University Park, Pa., April 3, 2004 - The No. 18 Penn State women's lacrosse team dropped a 10-9 heartbreaker to fourth-ranked Loyola today at Bigler Field. The Nittany Lions fall to 2-8 overall while the Greyhounds improve to 11-1.
Sophomore Shari Maslin (New City, N.Y.) led the team with three goals while senior Katie Jeschke (Ellicott City, Md.) added two goals and two assists and senior Stephanie Curnoles (Baltimore, Md.) scored two goals and added one assist.
Junior goalkeeper Lee Tortorelli (Havertown, Pa.) posted 14 saves in the contest.
Both teams went scoreless through the first seven minutes of the contest before Loyola took a 3-0 lead with 15:39 remaining in the half. Penn State answered back with consecutive goals 30 seconds apart, one from senior Katie Hartman (Annapolis, Md.) and the other from Maslin. Loyola responded two minutes later but Jeschke scored on a pass from Curnoles at the 20:54 mark to make the score 4-3. The Greyhounds then scored four unanswered goals in the last nine minutes of the half to go into the break with a 7-3 lead.
Penn State came out strong in the second half, scoring three goals in the first three minutes to bring it within one, 7-6. First, Curnoles scored on a pass from sophomore Lori Havrilla (Devon, Pa.) 44 seconds into the stanza. Then Jeschke scored unassisted 25 seconds later and Maslin posted an unassisted mark at 32:58. Loyola answered back but Maslin scored another goal at 35:56 to make the score 8-7 in favor of the Greyhounds. Four minutes later, Jeschke assisted junior Kristen Burke (Severna Park, Md.) to tie the score at 8. After a scoreless 14 minutes, Loyola posted two goals to go up 10-8 with four minutes to go in the game. Curnoles posted a goal on a pass from Jeschke with three minutes remaining to bring the Nittany Lions to within one but it was not enough as the Greyhounds retained the lead and won, 10-9.
The one-goal loss marks the fourth time this season that the Nittany Lions have dropped a contest by that margin.
Maslin also recorded two ground balls and two caused turnovers. Junior Emily Chambers (Valley Cottage, N.Y.) posted a ground ball, a caused turnover and three valuable draw controls and senior Jamie Donahue (Oreland, Pa.) also recorded three draws.
Penn State is back in action on Wednesday, April 7 as it travels to Philadelphia to take on Penn at 7:00 p.m. Please visit www.GoPSUsports.com for more information on the Penn State women's lacrosse team.
