March 17, 2017
By Ryan Berti, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - With the best program start in nearly three decades, the Nittany Lions went into Spring Break with a 5-0 record and a seemingly endless source of momentum.
Although they would be spending most of the break on campus, Penn State entered week-long academic hiatus with a perfect record and with a chance to clear their minds and focus on the three games on its slate.
The first two games were solid victories for the Blue and White, extending their record to a superb 7-0. But like all good things, they must come to an end, and the Nittany Lions suffered their first loss of the season in the final game before the student body returned to campus again for classes, falling to No. 10 Colorado 16-11.
Even though the spotless record may be gone, head coach Missy Doherty says she finds value even every game, including the team's loss.
"I really think we've taken a lot of learning lessons from every game," Doherty said. "I think after a loss you start overthinking everything so we're trying our best to figure out what's been sort of consistent issues and just improving our intensity defensively for 60 minutes. The other team's going to come at us harder throughout the game so we have to be ready to match their intensity."
The reflection does not last too long, however, Doherty says. After the squad realizes where there is room for improvement, their mindset shifts to the next opponent on the challenging road still lies ahead.
"All of our games are so difficult. We have a pretty tough schedule so you really have to be ready for the next game regardless of what just happened, so I think we've really felt that with the teams that we're playing. You don't really have time to think about anything else other than the team you're playing," Doherty said.
That opponent this time happens to be the Rutgers Scarlett Knights.
Rutgers marks the start of the Nittany Lions' Big Ten schedule, one that Doherty says is no cake walk but still a welcome challenge they look forward to each year.
"I think it's one of the toughest conferences in the country," Doherty said. "Every year there's different rivals for different reasons. Opening up with Rutgers, we want to make sure we're representing Penn State well in the Big Ten. Lacrosse is fairly new to the conference and we think it's a very exciting sport so we're ready to get it started."
The Scarlett Knights present an interesting challenge for the Lady Lions. While they appear towards the middle of the pack or bottom end in most team statistics in the conference, they boast an adequate amount of depth in order to compete with anyone. On their five wins during the season, a different player has scored the game-winner in each contest and are the only team to do so.
"They work really hard the whole game. They have a bunch of different offensive threats," Doherty said. I want to make sure we play good team defense and put our shots away. It was the focus for us after the Colorado game to make sure we sink a couple more of our shots and overall just play better Penn State lacrosse."
This weekend's contest will also mark the end of a three-game home stand. Soon after, a three-game road trip will test the Nittany Lions as they aim to get back on track to the perfect play that started they started the season with.
Penn State will takes on Rutgers on Saturday, March 18 at 1:00 p.m. sharp in Holuba Hall.