May 6, 2015
| #7 PENN STATE vs. #17 HOPKINS | |
| NCAA TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND | |
| 14-4 | 14-3 |
| Friday, May 8 at 4 p.m. | |
| KLÃ-CKNER STADIUM | CHARLOTTESVILLE | |
| GAME DAY CENTRAL | |
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TEAM STATISTICS Penn State | Johns Hopkins | PROMOTIONS Pink Night | Pink Giveaways |
| INSIDE THE NUMBERS | ||
| PSU | 2015 Stats | JHU |
| 14-4 | Overall Record | 14-3 |
| 4-1 | Conference Record | n/a |
| 245 | Goals Scored | 202 |
| 165 | Goals Allowed | 120 |
| 13.61 | Goals Scored/gm. | 11.88 |
| 9.17 | Goals Allowed/gm. | 7.06 |
| 515 | Shots | 472 |
| 28.6 | Shots/gm. | 27.8 |
| 99 | Assists | 90 |
| 41-90 | Free-Position Shots | 23-71 |
| 250 | Ground Balls | 279 |
| 227 | Draw Controls | 194 |
| 199 | Turnovers | 203 |
| 152 | Caused Turnovers | 153 |
| 135 | Saves | 152 |
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The No. 7 Nittany Lion women's lacrosse team opens its fourth straight NCAA Tournament Friday afternoon inside Virginia's Klöckner Stadium against No. 17 Johns Hopkins. Opening draw between the former ALC rivals will take place at 4 p.m. with VirginiaSports.com streaming the game for free.
NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY
Penn State is making its 21st NCAA Tournament appearance this season. Under head coach Missy Doherty, the Nittany Lions are making their fourth straight appearance, a feat not accomplished at PSU since 1993, which was a string of nine in a row.
Penn State is 16-18 all-time in the tournament with a 5-5 mark in neutral site games. PSU has never faced Johns Hopkins in the NCAA Tournament, and could potentially meet Virginia in the second round for the fourth time or Winthrop for the first.
This is the second straight season Penn State will travel to Charlottesville for a tournament matchup. Penn State's best finishes in the tournament are a pair of titles in 1987 and 1989.
DOHERTY, SMITH CLAIM B1G HONORS
The Big Ten Tournament champion Nittany Lion squad was twice honored on Monday afternoon as head coach Missy Doherty and Emi Smith were named the Big Ten Coach and Goaltender of the Year, respectively. Both Doherty and Smith were unanimous selections by the Big Ten coaches.
Doherty orchestrated Penn State's first tournament championship in her fifth season at the helm. Personally, Doherty collects her second coach of the year honor (2004 CAA, at Towson), while leading her Lions to their fourth straight NCAA Tournament appearance. She is the first Nittany Lion head coach to win a conference coach of the year honor.
A junior goalie, Smith had a breakout year for the Blue & White in anchoring PSU's defense. Smith's timely saves this past weekend helped Penn State win its ninth game in the past 10 outings. Smith ranked second in the Big Ten in save percentage (.458) and GAA (9.18).
Smith started 17 of the team's 18 games this year, logging 960-plus minutes of action and collecting 124 saves en route to a 14-4 record. All of her season stats were career bests and she was named to the Big Ten All-Tournament Team.
LIONS WIN INAUGURAL B1G TOURNEY
The second-seeded Nittany Lions won the inaugural Big Ten Tournament, 13-11, over No. 20 Ohio State on a sunny Sunday afternoon at High Point Solutions Stadium to earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Tatum Coffey scored four goals and defender Abby Smucker was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.
A 3-0 spurt midway through the second half propelled the Nittany Lions (14-4) to their first tournament championship, breaking an eight-all deadlock with 17:09 remaining. Despite OSU's 3-1 ensuing run, Penn State would never relinquish the lead to beat the Buckeyes (13-7) for a second straight time.
Coffey was outstanding all tournament, finishing with seven goals in two games, while Smucker played on a makeshift defense that was comprised solely of midfielders. Penn State kept Ohio State below its season average in goals en route to the victory.
Coffey joined Smucker on the All-Tournament Team, while Jenna Mosketti and Emi Smith also joined in the honors. Mosketti had two goals and a team-high six draw controls, while Smith made seven saves including a crucial stop late on Katie Chase to preserve the win. Chase had four goals and three assists for the Buckeyes.
Penn State's balanced offense featured seven different goal scorers led by Coffey's four and followed by Madison Cyr, Katie O'Donnell and Mosketti each scoring twice.
Steph Lazo had a three-point day on a goal and two assists, while Maggie McCormick pitched in with a goal and an assist. Kristin Brent scored for a second straight game for the Lions.
Penn State out-shot the Buckeyes, 25-24, while coming up even in saves with seven apiece. Both teams had eight turnovers and Penn State cleared 9-of-10 times, while PSU's ride caused five turnovers on 11 Ohio State clearing attempts.
HOW THEY BLUE JAYS GOT HERE
Johns Hopkins (14-3), an independent program, needed an at-large invitation to participate in this year's NCAA Tournament. Buoyed by winning 12 of their last 13 games including a season-ending win at No. 4 Duke, the Blue Jays grabbed one of the 13 at-large bids to play in their second straight NCAA Tournament.
ABOUT THE BLUE JAYS
No. 17 Johns Hopkins used an early 9-1 lead, and held on for the last 18 minutes as Duke mounted an 7-0 run down the stretch, to beat the Blue Devils, 9-8, on Sunday.
The Blue Jays are one of the top defensive teams in the country, allowing only 7.06 goals per game (7th nationally) and 33.7 percent shooting. Hopkins limits opponents to attempt less than 21 shots per game, while forcing nearly 15 turnovers a game. Moreover, JHU rides teams 25 percent of the time.
On offense, Hopkins scores 11.88 goals per game on 42.8 percent shooting, while attempting nearly 28 shots a game.
Dené DiMartino is the team's leader in goals (38), points (49), draw controls (52) and free-position goals (12) this year. Joining her on the attack are Emily Kenul (23g, 18a), Jen Cook (16g, 17a), Kristen Cannon (21g, 11a), Haley Schweizer (27g, 4a), Alexis Maffucci (21g, 7a) and CeCe Finney (24g, 3a).
Defensively, KC Emerson (13-1) is one of the top goalies in the country with a .509 save percentage and a 6.62 GAA in 762 minutes of action. Emerson ranks fourth nationally in both save percentage and goals-against average.
ALL-TIME SERIES VS. JOHNS HOPKINS
The Nittany Lions own an 11-5 series lead against the Blue Jays, having met Johns Hopkins every year since 2002. The two teams were members of the American Lacrosse Conference from 2002-14. PSU has won five of the past seven meetings vs. JHU. The two teams split last year's series with Penn State winning in Happy Valley and Hopkins taking an ALC Tournament battle.
All-Time Series: Penn State leads 11-5
PSU Streak: 1 loss
First Meeting: 3/20/02, PSU 13-9
Last Meeting: 5/1/14, JHU 13-10
Last PSU Win: 4/4/14, PSU 14-13
Last JHU Win: 5/1/14, JHU 13-10
Largest PSU Win: 11-4 (4/7/03)
Largest JHU Win: 17-10 (4/27/07)
BALANCED SCORING
The Nittany Lions have received goals from 14 different sources this season with nine different double-digit scorers in all.
Steph Lazo (38) leads the bunch followed by Tatum Coffey (36), Madison Cyr (31), Jenna Mosketti (26), Katie O'Donnell (25), Kelly Lechner (23), Maggie McCormick (22), Jess Loizeaux (10), and Abby Smucker (10).
MCCORMICK STANDS ALONE
Maggie McCormick is the current Penn State record holder for assists (135) and has risen to fourth in all-time points (257). Her point total is the most by a Nittany Lion in a single career since Tami Worley registered 289 in 1986-89. McCormick (122 goals) is 14th all-time at Penn State in scoring.
COFFEY INTO THE RECORD BOOKS
With her dazzling performance at the Big Ten Tournament, Tatum Coffey surged into the Penn State Top 20 for goals (123) and points (165). Those marks rank her 14th and 17th, respectively.
LAZO LEADING THE LIONS
Despite missing two games with injury, Penn State sophomore Steph Lazo is the team's leader in goals with 38.
Lazo had a five-goal game against Lehigh and a hat trick against Bucknell before scoring two vs. Duquesne. She found the back of the net once more against Virginia in February and added another hat trick vs. Loyola on March 7.
Lazo's hat trick against Stanford was her fourth game with three or more goals before she added two more tallied at Rutgers. Lazo notched her sixth game of three or more goals vs. Ohio State and recorded hat tricks at Cornell, at Northwestern, at Maryland and again vs. Northwestern, giving her nine games this season with at least three goals.
In all, Lazo has 47 points on the season, tied for second-most on the team. She trails only Maggie McCormick (63, 22-41). Entering 2015, Lazo had only one goal to her name.
FIVE LIONS EARN ALL-BIG TEN DISTINCTION
The Big Ten Conference announced its first women's lacrosse all-conference team on Wednesday, April 29, and it features five Nittany Lions. Maggie McCormick (Eldersburg, Md.), Tatum Coffey (Toms River, N.J.) and Abby Smucker (Bel Air, Md.) each received unanimous selection, while Madison Cyr (Westminster, Md.) and Emi Smith (Denver, Colo.) rounded out Penn State's All-Big Ten roster.
The Nittany Lions made up 25 percent of the inaugural All-Big Ten Team, with No. 1 Maryland taking home seven spots. In addition to the five representatives, McCormick represents Penn State as the team's Sportsmanship Award honoree.
MCCORMICK NAMED A TEWAARATON NOMINEE FOR A SECOND TIME
Senior attacker Maggie McCormick (Eldersburg, Md.) was named to a Tewaaraton Award nominee on Thursday (April 23) afternoon. McCormick is one of the top 25 women's lacrosse players in the nation up for the highest award in collegiate lacrosse.
From the 25 nominees, a finalists list of five athletes will be selected with their male counterparts on Thursday, May 7 to be invited to the ceremony. The 15th annual Tewaaraton Award Ceremony will be May 28 in Washington at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian.
McCormick is a nominee for the second time in her career (2013 as a sophomore). One of the top distributors in college lacrosse, McCormick is fifth in the nation in assists (35) and assists per game (2.33).
NITTANY LIONS IN THE RANKINGS
The Nittany Lions held steady at No. 7 following its two wins in the Big Ten Tournament, while moving up a spot unofficially in the NCAA RPI to No. 8.
POSSIBLE NEXT GAME
The winner of Penn State-Johns Hopkins will face the winner of Virginia-Winthrop on Sunday at 4 p.m. That game will take place at UVa with a free live stream available on VirginiaSports.com.