valley, Pa.) helper and Abby Smucker (Bel Air, Md.) tallied her 10th of the year on an eight-meter shot to make it 6-4 with 8:27.
A pair of OSU goals sandwiched Lazo's third of the year and team-leading 24th of the season, cutting the lead to one, 7-6, with 5:07 remaining. That would set up Penn State's decisive 4-1 run that spanned both sides of halftime.
Coffey and O'Donnell scored back-to-back goals 43 seconds apart to open a 9-6 lead before Jackie Cifarelli briefly halted the run for a 9-7 halftime score.
PSU came out firing in the opening 3:25 of the second half as Heavens scored her fourth of the year, dicing up the Ohio State defense with a tremendous run through traffic. Lechner registered her second marker of the night as Madison Cyr (Westminster, Md.) helped on the play to gain PSU's largest lead, 11-7, with 26:35 to go.
Consecutive Jennifer Porretto goals cut the lead in half, but O'Donnell and Coffey responded within 90 seconds of each other to regain the four-goal cushion, 13-9, with 17:15 remaining.
The Buckeyes would finish the game on a 4-1 run to close within 14-13 following Molly Wood's second of the game with 2:27 to go. Mosketti would win the ensuing draw and Lazo's attempt at an insurance tally with 1:27 remaining was stopped by backup goalie Caitlin Hester.
Nevertheless, Coffey would force a turnover of Shannon Rosati just 15 seconds later and O'Donnell scooped up the loose ball and the Nittany Lions killed the clock to ensure the victory.
Ohio State held advantages in shots (29-22), draw controls (17-12) and ground balls (12-11). The Nittany Lions cleared successfully 13 of 15 times, while OSU was 9-for-12. Turnovers were 10-8 for PSU.
Penn State's victory improved the Lions' all-time series record to 18-5 against the Buckeyes.
The Nittany Lions look to start their inaugural Big Ten campaign 3-0 when they host Michigan on Thursday night in Happy Valley. Game time is set for 7 p.m. with a live broadcast on Big Ten Network and BTN2Go.