EVANSTON, Ill. – The No. 7/5 Penn State women's lacrosse team battled for 60 minutes against No. 3 Northwestern on Saturday at Ryan Fieldhouse, but dropped a 17-13 decision. The Nittany Lions matched the Wildcats, 8-8, in the second half. Penn State is now 2-2 on the season, while Northwestern improved to 5-0.
Second-year freshman Kara Nealon led the Nittany Lions with nine points, including two goals and a career-high seven assists. She was one assist away from tying Marsha Florio's program record set in 1985 vs. Princeton. Nealon's seven assists also tied the nation lead for most assists in a Division I game this season.
Sophomore Mary Muldoon registered a hat trick to set a career high with three goals. Freshmen Gretchen Gilmore and Kristin O'Neill each had two goals, while Maria Auth had a goal and an assist. Brooke Barger, Olivia Dirks and Regan Nealon each tallied a goal while Rachel Rosen recorded an assist. Dirks also set a career high with 14 draw controls, helping Penn State to win the draw control battle, 20-11. Taylor Suplee made 12 saves, her 18th career double-digit save performance.
With her goal, Auth now has 137 in her Penn State career. That moved her into a tie for 12th all-time at PSU with Mary Ann Foley (1987-90).
Northwestern was led by Lauren Gilbert, who scored six goals with five coming on free-position opportunities. Lindsey McKone added four goals. Leah Holmes and Izzy Scane each contributed two goals and an assist. Sammy Mueller scored two goals. Madison Doucette made seven saves in net.
The Wildcats got on the board with the first two goals of the afternoon. Holmes found the net nearly two minutes into the contest and Taylor Pinzone added a free-position tally for an early 2-0 advantage.
Kara Nealon recorded Penn State's first goal of the day, despite the Nittany Lions being in a man-down situation, to cut the deficit to 2-1 with 26:12 left in the half.
Northwestern scored the next three goals, including two by McKone and one by Gilbert with Gilbert's coming on a free-position look. However, Gilmore stopped the run with a free-position goal. Penn State trailed 5-2 with 20:54 remaining in the opening period.
The Wildcats' Gilbert found the net on another free-position shot and Mueller extended NU's lead to 7-2 with a goal at the 17:54 mark.
However, Penn State held the Wildcats to just two goals for the rest of the half.
With 16:39 remaining in the half, Muldoon finished off a feed from Nealon for her first goal of the season. Five minutes later, Regan Nealon sniped one after a dish from Rosen. Penn State trailed 7-4 with 11:56 to go in the half.
Goals by Scane and McKone extended Northwestern's lead to 9-4, but Penn State's O'Neill scored off a feed from Nealon to close the half with PSU down 9-5.
Northwestern scored the first three goals of the second half. Gilbert found the net on two free-position attempts and Scane added a tally.
Dirks stopped the run, cutting to the middle and putting home a dish from Auth. Penn State trailed 12-6 with 24:22 remaining.
A goal by NU's Gilbert, again on a free-position attempt, was answered by a man-up goal by Barger. The score by Barger started a streak of five straight goals assisted by Kara Nealon. Northwestern's Holmes scored to give NU a 14-7 advantage with 20:06 to go in the game.
However, feeding the offense through Nealon, Penn State ignited a 4-0 run. Muldoon had the first and fourth goals of the run with Gilmore and O'Neill finding the net in between. Penn State cut the deficit to 14-11 with 13:42 remaining.
Northwestern responded with a 3-0 run to re-gain separation. Mueller scored on a free-position attempt before man-up goals by McKone and Gilbert extended the lead to 17-11 with 1:25 remaining.
Penn State closed out the game with free-position goals by Auth and Kara Nealon.
The Nittany Lions return to Panzer Stadium next weekend as they take on No. 15 Michigan for a two-game series. Game one will be played on Friday, March 19 at 4 p.m. with a broadcast on Big Ten Network+. Sunday's game will start at 10 a.m. on ESPNU.
Follow along with the team on our social media pages on Facebook (PennStateWomensLacrosse) and Twitter/Instagram (@pennstatewlax).
Kara Nealon tallied nine points including seven assists