March 3, 2018
By: Briana Zuccarelli, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- The Nittany Lions suffered a nonconference loss to Loyola-Maryland in sudden victory overtime Saturday afternoon.
No. 13 Penn State was up 13-6 in the second half, when the no. 23 Greyhounds had six unanswered goals bringing the game to a 13-12 difference. Despite the run, the Nittany Lions held onto a lead late, but Loyola scored with 28 seconds left on the clock to tie the game at 15 apiece and bring the game into overtime, where the Lions fell, 16-15.
"I think our schedule is tough," head coach Missy Doherty said. "We need to get our stuff together defensively and we need to figure out how to make more stops because we can't win games when the other team is scoring 16."
Sophomore goalie Madison Cunningham recorded 10 saves for the team during her 50:43 time in net. Cunningham was then relieved by freshman goalie Lucy Lowe. Lowe was able to make two saves during the final 11:27 of game play. Lowe will now move to 1-1 for the season.
"Lucy has done a great job," explained Doherty. "It is such a hard balance in practice and in games figuring out who is really going to come and perform, but Lucy has certainly come in and done a great job for us."
The Nittany Lions defense created some great turnovers during the game, giving opportunity to the powerful Penn State offense. Madison Cater, who had a game-high of five goals and a hat trick explained the importance of the turnovers created by the young defense.
"It was great and we just need to do that more often," said Carter. "When the defense is making a stop and the we could put the ball away, great things were happening. We just didn't have that happening as much as we could have."
Three Penn State players are now in the double digits for goals scored this season. With five games complete, Carter leads the team with 18 goals, followed behind senior Katie O'Donnell with 16 goals and sophomore Maria Auth with 13. Auth ended the game with four goals and O'Donnell finished with two.
"I think it is good," said Doherty about the offensive numbers. "We always try to be really well balanced in the offense. We want to make sure everyone feels like they can score, but I think overall today, for a couple scorers we really needed to finish our shots."
The Nittany Lions still have 12 games left on the schedule, six of which are in conference play. The team now moves to 3-2 overall and 2-1 at home.
"She (Doherty) told us we need to trust and we need to play better defense and better attack," Carter explained. "Our offense has to put the ball away and our defense needs to make stops. We need to just play better overall.
Carter and the rest of the team will look to make these important changes before heading to James Madison University on Wednesday, March 7th for another nonconference matchup.