May 3, 2018
| GAMEDAY PREVIEW | |
| | |
| 9-8 (3-3 B1G) | 13-4 (5-1 B1G) |
| Friday - 7:30 p.m. ET | |
| U-M LACROSSE STADIUM | ANN ARBOR, Mich. | |
| GAME DAY CENTRAL |
LIVE COVERAGE TV: Big Ten Network |
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| INSIDE THE NUMBERS | ||
| PSU | NW | |
| 9-8 | Overall Record | 13-4 |
| 3-3 | Conference Record | 5-1 |
| 256 | Goals Scored | 259 |
| 216 | Goals Allowed | 167 |
| 15.06 | Goals Scored/gm. | 15.24 |
| 12.71 | Goals Allowed/gm. | 9.82 |
| 571 | Shots | 558 |
| 33.6 | Shots/gm. | 32.8 |
| 85 | Assists | 117 |
| 82-170 | Free Position Shots | 47-115 |
| 159 | Saves | 158 |
| 14.94 | Ground Balls/gm. | 22.00 |
| 14.65 | Draw Controls/gm. | 15.82 |
| 12.88 | Turnovers/gm. | 16.06 |
| 8.47 | Caused Turnovers/gm. | 9.35 |
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Penn State enters this weekend's Big Ten Tournament as the No. 3 seed and will battle second seeded Northwestern in the second semifinal at 7:30 p.m. on Friday evening from the University of Michigan's U-M Lacrosse Stadium.
HOW TO WATCH
- The game, as well as the first semifinal between No. 1 Maryland and No. 4 Johns Hopkins at 5 p.m., will air live on the Big Ten Network and be available for streaming on the BTN2Go app.
- The winners of each game will then square off for the 2018 Big Ten Tournament Championship on Sunday afternoon at 12 p.m. on BTN.
THIS WEEK'S MATCHUP
- This marks the fourth straight season Penn State and Northwestern have met in the Big Ten semifinals with the Nittany Lions getting the better of the Wildcats on their way to the inaugural Big Ten Tournament Championship in 2015, but the last two season's it has been Northwestern defeating Penn State.
- Friday evening will be the 31st meeting in the all-time series with Northwestern holding the 22-8 record including two wins in-a-row and in three of the last four.
- Senior Katie O'Donnell leads all current Nittany Lions with 24 points over seven career games against the Wildcats including 21 goals as she has scored at least one goal in each game with six multi-goal efforts including a pair of five goal games. Junior Madison Carter has added 11 goals in five career games against Northwestern. Sophomore Maria Auth has six goals and eight points combined in her last two games against Northwestern.
SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
- Northwestern finished the regular season second in the Big Ten going 13-4 overall and 5-1 in conference action and are currently ranked No. 7 in the nation.
- Northwestern in coming off a loss to Maryland in its regular season finale, but prior to that had won eight games in-a-row.
- The Wildcats have ten games this season in which they have scored 15 or more goals.
- The Wildcats lead the conference in assists per game with 6.9 and groundballs per game with 22.00 while ranking second in goals per game with 15.24. Northwestern's 22.1 points per game and .464 shot percentage also pace the conference.
- Selena Lasota is tied for third in the Big Ten with 47 goals to lead the team while adding 15 assists for 62 points. Sheila Nesselbush has added 44 goals while Shelby Fredericks ranks second in the conference with 35 assists.
- Danita Stroup and Holly Korn have also each registered over 20 goals with 25 and 21, respectively as the Wildcats have nine players with double-digit goals.
- In cage, Julie Krupnick has posted a 10.13 goals against average and a .471 save percentage to rank fourth and third in the conference, respectively, out of regular starters.
B1G TOURNAMENT HISTORY
- Penn State is 2-2 all-time in the Big Ten Tournament averaging 10.75 goals per contest while allowing 10.50.
- Each Big Ten Tournament game Penn State has played in has been decided by three goals or less including last season's 12-11 setback in College Park.
- O'Donnell leads the team with seven goals and a pair of assists for nine points in four Big Ten Tournament games while Maggie Gallagher registered her first career hat-trick in last season's semifinal loss and Maria Auth had the strongest output of her freshman campaign with two goals and two assists for four points.
B1G AWARDS
- Earlier this week senior Katie O'Donnell as well as junior's Madison Carter and Kayla Brisolari were named to the 2018 All-Big Ten Team.
- O'Donnell and Carter were unanimous selections joining Steph Lazo (2017), Abby Smucker (2016) and Madison Cyr (2015) as unanimous Big Ten selections in program history.
- In total Penn State now has 19 All-Big Ten selections in the four years of the conference.
WINNER BY K.O.
- Senior Katie O'Donnell has scored four game-winning goals this season including two of the three game-winners in Big Ten games, to rank second in the Big Ten.
- O'Donnell's 52 goals on the season lead the team and also rank second in the Big Ten and tied for 41st nationally.
- O'Donnell has moved all the way up to sixth on the Penn State all-time scoring list with 218 points in 80 games.
- O'Donnell's 194 career goals are also good for sixth among active players across the nation and she is just six goals shy of becoming only the fourth player in program history to reach 200 career goals.
- O'Donnell has only been held without a goal five times in her career.
MRS. CARTER
- Junior Madison Carter is currently tied for second on the team with sophomore Maria Auth with 47 goals, which is good for third in the Big Ten.
- Carter has 13 multi-goal games this season and has moved into fifth on the Penn State all-time goals list with 165 for her career to rank 14th among active players and second in the junior class behind BC's Sam Apuzzo.
TOUGH STRETCH
- Penn State is in the middle of one of its toughest stretches in recent memory having lost four games in-a-row for the first time under the guidance of head coach Missy Doherty and for the first time since 2009.
- During this skid the Nittany Lions have seen their offensive production drop to just 11.25 goals per game as opposed to 16.23 before the three losses. Penn State is now averaging just 15.06 goals per contest on the season, which despite the tough stretch is still good for third in the Big Ten and 19th in the nation.
A TIP OF THE CAP
- Senior Shelby Wells registered her first career hat-trick last Tuesday against Stony Brook and is having a career year with 12 goals and a team-best 17 assists for 29 points, all career-highs.
- Wells ranks fourth on the team in scoring with her 29 points while her 17 assists ranks fifth in the Big Ten.
- Classmate Maggie Gallagher also registered a hat-trick against the Seawolves on Tuesday, the second of her career tying her career-high with three goals. Gallagher ranks seventh on the team with 21 points this season on 17 goals and four assists.
- Both Gallagher and Wells have each registered at least one point in 12 of 16 games this season.
- Sophomore Kristin Roberto also turned in a career-best performance against Stony Brook registering three points on two goals and one assist. Roberto is now the eighth member of the team to reach double-digit goals this season. The sophomore followed that up with another two-goal performance against Michigan and now has five points over her last two games and has scored a goal in five of her last seven.
SHOOT TO SCORE
- Penn State is second in the Big Ten for both shots per game, averaging 33.6 shots per game, and shot percentage with a percentage of .448, which is good for 23rd in the nation.
- PSU ranks third in the Big Ten with a .482 free-position percentage, while its 170 free-position attempts are third in the entire nation. The Lions have converted 82 of their 8-meter shots this season, good for tops in the conference and second in the nation.
- The Nittany Lions are also second in the Big Ten with 18 man-up goals this season.
BALL CONTROL
- Penn State is second in the Big Ten averaging just 12.9 turnovers per game compared to 16.1 for Northwestern.
- The Nittany Lions are also currently third in the conference averaging 14.65 draws per game while Carter ranks second in the Big Ten with 6.2 per game of her own and Kayla Brisolari is fifth in the Big Ten collecting 3.6 draw controls per game.