UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa., April 24, 2005 ¨C The No. 10 Penn State women¡¯s lacrosse team used a 12-goal second half to defeat Ohio, 17-8, Sunday afternoon at Jeffrey Field. The Nittany Lions improve to 10-4 and 4-1 in the American Lacrosse Conference while the Bobcats fall to 4-9 and 1-5 in the ALC.
Junior Shari Maslin (New City, N.Y.) led all scorers with five goals as senior Kristen Burke (Severna Park, Md.) recorded four, senior Emily Chambers (Valley Cottage, N.Y.) scored three, sophomore Karen Long (Ellicott City, Md.) and freshman Jessi Lieb (Villanova, Pa.) each tallied two goals and freshman Lindsay Hagemann (Watertown, N.Y.) recorded her first collegiate goal.
Burke and Chambers also chipped in two assists for the Nittany Lions as Lieb and Maslin added one apiece.
Dana Dobbie led Ohio with three goals as Frannie Sullivan posted two and Kari Fasick, Caitlin Link and Kristen Gombeski each recorded one. Sullivan also led the squad with two assists.
Senior goalkeeper Lee Tortorelli (Havertown, Pa.) allowed eight goals in 60 minutes, facing 16 shots and making four saves. Tortorelli, Maslin and sophomore Lindsay Dutch (Ellicott City, Md.) all recorded a team-high four ground balls as Chambers topped the squad with four draw controls. Tortorelli and Maslin also recorded a team-high two caused turnovers.
As a team, Penn State posted 33 shots to Ohio¡¯s 16 and collected 22 ground balls to the Bobcat¡¯s 15. The Nittany Lions held the slight edge in draws, 14-13, and caused seven turnovers to Ohio¡¯s four.
Ohio¡¯s Dana Dobbie scored the game¡¯s first goal with 26:36 remaining in the first half off a pass from Frannie Sullivan. Just over six minutes later, Burke connected on a pass from Chambers to even the score at 1-1 at 20:57. Maslin scored three consecutive goals to put the Nittany Lions up 4-1 with 11:48 to go in the half. But the Bobcats responded with three goals of their own to knot the score at 4-4 with 5:12 remaining in the half. A PSU goal from Long at 4:25 off a pass from Burke gave the Lions the slim lead but Ohio¡¯s Sullivan scored with just 29 seconds left to tie the game at 5-5 going into halftime.
Out of the break, Chambers scored an unassisted goal just 46 seconds into the stanza and quick goals from Lieb and another from Chambers gave Penn State the 8-5 lead with 24:23 left in the game. An Ohio goal from Gombeski on a pass from Fasick at 21:44 trimmed the Lion lead to two at 8-6 but a Maslin goal at 20:31 sparked a 4-0 PSU run to push the lead to 12-6 with 15:23 remaining. Ohio scored twice on goals from Sullivan and Dobbie to make it 12-8 but the Nittany Lions caught fire, scoring the next five goals to end the game with the 17-8 victory.
Penn State takes to the road to face No. 11 Johns Hopkins on Saturday, April 30 at 1:00 p.m. in a contest that will be televised live on CSTV. The Nittany Lions return home for their final regular-season contest on Saturday, May 7 when they host No. 17 Delaware at noon.
Please visit www.GoPSUsports.com for more information on the Penn State women¡¯s lacrosse team.
