Oct. 30, 2016
By Jack Dougherty, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State suffered an early exit from the Big Ten tournament at the hands of Rutgers on Sunday afternoon on a soggy Jeffrey Field.
The Nittany Lions are the defending tournament champions and won a share of the Big Ten regular season title in 2016. Despite the successful regular season, the No. 2 seed fell 2-0 to the No. 7 seed Scarlet Knights Sunday afternoon.
"Credit to Rutgers today," head coach Erica Dambach said. "Obviously, that's a team we're familiar with. They came out with more fire than we did, and I think they set the tone early in the game. They imposed themselves on us and we were never really able to find a foothold in this game today."
Penn State outshot Rutgers 13-7 and 7-4 in shots on goal. The Lions only managed two shots in a rainy first half, which is tied for their lowest number of shots in any half this year.
Both Nickolette Driesse and Megan Schafer hit the crossbar in the game. Another promising chance occurred in the 58th minute when a string of clever passes ended with a Marissa Sheva one-on-one with Rutgers goalkeeper Alana Jimenez, but Jimenez was able to save Sheva's close-range effort.
"I think certainly we created enough opportunities to put one in the back of the net, but overall I just think that we were too reactive to what was going on on the field today," said Dambach.
Defensively, goalie Amanda Dennis had two saves in the match for the Nittany Lions.
Although it wasn't the planned result, this isn't a time to sulk for Penn State. It's imperative that Dambach and her troops stay focused on the upcoming NCAA tournament commencing on Friday November 11, which they plan to do.
Penn State ran the table to win its first NCAA championship in team history last season after winning the Big Ten tournament. This year will be a little different coming off a loss in the quarterfinals, but the goal remains the same.
The Lions will rely heavily on Driesse going forward as the only senior in the starting lineup. In her first three collegiate seasons Driesse reached the national championship each year, twice with Florida State and once with Penn State.
Driesse has two national championships to her name, but she isn't satisfied. She will be the leader on and off the field when Penn State begins tournament play in less than two weeks.
"I think that [the team] believes in Nicki Driesse," Dambach said. "They believe in her leadership, and obviously she's gonna want to go as far as she can with it being her senior year. I think it's important to jump on the ship with her right now."