Feb. 22, 2018
By: Briana Zuccarelli, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- The #12 Penn State Nittany Lions returned to Panzer Stadium on Wednesday for their home opener against the Duquesne Dukes, earning a 19-8 victory for the Nittany Lions. The win came off a 14-13 victory at Lehigh this past weekend and the team was excited to be finally playing on home turf.
"I'm super pumped to be home again at our home stadium," said senior Katie O'Donnell. "Being on the road is sometimes tough, but we always make it work. There is nothing better than coming down here for game day and having our family and friends in the bleachers."
In the games against Towson and Lehigh, where the team went 1-1, the Nittany Lions experienced a one-point difference in the final score. Heading into the game against Duquesne, the team was looking to play quicker and get a lead from the start to keep the team confidence high throughout the game.
The Nittany Lions did just that as they started the game off hot with a 6-0 lead against the Dukes. Freshman Sophia Triandafils tallied three goals in the first nine minutes of play in the first half. This marked her first hat trick of her career. Alongside Triandafils, Katie O'Donnell and Maria Auth added to the early lead.
"I think they did a really good job of playing faster today," said head coach Missy Doherty after the win. "We wanted to challenge our speed and really use our aggressiveness right from the beginning and they did do just that. It was good to see them step up and really build up momentum going into Saturday."
With a young team, the coaching staff has been working to find the perfect mix for their starting lineup and after this 19-8 win, they believe they may have found that group. With the large point gap, Doherty was able to get some player some early season playing time.
"We were really excited to get some more looks at our younger player," Doherty said. "We have a lot of talented people on the roster and it's hard to get everyone in on a gamely basis. Being able to shift some people around and see people in different positions and test people out in a game setting was huge."
In the mix of new faces this season are freshmen Quinn Nicolai and Triandafils. Nicolai scored another goal in the team's victory yesterday, marking her fourth of her career. While Triandafils recorded four goals alone for the Nittany Lions in their win against the Dukes. She expressed what it felt like to score her career-high goals at her first home game.
"It was really awesome," said the freshman midfielder. "Having our first two games away was kind of challenging for us because we were on the road. It is always more fun playing at your home stadium. It was really great energy all throughout the team: on the field or even on the sidelines."
As the team prepares for their weekend matchup at home on Saturday, they will continue to make the important decisions they need in order to come out successful against Cornell.
"Coach is really stressing getting ourselves better and improving on ourselves," said O'Donnell. "We need to focus on us before we can start focusing on the other teams. Every single day at practice we need to improve, whether it's in transition or our offense or defense. That's day in and day out what we will be focusing on in practice."
The game against Cornell will begin at 3 p.m. following the men's lacrosse team taking on Robert Morris at noon.