April 14, 2016
By: Shannon Rostick, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- The Penn State women's lacrosse team fell in their first loss at home against Cornell Wednesday afternoon, by a score of 10-7. The Nittany Lions fought hard, but the Big Red used their aggressive defense and dynamic offense to clinch a victory.
Penn State started off strong with sophomore Katie O'Donnell earning the first goal of the game, just three minutes into the first half.
After that, Cornell was able to gain possession off of the draw and brought the ball down to Penn State's goal, where they earned themselves the second goal of the game off a free position.
Junior Steph Lazo put in the next goal of the game to take the lead again, assisted by freshman Madison Carter, after beating out the defense and getting off a successful shot on an open goal.
Penn State continued their streak with senior Madison Cyr scoring another goal after gaining possession off of the draw.
Cyr followed that up with another yet another successful shot on the net, after she picked up a ground ball and was able to get an immediate shot off on goal around the 12-minute mark to give PSU a 4-1 lead.
At this point Cornell started to gain back momentum, netting five goals in the latter part of the first half, compared to Penn State's one goal, scored by senior Jenna Mosketti.
At the conclusion of the first half, Cornell held a lead of 6-5. This early lead was a result of Cornell's strong defense and long offensive possessions.
Head coach Missy Doherty discussed the team's play during the first half and how it affected the outcome of the game.
"We needed to be aggressive and we were playing on our heels too much waiting to see what the other team was going to do," said Doherty.
She also talked about the game as a whole and what she would have liked to see from her team to earn themselves a win.
"Cornell did a really good job of being aggressive and we just couldn't get into a rhythm. We weren't getting the draw and it's hard to get into a rhythm when you aren't getting those possessions," said Doherty.
Doherty also believes that it is essential for their offense to get shots off at crucial times to keep up the team's momentum, and that was just something that did not happen this game.
Going into the second half of the game, Penn State was only down by one point, giving them a good chance of earning a comeback.
Unfortunately, Cornell continued their four-goal streak from the first half and nabbed the next two goals in the second, bringing the score up to 8-5.
Cyr broke up this streak by faking it past multiple defenders and netting Penn State's sixth goal of the game, earning herself a hat-trick.
The momentum did not last long for the Nittany Lions, as Cornell came back and scored another two goals.
Senior Erika Spilker said that Cornell's frequent cuts on offense were a huge contributing factor to their success during the game, although she did say she thought the defense worked well together against their ivy league counterparts.
"Their offense does a lot of cuts and they had some good players, which made it a tough game, but we really worked as one defense today as opposed to individuals and that was good for us," said Spilker.
With the defense working hard to stop Cornell's strong offensive efforts, Penn State really needed to see some success from their own offense to try and even up the score.
The team was able to net one more goal in the game, thanks to Lazo, but it was not enough to earn a Penn State victory.
Lazo contributed much of Cornell's victory to their long possessions on offense, which took away many of the opportunities that she and the rest of the Penn State offense had to get off shots on net and score.
After a two-game losing streak, the Nittany Lions are looking to redeem themselves and earn another win in their season. Their next opportunity to earn that win is this Sunday, April 17 against Michigan State starting at 1 p.m.