NASHVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 29, 2004 - The 10th-ranked Penn State women¡¯s lacrosse team dropped its season-opener to 16th-ranked Vanderbilt, 16-12, despite four goals from sophomore
Lori Havrilla (Devon, Pa.).
Havrilla led all players with four goals as sophomore Shari Maslin (New City, N.Y.) and senior Katie Jeschke (Ellicott City, Md.) both added two goals for the Nittany Lions. For the Commodores, Michelle Allen, Jessica Roguski, Kelly Devlin and Lauren Peck all notched three goals while Kate Hickman added two.
A Havrilla goal 3:35 into the contest opened up scoring before Vanderbilt answered back with two goals of its own to take the 2-1 advantage at the 5:31 mark. Havrilla scored just over a minute later to tie the game before Penn State senior Jackie Sherman (Wilton, Conn.) put the Nittany Lions back on top, 3-2. Another Havrilla goal at 16:56 gave Penn State the two-goal cushion but a Commodore goal by Hickman cut the lead to one at 19:29. Maslin found the back of the net at 20:22 off a pass from junior Kristen Burke (Severna Park, Md.) to make the score 5-3. The teams exchanged goals over the next four minutes, with Penn State¡¯s score coming off a Maslin marker and an assist from junior Emily Chambers (Valley Cottage, N.Y.) at 23:51. But Vanderbilt scored two goals before halftime to tie the score at 6-6 going into the break.
Two goals within the first two minutes of the second half put Penn State up, 8-6. Freshman Karen Long (Ellicott City, Md.) and Burke tallied goals at the 31:03 and 31:35 marks, respectively, to put the Lions up. But over the next 12 minutes, Vanderbilt went on a run, scoring three unanswered goals to take back the lead at 9-8. A Chambers goal at 47:15 stopped the run but only for a short time as the Commodores went on to score the next six goals of the game to gain the 15-9 advantage. Havrilla¡¯s fourth goal of the contest came at 58:54 to pull Penn State to within five with just over a minute to play. Another Vanderbilt goal 18 second later put the Commodore lead back at six and late goals by Jeschke and Chambers were not enough to overcome the deficit.
Junior goalkeeper Lee Tortorelli (Havertown, Pa.) recorded nine saves in the outing.
The Nittany Lions¡¯ home opener is on Saturday, March 6 against Davidson at 1:00 p.m.
For more information on the Penn State women¡¯s lacrosse team, please visit www.GoPSUsports.com.
