April 23, 2016
By Maria Canales, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - After a fruitful four years with Penn State women's lacrosse (11-4, 3-1 Big Ten), which included winning the inaugural Big Ten tournament championship in 2015, the class of 2016 left their mark during Senior Day in Happy Valley. No. 14 Penn State defeated No. 12 Northwestern (7-8, 2-2 Big Ten) 17-13 on Saturday.
"The senior class has helped us turn a corner for our program and you could really see that physically out on the field today," said head coach Missy Doherty. "So those guys coming up big was certainly not a surprise to me because they've done it for four years."
Senior midfielder Madison Cyr led the Nittany Lions by scoring four goals against the Wildcats. Known for her domination in the offensive zone, Cyr also contributed three assists and six shots on Saturday.
At the other end of the field, senior goalkeeper Emi Smith kept the Wildcats at bay as she made nine saves during Saturday's contest.
After a close first half, the Nittany Lions were tied with the Wildcats at seven apiece. During the second half, the Nittany Lions once again found themselves with a tied game at 11 apiece with 18 minutes left to play. With constant lead changes, this was the sixth tie of the game.
With 17:27 left a timeout was called by the Wildcats and Penn State set up in its defensive zone. A turnover caused by senior midfielder Ally Heavens gave the Nittany Lions possession of the ball, and they immediately took it into the Wildcats' zone.
Junior attacker Steph Lazo's shot on net was saved and again the Nittany Lions found themselves on defense. Despite their relentless efforts, the Wildcats were unable to find the back of the net as junior midfielder Abby Smucker caused a turnover.
Once again on offense, the Nittany Lions weaved their way through traffic and down the field. Still tied, Cyr made every effort to bring the ball into the zone. Passing to Lazo, Cyr and her fellow teammates set up their play. A few passes later and it was freshman attacker Madison Carter who gave the Nittany Lions the go-ahead goal, assisted by Cyr.
The Nittany Lions took the lead, 12-11 with 11:16 left to play.
Another lead change forced Penn State to buckle down just a minute later. With the Wildcats up 13-12 and less than ten minutes left in the game, the Nittany Lions surged forward on offense.
Five unanswered goals at the end of the second half gave the Nittany Lions the edge they needed, and beat out Northwestern 17-13. Seniors scored two of the final five goals, one from attacker Jenna Mosketti, her second goal of the game, and one from Cyr, a fitting end to a day celebrating the class of 2016.
"I think we buried our shots and we had some momentum," said Doherty. "We hadn't necessarily gotten momentum in some of our games, we didn't have bad momentum but we just didn't get it but today we go it from Emi [Smith] making some big saves and then we got it from putting our shots away toward the end of the game. It was good to see us capture that kind of momentum and make some big plays when it counted."