WLAX Hosts Princeton in NCAA Quarterfinals

May 19, 2017

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16-3	15-3
Sunday - 1:00 p.m. ET
LACROSSE FIELD | UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. NCAA TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINALS

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INSIDE THE NUMBERS
PSU		PRIN
16-3	Overall Record	15-3
5-1	Conference Record	6-1
279	Goals Scored	264
195	Goals Allowed	175
14.68	Goals Scored/gm.	14.67
10.26	Goals Allowed/gm.	9.72
623	Shots	577
32.8	Shots/gm.	32.1
118	Assists	136
60-166	Free Position Shots	46-95
169	Saves	223
18.21	Ground Balls/gm.	19.11
14.53	Draw Controls/gm.	13.05
14.89	Turnovers/gm.	16.94
9.05	Caused Turnovers/gm.	9.28

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The fourth-seeded Penn State women's lacrosse teams advanced to its third straight NCAA Quarterfinals after defeating JMU last weekend in the second round. The Nittany Lions will battle fifth-seeded Princeton in a rematch from earlier this season at 1 p.m. on Sunday at the Penn State Lacrosse Field.

THE MATCHUP

• Penn State and Princeton will meet for the second time this season. The Lions won the first game 13-8 at Princeton.
• The loss was the only setback for the Tigers at home this season as they went 9-1 on the year at Sherrerd Field.
• Princeton holds the 24-12 edge in the all-time series dating back to 1982, but Penn State has won the last two contests after dropping seven of the previous eight.
• This marks the fifth meeting between the two schools in the NCAA Tournament with the Tigers holding the 3-1 advantage including a 16-13 victory in the NCAA first round in 2014.
• Penn State's lone win over Princeton in the postseason came in the quarterfinals in 1999, a 9-6 overtime victory.
• The Nittany Lions are 2-0 in their last two home games against the Tigers.

LAST TIME THEY MET

• Katie O'Donnell paced a balanced offensive attack with three goals as eight different Nittany Lions found the back of the net. Kelly Daggett, Steph Lazo and Madison Carter each added a pair of goals on the afternoon.
• Penn State scored the first five goals of the game before Princeton came back to score six straight and take a 6-5 lead. That would be their only lead of the game as the Nittany Lions used another 5-goal spurt to pull ahead for good and they closed the game scoring the final three goals as well.
• Senior Cat Rainone turned in her first 10-save performance of the season, which at the time was a career-high.

NCAA HISTORY

• Penn State is making its 23rd NCAA appearance and sixth straight under the direction of head coach Missy Doherty, advancing to its third straight quarterfinal.
• The Lions are 22-20 all-time in the NCAA Tournament dating back to 1982 when lacrosse was added to the NCAA championship program. PSU made its official tournament debut in 1983 losing to Delaware in the national semifinals.
• The Nittany Lions are 9-3 in NCAA Tournament games in Happy Valley including a perfect 4-0 at the Penn State Lacrosse Field, which opened in 2012.
• The Nittany Lions are now 8-3 this season against the 2017 NCAA Tournament field after their second round victory over JMU.

POINT STREAK

• The Nittany Lions totaled 31 points in their win against JMU to tie their season-high.
• Penn State now has 397 points on the season, which is a new single-season record breaking the previous record of 396 set in 1986.

ASSISTED SCORING

• Penn State registered 12 assists on 19 goals against JMU its highest total of the season.
• With those 12 assists, the Nittany Lions now have 118 assists on the season just 10 shy of setting a new single-season record and surpassing the 127 assists they had in 1983.
• Senior Steph Lazo's 42 assists lead the Big Ten and rank 17th in the nation. The 42 assists are also the third highest single-season total in Penn State history and just 10 shy of a new single-season record, which currently stands at 51 by Megan Smith in 1990.

SCORE MORE

• The 19 goals scored by the Nittany Lions against JMU tied for their second-highest goal total this season and is the second most goals they have ever scored in an NCAA Tournament game.
• Penn State has now scored 279 goals this season and is just two goals shy of setting a new single-season goal record and surpassing the 280 goals scored in both 1986 and 2015.
• PSU averages 14.68 goals per contest to rank tied for 13th in the nation.

POSSESS THE BALL

• Penn State has been effective this season at possessing the ball averaging 18.21 ground balls per game and 14.53 draw controls per contest to rank second in the Big Ten in both categories.
• Penn State is a combined 22-0 when holding the advantage in both ground balls (10-0) and draw controls (12-0).
• The Lions are also 10-0 when allowing fewer than 10 goals to their opposition.

MOVIN' ON UP

• Junior Katie O'Donnell is currently riding a 20-game goal streak and has scored multiple goals in six straight contests. O'Donnell has 25 goals in her last six games to lead the team over that stretch.
• After her four-goal outburst against JMU, the junior passed Colleen O'Hara for 13th on the all-time goal list with 135 goals.
• Senior Steph Lazo also passed O'Hara last weekend, but this time on the all-time points list as the senior now stands alone in seventh with 209 career points.
• Both O'Donnell and Lazo joined sophomore Madison Carter as IWLCA All-Americans as announced earlier this week.
• Lazo became the 43rd Nittany Lion to earn First-Team All-American honors while O'Donnell and Carter landed on the second-team. Lazo is a two-time IWLCA All-American while O'Donnell and Carter are first time honorees.
• With 87 points on the season, Lazo also ties Maggie McCormick from 2014 for the ninth best single-season in program history and the most points since Tami Worley collected 94 in 1989. The Penn State single-season points record is 109 points by Marsha Florio in 1985.

CAN'T STOP CARTER

• After being held scoreless for just the second time in her career against Northwestern, sophomore Madison Carter tied her career-high with six goals in the win over JMU. This marks the fourth time this season the sophomore has scored six goals in a single game.
• Carter also set new career-highs with eight points and 12 draw controls in the victory.
• Carter's 66 goals rank first in the Big Ten and 10th in the nation and are the most for a Penn State player since 1989 and the eighth most in a single-season in program history. She is also just three goals shy of setting a new Penn State single-season record for goals by a sophomore.
• Carter also ranks second in the Big Ten and 11th in the nation with 111 draw controls, 5.84 per game.

ABOUT PRINCETON

• The Tigers enter the contest at 15-3 on the season and ranked right above Penn State at No. 5 in the latest IWLCA poll.
• Princeton defeated Cornell 11-9 in the NCAA Second Round last Sunday just one week after defeating the Bears for, 12-9, to capture the IVY League Championship.
• The Tigers are led by a pair of IWLCA First-Team All-Americans in Olivia Hompe and goalkeepper Ellie DeGarmo. Hompe, who is also a Tewaaraton Finalist, is fourth in the nation in both points and goals with 107 and 72, respectively. DeGarmo leads the nation in save percentage at .556 with a national best 219 saves on the season. DeGarmo averages 12.16 saves per contest.
• Princeton ranks 15th in the nation in scoring offense averaging 14.67 goals per game just .01 behind Penn State. The Tigers are only allowing 9.72 goals per contest to rank 21st nationally.
• The Tigers have six players with 20 or more goals on the season as Tess D'Orsi (37), Elizabeth George (25), Anna Doherty (23), Ellie McNulty (21) and Kathryn Hallett (21) all join Hompe.
• Princeton is 7-3 vs. NCAA Tournament teams this season with its losses coming against Penn State, Maryland and Penn.

LOOKING AHEAD

• Penn State looks to advance to its second consecutive NCAA National Semifinal and its 11th all-time.
• The Nittany Lions look to secure their first back-to-back semifinal appearance since a string of five consecutive from 1985-1989, which resulted in a pair of National Championships.
• Penn State would play the winner of the Maryland vs. Stony Brook game in the National Semifinals on Friday, May 26 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass.