April 17, 2013
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VIDEO: Doherty Postgame Comments
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Five Nittany Lions recorded at least three goals as the No. 6 Penn State women's lacrosse team roared past Lafayette, 19-10, at the Penn State Lacrosse Field Wednesday evening. With the win, the Nittany Lions (10-4, 3-1 ALC), who went 7-0 at home during the regular season, completed their first undefeated home campaign since 1991.
With a game-high seven points (3g, 4a) against the Leopards (8-8, 2-3 Patriot League), sophomore attacker Maggie McCormick (Eldersburg, Md.) pushed her season total to a career-high 63 points as the Nittany Lions secured their fourth straight 10-win season. Penn State has reached the 10-win plateau in each of head coach Missy Doherty's three years at the program's helm.
Senior Molly Fernandez (Baltimore, Md.) scored a game-high four goals in her final regular-season home game in the Blue and White, while sophomore Kelly Lechner (Silver Spring, Md.), who netted her fourth hat trick of the season, and freshmen Madison Cyr (Westminster, Md.) and Ally Heavens (Garnet Valley, Pa.) added three goals each. Cyr matched her season-best outing with three markers, while Heavens tied her season high.
Junior Mackenzie Cyr (Westminster, Md.) added a goal and a career-high four assists as she extended her team-best point-scoring streak to 21 games. The attacker has collected 67 helpers during her career and now ranks eighth all-time on Penn State's career assists list.
Senior defender Katie Guy (Whitby, Ont.) recorded a game-high five ground balls and five caused turnovers, while freshman defender Lauren Bosse (Towson, Md.) and sophomore transfer Victoria Brady (Hatfield, Pa.) corralled their first career ground balls with the Nittany Lions. Freshman goalkeeper Emi Smith (Denver, Colo.) started the game and made three saves before redshirt senior Ayla Halus (Hershey, Pa.) played the final 9:22.
Penn State outshot Lafayette by a 32-18 margin, won 19-of-31 draw controls and collected a season-high 16 caused turnovers. Five Leopards recorded two points, while both goalkeepers Meghan Curtin and Mimi Connell saw action in net. Curtin started for Lafayette and made three saves during the course of the game, while Connell stopped two attempts.
Both Penn State and Lafayette found early success reaching the back of the net. After Laura Kleiber gave the Leopards an early 1-0 lead less than a minute into the game, Penn State answered with three straight goals. McCormick took a pass from Jenna Mosketti (Fallston, Md.) and tied the game with 28:55 left before Heavens and Lechner added goals in a 24-second span to give the Nittany Lions a 3-1 lead.
Lafayette scored three of the next four goals, beginning with Jessica Rothstein's marker at 2:46. Cyr answered for Penn State with 19:25 left in the half, but Ana White and Kleiber struck with 16:17 and 15:56 left, respectively, to tie the game at 4-4.
Both teams scored back-to-back markers as the game worked itself to a 6-6 tie with 7:50 remaining. Madison Cyr scored with 12:39 remaining before McCormick added her second of the game nine seconds later. With 8:48 left in the half, Carlianne McCabe made it a 6-5 game before she evened the score 58 seconds later.
Following McCabe's second tally, the Nittany Lions ended the frame on a 5-0 run. Heavens scored on a free-position shot with 5:04 left to make it a 7-6 contest before Madison Cyr netted her marker with 3:42 remaining. Fernandez and Lechner tallied in a 30-second span to give Penn State a 10-6 advantage before Lechner struck again with 34 seconds left in the stanza.
In the second period, Lafayette opened the frame with two quick goals before Penn State went on 7-0 run. Addie Godfrey, who entered the game with 47 goals as the nation's seventh-ranked scorer, netted her only two goals of the game to cut the lead to 11-8.
During the Nittany Lions' 7-0 run that pushed their advantage to 18-8, Fernandez fired three of her four goals, while sophomore Tatum Coffey (Toms River, N.J.), Madison Cyr, McCormick and Heavens all tallied in less than a 10-minute span.
After Heavens gave Penn State the 10-goal advantage with 16:26 left in the game, Ana White tallied for Lafayette with 7:39 remaining before freshman midfielder Erika Spilker (Severna Park, Md.) scored for Penn State 59 seconds later. Rothstein closed out the scoring for the Leopards with 3:07 left in the game as the Nittany Lions cruised to the nine-goal victory.
Penn State will return to ALC play Sunday, April 21 when it travels to Johns Hopkins for a noon matchup. The game will broadcast live on ESPNU.