Sept. 11, 2016
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State women's soccer team shut out the La Salle Explorers, 2-0, in its final regular season non-conference matchup Sunday afternoon at Jeffrey Field. The Nittany Lions scored twice in the first half and freshman Amanda Dennis (San Diego, Calif.) recorded her first career solo shutout in net for the Blue and White.
"Obviously, the last tune-up before we go into the Big Ten season, playing against a good La Salle team," head coach Erica Dambach said. "I thought they were really disciplined and they had some real threats up top. I'm proud of the shutout, I'm proud of the multiple-goal game and I feel like we've learned a lot of lessons going into Big Ten play."
Penn State heads into Big Ten play next weekend with a record of 4-2-1 and La Salle falls to 2-4-0 in 2016.
For the Nittany Lion offense, Frannie Crouse (Greensburg, Pa.) scored her sixth goal of the season and her fifth goal over the past three games, while freshman defender Grace Fisk (Bromley, London, England) recorded her first career goal.
Crouse netted the first goal of the game off an assist from Brittany Basinger (Purcellville, Va.) in the 19th minute. From the left side of the penalty area, Basinger found Crouse eight yards from goal. With the ball, Crouse took a few steps and fired the ball past La Salle goalkeeper Larisa Zambelli for the 1-0 tally.
The Nittany Lions then added to their lead off Fisk's first career goal in the 41st minute. Following a Nittany Lion corner kick from Alina Ortega Jurado (Waldgirmes, Germany), Kristin Schnurr (Bristow, Va.) received the ball near the left post and then she played the ball behind her to Fisk. Fisk, from three yards out, put the ball into the back of the net giving the Nittany Lions a 2-0 lead.
The Nittany Lion offense finished the afternoon with 21 shot attempts, while the Penn State defense held the La Salle offense to five shot attempts. In net, Dennis recorded two saves for PSU and Zambelli posted six saves for La Salle.
The No. 16 Nittany Lions begin Big Ten play Friday, Sept. 16, at No. 10 Minnesota live on the Big Ten Network at 8 p.m. (EDT) Penn State then closes out the opening weekend of the 2016 Big Ten season Sunday, Sept. 18, at Wisconsin at 2 p.m. (EDT)
NOTES: Penn State improves to 2-0-0 all-time against La Salle...Crouse scored her 27th career goal, which is one goal behind Kelly Convey (1996-99) for 15th all-time...Basinger netted her first point of the 2016 season...Schnurr tallied her first career point...The Nittany Lions are 58-5-5 at Jeffrey Field since the start of the 2011 season...Penn State is 4-1-0 on the year when scoring two or more goals...Penn State posted its second-straight shutout of the season...Dennis recorded her first career solo shutout...The Nittany Lions improve to 403-105-30 all-time.