UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Senior attacker Madison Carter led the Nittany Lions with five points, including four goals, as the No. 12 Penn State Women's Lacrosse team earned a 13-7 win over No. 11 Towson on Saturday in Holuba Hall. The Nittany Lions scored 10 goals in the second half, including six of the game's first seven goals in the half.
With five points on the day, Carter reached the 200-point mark for her career, becoming the 15th player in program history to reach that mark. She now has 202 career points, with 184 goals and 18 assists, to tie Mackenzie (2011-14) and Madison Cyr (2013-16) for 11th in program history. She is one point away from tying Michele DeJuliis (1994-97) for 10th all-time.
Carter led the Nittany Lions with four goals, while senior Kelly Daggett, sophomore Quinn Nicolai and sophomore Sophia Triandafils all tallied two goals. Senior Kayla Brisolari, freshman Lauren Craft and junior Kristin Roberto each collected one goal. Brisolari added three assists, while senior Delaney Muldoon had two. Junior Maria Auth, Carter, Craft and Triandafils each contributed an assist. Roberto led PSU with five draw controls.
Freshman goalie Taylor Suplee earned her first career win, stopping eight shots while playing all 60 minutes.
The Tigers got three goals from sophomore Kaitlin Thornton and two each from junior Annie Sachs and senior Natalie Sulmonte. Thornton added an assist and junior Coeli Love contributed an assist. Goalie Kiley Keating made 12 saves.
Daggett opened the scoring for the Nittany Lions, sending home a pass from Brisolari with 26:59 left in the first half. A goal by Towson's Thornton was answered on a free-position shot by Quinn with 24:12 to go in the first.
The Tigers' Sachs scored off an assist by Love and Sulmonte found the net off an assist by Thornton to give Towson a 3-2 lead with 16:53 remaining in the half. An eight-minute scoreless stretch was ended on a goal by PSU's Triandafils, off a feed from Carter with 8:45 left in the first. Towson took the lead into the break after a free-position goal by Sachs with 2:56 remaining.
Penn State came out on fire in the second half, going on a 6-1 run. In a man-up situation, Carter found the net off a pass from Muldoon to even the game with 26:15 remaining. Three minutes later, the Nittany Lions re-gained the lead with a goal by Triandafils.
A tally by Towson's Thornton tied the game at 5-5 with 22:41 to go in the game. However, the Nittany Lions rattled off four straight goals in just over four minutes. PSU converted on another man-up opportunity when Daggett struck for her second goal, this time on a free-position shot, with 13:50 left. The blue and white lead grew to 7-5 a minute later when Carter buried one off an assist from Brisolari. A goal by Brisolari extended the PSU advantage to three with 12:08 remaining before Carter earned her first hat-trick of the season with a tally at the 9:08 mark.
Sulmonte stopped the run with a goal to bring Towson within three with 8:24 to go. However, Craft answered with her first career goal just 48 seconds later to give PSU a 10-6 lead. Towson's Thornton responded with a goal with 5:27 left.
Penn State's Carter found the net for the fourth time in the game with 4:27 to go, this time off a feed from Craft. Roberto collected her first goal of the season, off an assist from Muldoon, with 2:02 remaining before Nicolai found the net for the second time, off a pass from Auth, with 46 seconds left.
The Nittany Lions host Lehigh next Saturday, February 16 at 1 p.m. It will mark the first regular season game in Panzer Stadium.
Single-game tickets will be sold on the day of the game. Prices are $5 for adults and $3 for youth (ages 12 and under). Students will be able to get in free by showing their Penn State ID.
Senior Madison Carter