WLAX To Play Maryland for B1G Title on Sunday

May 5, 2018

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10-8 (3-3 B1G)	17-1 (6-0 B1G)
Sunday - 12:00 p.m. ET
U-M LACROSSE STADIUM | ANN ARBOR, Mich. 2018 B1G CHAMPIONSHIP

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INSIDE THE NUMBERS
PSU		MARY
10-8	Overall Record	17-1
3-3	Conference Record	6-0
277	Goals Scored	290
232	Goals Allowed	172
15.39	Goals Scored/gm.	16.11
12.89	Goals Allowed/gm.	9.56
611	Shots	665
33.9	Shots/gm.	36.9
96	Assists	97
83-175	Free Position Shots	83-166
172	Saves	151
15.17	Ground Balls/gm.	14.89
14.89	Draw Controls/gm.	16.83
12.78	Turnovers/gm.	12.72
8.72	Caused Turnovers/gm.	6.28

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - The third-seeded Penn State Nittany Lions will battle top-seeded Maryland for the 2018 Big Ten Tournament Championship on Sunday afternoon at 12 p.m. from the University of Michigan's U-M Lacrosse Stadium. The game will air live on the Big Ten Network.

THIS WEEK'S MATCHUP

• This marks the first meeting between Maryland and Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament and the 56th meeting overall with Maryland holding the 40-14-1 all-time record.
• Penn State hasn't beaten Maryland in its last 14 tries with the last Nittany Lion victory coming in 2005.
• Senior Katie O'Donnell has scored 15 goals in her last three games against Maryland including tying her career-high with six earlier this season in College Park.

B1G TOURNAMENT HISTORY

• Penn State is now 3-2 all-time in the Big Ten Tournament and will be making its second Championship game appearance and first since capturing the inaugural Big Ten Tournament Championship in 2015. The 21 goals the Nittany Lions scored on Friday night are its most in a single-game of the Big Ten Tournament.
• O'Donnell leads the team with 10 goals and a pair of assists for 12 points in five Big Ten Tournament games while Maria Auth has five goals and seven assists for 12 points in just two Big Ten Tournament games.

SCOUTING THE TERRAPINS

• Maryland defeated Johns Hopkins 16-11 on Friday in the opening game of the Tournament and have now won 15 games in-a-row and sit at 17-1 and No. 2 in the nation.
• The Terps lead the Big Ten and rank eighth in the nation averaging 16.11 goals per contest while only allowing 9.56 goals per contest to also pace the conference and rank 16th in the nation.
• Megan Whittle leads the Big Ten with 66 goals to rank ninth in the nation while Caroline Steele has added 51 and Jen Giles has registered 40.
• Four other Terps have registered 20 or more goals with Kali Hartshorn at 28, Taylor Hensh and Grace Griffin each at 27 and Brindi Griffin with 20.
• Megan Taylor is 16-1 in cage this season with a 9.56 goals against average and a .472 save percentage.

B1G AWARDS

• Earlier this week senior Katie O'Donnell as well as junior's Madison Carter and Kayla Brisolari were named to the 2018 All-Big Ten Team.
• O'Donnell and Carter were unanimous selections joining Steph Lazo (2017), Abby Smucker (2016) and Madison Cyr (2015) as unanimous Big Ten selections in program history.
• In total Penn State now has 19 All-Big Ten selections in the four years of the conference.

TWENTY-FUN

• The 21 goals scored by the Nittany Lions on Friday night against Northwestern were the most allowed by the Wildcats all season.
• This also marked the third time this season Penn State has scored 20-plus goals, the most in a single-season since also having three such games during the 2014 season.
• On the other hand, Maryland is the only team this season to keep Penn State under 10 goals in a game during a 13-8 setback 16 days ago.

BACK ON THE RIGHT TRACK

• Penn State snapped a four-game losing streak with its victory on Friday evening. The four straight losses occurred for the first time under the guidance of head coach Missy Doherty and for the first time since 2009.
• During this skid the Nittany Lions had seen their offensive production drop to just 11.25 goals per game in those four games, before erupting for 21 goals on Friday.

WREAKING HAVOC

• Penn State as a team caused 13 turnovers on Friday against Northwestern and has consistently ranked near the top of the Big Ten all season long in that category.
• Junior Kayla Brisolari caused six on her own setting a career-high and registering the most by a Penn State player in a single-game in at least the past decade.

LIGHTS OUT

• Penn State shot lights out on Friday registering a .525 shot percentage including finishing off 70 percent of its shots that hit the net.
• Penn State is second in the Big Ten for both shots per game, averaging 33.9 shots per game, and shot percentage with a percentage of .450, which is good for top-20 in the nation.

BERTY, BERTY, BERTY

• Sophomore Kristin Roberto has registered three-straight two-goal games, which ties her career-high. The sophomore has seven points in her last three games and has scored at least one goal in six of her last eight games.

THE B1G THREE

• Sophomore Maria Auth registered a career-high eight points with three goals and a career-best five assists on Friday night against Northwestern while junior Madison Carter tied her career-high with six goals and senior Katie O'Donnell chipped in with a hat-trick of her own.
• The trio ranks in the top-5 of the Big Ten in goals scored this season as O'Donnell ranks second with 55 while Carter and Auth rank third and fifth, respectively. Auth's 65 total points rank fourth in the Big Ten.
• O'Donnell has moved all the way up to sixth on the Penn State all-time scoring list with 221 points in 81 games while her 197 career goals are also good for sixth among active players across the nation and she is just three goals shy of becoming only the fourth player in program history to reach 200 career goals.
• O'Donnell has only been held without a goal five times in her career.
• Carter has 14 multi-goal games this season and has moved into fifth on the Penn State all-time goals list with 171 for her career to rank 14th among active players and second in the junior class behind BC's Sam Apuzzo.

HOW LOWE CAN YOU GO

• Freshman Lucy Lowe tied her career-high for the second consecutive game with 13 saves on Friday evening against Northwestern and now has seven games this season with double-digit saves.