UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The No. 20 Penn State women's lacrosse team battled well in the second half, but fell 11-9 against No. 13 Johns Hopkins on Thursday in the Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinals. The Nittany Lions tallied seven goals in the second half, including five by Quinn Nicolai. Penn State dropped to 4-9, while Johns Hopkins improved to 8-5.
Penn State is hosting the entire Big Ten Tournament at Panzer Stadium. The tournament continues with two semifinal games on Friday, April 30 with No. 1 seed Northwestern vs. No. 4 seed Rutgers in the first game at 5 p.m. and No. 2 seed Maryland vs. No. 3 seed Johns Hopkins in the second game at 8 p.m. The Big Ten Final will be played on Sunday, May 2. All games are being broadcast on Big Ten Network.
Nicolai, a senior, paced the Nittany Lions with five goals, all coming in the second half. Olivia Dirks contributed three goals and an assist with seven draw controls. Senior Maria Auth tallied a goal and two assists, while adding four draws. Sophia Triandafils added an assist. Lucy Lowe and Taylor Suplee each made three saves.
With three points, Auth raised her career total to 226, sitting seventh all-time at Penn State. She increased her career goals total to 160, good for sixth all-time, and her assist total to 66, moving into sole possession of 11th all-time at Penn State.
Mackenzie Heldberg led Johns Hopkins with four goals and an assist, while Maggie Schneidereith tallied two goals and three assists. Maeve Barker contributed two goals and an assist and Abbey Hurlbrink added two goals.
Johns Hopkins got on the board as Schneidereith found the net at the 26:46 mark. A minute later, Dirks answered with a free-position goal to tie the game at 1-1 with 25:30 remaining.
However, Hopkins answered with a 7-0 run, sparked by Schneidereith. Heldberg tallied a goal with 20:16 to go in the half. Hurlbrink fired into the net two minutes later before Heldberg scored again to give the Blue Jays a 5-1 lead with 14:54 remaining in the half. Keegan Barger scored on a free-position chance and Barker added a goal before Heldberg's third of the half pushed JHU's advantage to 8-1 with 9:24 to go in the half.
Dirks stopped the run with a goal as she weaved into the middle and bounced it into the net with 6:13 remaining in the half. Hopkins answered with another tally by Heldberg at the 3:40 mark to take a 9-2 lead into the break.
The Blue Jays scored the first goal of the second half as Hurlbrink found the net again.
However, Penn State tallied the next five goals. The first came on a snipe by Auth, off a dish from Dirks, at the 28:51 mark. Seven minutes later, Dirks scored on a free-position look for her third of the day. Penn State trailed 10-4 with 21:09 remaining. Nicolai found the net on three-straight goals, the first two off assists by Auth, to cut the deficit to 10-7 with 12:30 left.
Johns Hopkins' Barker stopped the run with a goal at the 12:02 mark to push their lead back to four, 11-7.
Nicolai continued her strong half, answering with a goal off an assist by Triandafils at the 10:49 mark. The senior tallied her fifth goal of the half on a free-position look to cut the deficit to 11-9 with 8:46 remaining.
Follow along with the team on our social media pages on Facebook (PennStateWomensLacrosse) and Twitter/Instagram (@pennstatewlax).
