The NCAA Division I Women’s Lacrosse Tournament bracket was announced Monday evening. Penn is the No. 2 seed and will face Colgate Sunday at 1pm. Over the next few days I’ll provide some analysis and team reactions to the draw. First was Did the Quakers get shafted? Now up, Will the Quakers see some familiar faces?

———————————————————————————————————————–

Coaches — including Penn women’s lacrosse skipper Karin Brower — always preach the sports cliché “let’s take it one game at a time.” But even Brower sometimes ignores her own advice.

After looking at this year’s NCAA bracket, Brower realized that if the seeds hold — and judging by last year’s two upsets in 15 games, they will — the Quakers would face the exact same three teams they played in last year’s NCAA tournament.

“It’s kind of interesting that the bracket is similar in some aspects to last year’s,” Brower said, “in that we could come across [Boston University] like last year or we could come across Maryland like last year. So that’s kind of strange.”

The Quakers (14-1, 7-0 Ivy) drew the two seed and will face Colgate Sunday in the first round. The Quakers have only played the Raiders (11-9) twice, tying 1976 and winning in 1978. Clearly the Raiders aren’t familiar to Penn. In fact, right after she learned of the draw, Coach Brower admitted as much, saying: “We don’t know anything about them. We’ll have to prepare for them this week.”

The winner of the Penn-Colgate matchup will get the winner of No. 7 Boston University (17-2) and New Hampshire (13-5). And while Penn has never faced the Wildcats, it played the Terriers in the first round of last year’s tournament, beating them 11-5. (That was the first ever Penn-BU matchup).

But don’t fill in the rematch with the Terriers into your brackets just yet. That UNH team, despite finishing third in the league behind both BU and Vermont, gave BU fits this year. The teams matched up twice, once in the regular season and once in the finals of the America East Conference Tournament. Both times the Terriers only won by a goal. On April 12 the Terriers won 7-6, and then on April 27 they needed overtime to win 9-8. Will the third time be the charm for the Wildcats? By 2 p.m. Sunday we’ll know.

If the Quakers make it through the first two rounds unscathed, the top seed they could face would be No. 3 Maryland in the Final Four (played conveniently enough for the Terrapins in Towson, Maryland). And just like the Terriers, the Terrapins lost to the Quakers in the 2007 tournament. (On a side note, if the Quakers do face UMD and BU, they will face the only two D-I women’s lacrosse programs whose nicknames start with t-e-r.) Last year, Penn beat the Terrapins in a thrilling 9-7 comeback victory in the second round, despite being down 4-0 early and then 5-3 at the half.

Brower wasn’t the only one to realize the potential repeat matchups. Senior attack Allison Ambrozy also saw the possible rematches and had mixed feelings about it.

“We could essentially be playing the same teams as last year,” she said. “It’s boring a little bit but I also think we have an edge over them since we did beat them last year. We got a sense of their strengths, which is helpful scouting wise. But I personally would rather play some different teams.”

And finally, if the Quakers’ seed holds all the way to the National Championship game, and so does the chalk in the top half of the bracket, the team waiting for them will be the Northwestern Wildcats (17-1). The Wildcats and Quakers have faced five times over the last four years. The first four results all were heavily in Northwestern’s favor, as the Quakers lost by a combined 55- 20 (including a loss in the Final Four 12-2 last year).

But on April 27 this year Penn pulled off a big upset, beating then-undefeated Northwestern 11-7. If the Quakers and Wildcats were to square off once again in the finals, it’d cement this rivalry as the one of the top inter-conference ones in the nation. Considering by the end of that game four of these teams’ combined six losses over the last two years would’ve been to the other squad, these two teams are shaping up like the Colts-Patriots. In fact that analogy would be very applicable if the Quakers actually win the championship this year, since the year the Colts won the Superbowl they beat the Patriots in both the regular season and the playoffs.

But enough with football. In addition to teams from last year’s tournament, there are three teams in the bracket, in addition to Northwestern, that the Quakers have already played this year: Temple, Princeton and North Carolina. Penn won all of those three games. However, the chances of facing any of the three are unlikely since they’d all involve multiple upsets, and the worst of the three teams, Temple, is the only one in Penn’s half of the bracket.

For the Owls to face Penn, they would have to upset Maryland and the winner of No. 6 Georgetown/Duke. The other two potential rematches, although more likely since they involve better teams, still are unlikely to occur. The No. 8 Tigers or unranked Tar Heels would need Northwestern, No. 4 Virginia and No.5 Syracuse all to lose in order to advance to the championship game.

So while 2008 opponents probably aren’t going show up again, the Quakers might experience some 2007 déjà vu come tournament time.

The NCAA Division I Women’s Lacrosse Tournament bracket was announced Monday evening, and Penn is the No. 2 seed and will face Colgate Sunday at 1pm. Over the next few days I’ll provide some analysis and team reactions to the draw. First up, Did the Quakers get shafted?
———————————————————————————————————————–

Everyone’s heard of Selection Sunday when the March Madness bracket is announced. But how about Selection Monday?

Well for Division I Women’s Lacrosse teams the first Monday in May, not the third Sunday in March, is their big night to find out their seed and draw for the NCAA tournament.

And yesterday, the Penn team sat waiting inside the women’s basketball team’s locker room (apparently the only Athletics room that gets CBS’ CollegeSports TV) to hear who they’d be playing and what seed they’d gotten

In the end, the No. 1 Quakers discovered that despite their top national ranking, they had earned the second seed behind No. 2 Northwestern. They’ll play Colgate 1 pm Sunday at Franklin Field.

So did the team get shafted out of the No. 1 spot?

“We thought we’d be a one or a two seed” because of “our record and beating the then-No. 2 team and the team that was No. 1 throughout the whole season” coach Karin Brower said alluding to victories over Princeton and Northwestern, respectively. But “we’re happy to be in the top four. No matter where you are you have to play good teams.”

The players seemed a little more disgruntled, but they also realized that a two seed — the highest the team has ever received — is nothing to sneeze at.

“It was a little disappointing,” senior attack Allison Ambrozy said. “It would’ve been quite a thing to be number one. You know we’re number one in the rankings and we beat Northwestern, but having the two spot is not too bad.”

Looking at the two teams’ numbers, it’s not that surprising that the Wildcats got the higher seed. The Quakers do have the head-to-head factor, as they dispatched the Wildcats 11-7 on April 27 at Franklin Field. And they are currently ranked higher in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll, albeit it by the smallest of margins (213 votes overall including six first-place selections vs. Northwestern’s 210 and four, respectively).

But besides those two (important) factors, Northwestern holds basically every other advantage. Northwestern is the three-time-defending National Champion, and while one would believe the tournament committee wouldn’t take into account past performance, it wouldn’t be a stretch of the imagination if that was an underlying factor. Looking at this year, the Wildcats do have a better overall record (17-1 vs 14-1) and those losses are significant as well. Penn lost to Stanford (12-8), who despite winning its conference and earning the 17th spot in the media poll, did not receive an at large bid (its conference, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, does not receive an automatic bid). Northwestern’s loss is to a top quality program, Penn.

Furthermore, the geeky numbers the selection committee looks at point to Northwestern’s edge. Just like other NCAA tournament committees, the women’s lacrosse one doesn’t openly admit what numbers it looks at and what weight it gives such numbers. However, laxpower.com has a composite summary of important statistics called the “Tournament Selection Index” that maps out seven different numerical values. The TSI then ranks all 85 NCAA D-I programs with the lowest score earning the No. 1 spot. Northwestern is first on that list with -15.75 (again the lower the better). Penn is fourth at -.60.

The categories included are poll ranking, power rating, RPI, SOS, Quality Win Factor, Losses, and a Trend factor. (Read more about TSI here.) NU’s power rating is higher (first vs. sixth), NU’s RPI is higher (first vs. second), NU’s schedule is harder than Penn’s (fifth vs. 14th), and NU’s QWF is higher (first vs fifth).

So in the end, it’s not that surprising that Northwestern is the one seed and Penn is the two. But ironically, being No. 2 might actually help Penn. The NCAA does not seed the bottom half of the sixteen team bracket. Instead, the lower half is assigned to a top-eight seed depending on geography. Hence, just because Northwestern is the top seed doesn’t mean they get the easiest first round matchup. In fact, it appears Penn might have that advantage.

Colgate has the worst record of any NCAA participant with an 11-9 overall mark. Their power rating is ranked 44th vs Penn’s sixth-ranked one, and they give up over 13 goals a game vs Penn’s 6.00 (which leads the nation). At the same time, the Raiders have been to three of the last five NCAA tournaments, something Penn can’t claim (this is only its second since 1984).

Northwestern, meanwhile, gets a really tough first round draw. The closest team to them that’s unseeded is nationally-ranked No. 10 Notre Dame (12-6). The Fighting Irish probably were the best team to not get a top eight seed. Their power rating isn’t that much lower than NU’s (11 vs 1). However, the Wildcats did destroy the Irish April 9 16-2. So don’t go writing in that upset just yet.

Regardless, facing an easier first round opponent than the Wildcats is the silver lining for the Quakers’ two seed.

“I’d rather play Colgate than Notre Dame,” Ambrozy said. “And despite being No. 2, we might actually have an easier first two rounds. So No. 2, we can’t complain.”

Today the Women’s Lacrosse team beat Temple 15-2 on Senior Day at Franklin Field, shutting out the Owls (13-6) in the first half. The win puts the Quakers (14-1, 7-0 Ivy) in a great position going into the NCAA tournament, where they’re looking to grab the top seed overall. Since the DP won’t be publishing until May 16, my game updates in the last post and the following quotes with some commentary will serve as the game recap. You can also see a complete box score here.

Coach Karin Brower on Penn’s dominating performance: “We felt we wanted to come out strong and make a statement of how great we can be. I think they took that to heart. And it was senior day and the seniors stepped up and played great in the first half… By the end we had everybody in.”

Senior defender Tarah Kirnan on why the defense was untouchable: “[The Owls] were pretty good at cutting and assisted goals, so we just really had to work on defending those all week long… We just came out aggressive.”

Senior attack Rachel Manson on the Quakers’ motivation: “We were on a mission. We came out today and wanted to play like national champions. We wanted to improve our seeding, so we knew we had to put them away to do so. We really want that top seed.”

Brower on getting the team to focus and not look ahead to the NCAAs: “This game was about where we’re going to be seeded. If we had lost today we wouldn’t get a top four seed… We want to be a top four seed, so that’s our motivation.”

With a top four seed, the Quakers will be guaranteed home games for the first two rounds of the NCAAs. After that the the Final Four and National Championship games will be played at Towson University’s Johnny Unitas Stadium.

Manson on how the Temple game affects the Quakers’ seeding: “I’d say it was a really important game for us. Obviously beating [then No. 1] Northwestern last week was huge. But we couldn’t come out here and take Temple lightly. We needed to win to show people how good we are and to prove to ourselves how good we are.”

Kirnan on the same topic: “We wanted to win since we knew that everyone’s so skeptical about us getting a number one seed, that if we came out real strong and beat them by a large margin they wouldn’t be so skeptical. Getting the number one seed is our main goal.”

Brower on the suffocating defense, including goalkeeper Sarah Waxman: “Our defense is playing really well, and [Waxman] is our anchor. She came up with some saves, but they didn’t have a ton of shots. So you’ve definitely got to give credit to our defense. But she’s our rock back there.”

From 2:35 remaining in the first half against Northwestern until Temple’s Nicole Caniglia scored with 20:45 left in the second, Penn went an outstanding 71:50 without conceding a goal. And Waxman, a senior captain, did not concede either of Temple’s two goals, so she still has an active scoreless streak of 62:52.

Kirnan on the scoreless streak: “It’s so great. It makes us feel really good. Earlier in the season we needed to work on our team defense. But we’ve melded together. The past five games we’ve just been really strong. It’s great going into the tournament having this kind of confidence.”

In the last five games Penn has given up five, five, five, seven and two goals. Except for that seven which they gave up to Northwestern, those totals are below their NCAA-leading 6.00 goals-against average.

Manson on the superior defense: “Our defense is just unbelievable. I’m so lucky, the attack is so lucky that we get to practice against the top defense in the country every day. They push each other so hard. And they’ve just had two outstanding games in a row.”

Brower on Manson’s two goals and four assists: “She’s been the leader of our attack all year. She’s a very unselfish player. She did a fabulous job today.”

Although Manson led the team in points today, she was far from being the only productive Quaker. An astonishing 14 Penn players earned at least one point, as the Quakers got 15 goals on 14 assists.

Kirnan on the offense taking off pressure from the defense: “The attack controlled the ball pretty well today. They had some really good opportunities and had a high shooting percentage today. The fact that they had the ball down on [Temple’s] end was the game.”

The Quakers’ first five shots all were goals, and by the end of the afternoon the Quakers had scored 15 goals on 27 shots, 23 of which were on target.

Brower on the senior class: “I think all of our seniors did a great job all year. They’ve been great all year at leading our team by example.”

Kirnan on dominating on Senior Day: “We definitely wanted to come out and win after [the Senior Day] ceremony took almost half an hour. We were like ‘there’s no way we’re losing this now.’ We really wanted to win today since it’s technically our last home game… We just love this field, we love playing. So it’s good to end on a high note.”

And as the NCAA finalizes its 16-team tournament field before Monday night’s selection show, it’ll be hard pressed to ignore this high note for the Quakers.

FINAL PENN 15 TEMPLE 2

That was the most dominating game I’ve seen in my two years of covering Penn Women’s Lacrosse. I’ll throw up the postgame quotes later.

2:22 Penn 15 Temple 2

Sophomore Megan Smith gets her first goal of the year.

3:55 Penn 14 Temple 2

Temple scores again. As a friend of mine just mentioned, this is similar to Penn’s loss to Northwestern last year in the final four when they lost 12-2. NU just came out swinging and never looked behind, leading 8-0 at the break. In the sceond they did give up two goals, but they always looked in charge.

8:07 Penn 14 Temple 1

Rudloff scores off a Lombardo pass, although it was an ugly goal that only trickled in.

13:13 Penn 13 Temple 1

Junior Samantha Bird gets her second goal of the year off a Lehman assist.

18:36 Penn 12 Temple 1

Warren gets her second goal, this one off a free position shot. Manson almost got her fifth assist, but it was waved off since the penalty was called before the goal was scored.

20:45 Penn 11 Temple 1

Speaking of Szelest, the first shot she faces go past her to the lower left, as Temple is finally off the board. The scoreless streak is stopped at an astonishing 69:15.

24:52 Penn 11 Temple 0

Sophomore Bethany Warren scores off a Manson pass after the senior streaked down about 50 yards. That’s now Manson’s sixth point as she has four assists and two goals. Aftewards coach Karin Brower takes her out. Has she played her last regular season minutes? Also, Waxman was taken out during that stretch, and replaced by sophomore Emily Szelest.

Halftime Penn 10 Temple 0

The half ends with Penn dominating, scoring .07 below its season average and shutting out the Owls. With the shutout half, Penn has now gone an incredible 62:35 without giving up a goal. That’s more than an entire game!

During the half a friend of mine was in the men’s room and heard the following conversation from two Temple fans:

-”Rough Game”

-”I didn’t think it would be so bad”

-”Well they’re not No. 1 for nothing”

2:19 Penn 10 Temple 0

Well I guess DeLuca liked scoring instead of assisting. She got her second goal of the game off an assist from Manson. With its next goal Penn will have passed its scoring average for the year.

3:44 Penn 9 Temple 0

DeLuca gets her first goal of the game in addition to her two assists.

8:42 Penn 8 Temple 0

Senior Allison Ambrozy off a junior Hannah Rudloff assist gives Penn its eighth unanswered goal, causing Temple coach Bonnie Rosen to sub in the backup goalie.

13:15 Penn 7 Temple 0

Sophomore Courtney Lube has scored two goals over the last seven minutes. A temple shot did go off the crossbar.

20:00 Penn 5 Temple 0

Sophomore Barb Seaman scores off a Manson assist. Although in the last four minutes Temple did get off their first couple of shots, all saves by goalkeeper Waxman or widely off target.

Lube from Manson

23:59 Penn 4 Temple 0
Manson scores, taking the lead over Lehman, this time with an assist from fellow senior Chelsea Kocis. Temple takes a timeout as their save percentage is still 0%.

25:35 Penn 3 Temple 0

Two different people get in yet again, as freshman Giulia Giordano keeps her hot streak going off a pass from junior Kaitlyn Lombardo. It’s now been three shots, three goals for the Quakers, and 0/0 for Temple.

26:28 Penn 2 Temple 0

And before I finished that last update Penn had scored yet again off senior Rachel Manson’s 26th goal with an assist to sophomore Ali DeLuca. Maybe Manson and Lehman will trade off goals to see who’ll lead the team in goals.

28:42 First Half Penn 1 Temple 0

Before I even finished typing the introduction, Penn had already scored off of senior Melissa Lehman’s team-leading 26th goal.

Welcome once again to Franklin Field for the Women’s Lacrosse team’s last regular season game, a non-conference tilt against 13-5 Temple. The No. 1 Quakers (13-1, 7-0 Ivy) are definitely the favorite in the this game, but Temple is no slouch, having won the A-10 Conference tournament, and the automatic bid to the NCAAs that comes with it. Nonetheless, this game is less important than either the win over then No. 1 Northwestern last Sunday, or the win at then No. 2 Princeton in mid April, so I probably won’t update as often as I did for those games. Nonetheless enjoy.

Welcome to Franklin Field where the No. 5 Quakers (12-1, 7-0 Ivy) will take on undefeated No. 1 Northwestern (15-0).

1st Half 23:51 Northwestern 1 Penn 0

The first six minutes are pretty even, but nine seconds into the seventh minute NU’s Meredith Frank gets an unassisted goal. just over

21:53 NU 1 Penn1

Penn ties it up with a shot by freshman Giulia Giordano. It came after a Rachel Manson pass.

21:44 NU 2 Penn 1

But literally 10 seconds later Northwestern goes the length of the field off the draw control and gets its second goal of the year.

18:04 NU 3 Penn 1
Northwestern works the ball around behind the net, and a quick pass from Hannah Nielsen sets up Frank for her second goal of the game.

16:38 NU 3 Penn 2

After Penn finally gets the ball back in NU territory, a few long range passes leads to a Courtney Lube goal off a sharp Kaitlyn Lombardo feed to right in front of the goal.

12:30 NU 3 Penn 2

Not much has happened since the last goal, although Penn’s Sarah Waxman made a couple of nice saves, including one on her knees.

The crowd is pretty big, I would say the largest women’s lacrosse game turnout I’ve seen save the final four. I’d say upwards of 1,000. I guess Penn athletics’ bobblehead promotion worked. Included in the crowd is the Penn Band, making its second W. Lax appearance this year.

Surprisingly there’s a lot of NU fans. Whether bandwagon or actual Wildcat fans it’s hard to tell, but they do have a handful of players from the Md-NY corridor, so it’s not inconceivable some parents would make the trek to West Philly.

10:46 NU 3 Penn 3

A crisp, sharp pass from Lombardo right to the center of the crease (just like the last one) gives senior Rachel Manson the Quakers’ tying goal. So far the biggest positive has been Lombardo’s passes.

9:52 NU 4 Penn 3

Off a free position shot Alex Bowen drives to the goal, feigns running past it, turns around and puts the Wildcats back on top.

9:17 NU 4 Penn 4

Off a free position shot senior Melissa Lehman rips a shot from pretty far out that goes straight to the upper right corner of the goal. And we have another tied game. Let’s see if Penn can finally take a lead.

7:04 NU 4 Penn 4

Yet again Lombardo has a crisp pass to the middle, but the ensuing shot is saved by NU goalkeeper Morgan Lathrop, leading one fan to say “Now that’s a save!”

6:15 NU 5 Penn 4

Northwestern gets yet another goal Frank off a Nielsen assist.

4:30 NU 6 Penn 4

Bowen gets her second goal, after running around the front of the Quakers D and ripping a shot to the upper left corner. NU was very patient on that possession, passing the ball around several times before Bowen’s run in front of the goal.

2:37 NU 7 Penn 4

Penn gets a penalty for decking a Wildcat player right before she’d shoot. On the ensuing free position shot Bowen wings a hard shot right at the goal, and Waxman is unable to save it. Ok I’ll take responsibility for jinxing the Quakers after saying “let’s see if Penn can finally take a lead” when it was 4-4

Something finally goes right for Penn, as Waxman gets a high save. Penn’s charging down the field and with :37 left gets its fifth goal of the game, this time from Lombardo off a Manson assist.

0:00 NU 7 Penn 5

With zeros showing on the clock, the refs huddle to see if there was a foul before the clock expired. They put a second back give a free position shot to NU who then proceeds to… get saved by Waxman.

Well this half was significantly better than either of the ones against NU last year. In the first game, at Evanston, Ill,, March 9, the Quakers were down 6-3 and even worse, it was 8-0 at the break in the last year’s final four at Franklin Field. The number one thing Penn has to do is keep up the offense. While they were able to hang with NU for most of the half, they couldn’t string enough goals together to take the lead. While keeping up the Wildcats certainly is an improvement from last year, they need to do more if they want to finally beat NU for the first time in five tries.

Penn athletics has really gone all out today. The jumbotron on the west scoreboard actually has video (first regular season Lax game I’ve seen that at). They also actually had some halftime entertainment other than the Penn Band as two teams of young girls played lacrosse on the field.

Second half 29:17 NU 7 Penn 5
Melissa Lehman goes the length of the field, but her one-on-one shot hits the crossbar. Manson recovers and Penn’s still on the offensive.

28:32 NU 7 Penn 6

Less than a minute later on the same possession Allison Ambrozy takes a pass and wings it into the goal. And Penn is within one.

27:19 NU 7 Penn 7

A Giordano shot is nicely saved by Lanthrop at 27:39 , but less than 30 seconds later senior Chelsea Kocis ties it up with a goal at 27:19.

26:29 NU 7 Penn 8

Giordano gets her second goal and Penn is leading Northwestern for the first time since their lone win against the Wildcats in 2003.

24:00 NU 7 Penn 9

Kocis scores yet again, this time off a free position shot, and Penn is up by two. I’m surprised NU coach Kelly Amonte Hiller hasn’t taken one of her two timeouts. I know if I was the University of Maryland grad I certainly would take one to stop the Quakers’ increasing momentum and confidence.

21:54 NU 7 Penn 10

In this recent stretch NU has been fouling a lot, clearly a sign the players are frustrated. Well it doesn’t help them, as Giordano sprints around the goal and rips a shot from an awkward angle into the net. Her hat trick goal gives Penn a three goal lead.

This ties NU’s largest deficit of the season, although the other two times they were down by three was either at halftime or in the first. The 10 goals are tied for the fourth highest total the Wildcats have given up this year.

12:36 NU 7 Penn 10

Waxman gets a nice save, just the second shot of the half for NU. And in honor of Waxman the Penn Band is singing a version of “Dayman” from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia with the lyrics: “Waxman. Fighter of Northwestern. Keeper of the goal.”

The Quakers are being uber patient on offense, trying to waste as much clock as possible. Penn’s Tarah Kirnan gets a key groundball after Penn almost gives up a turnover.

7:51 NU 7 Penn 11

Ambrozy shoots high, and it gets saved, but she after it gets knocked around it goes in. Maybe I saw it wrong though, since Manson is given an assist.

6:00 NU 7 Penn 11

A Kocis shot hits the post.

4:42 NU 7 Penn 11

NU misses a free position shot, leading to the same fan who shouted “now that’s a save” to say “Oh My God!”

0:00 NU 7 Penn 11

Well Penn has done it. They’ve beaten the formerly undefeated, three-time national Champion Northwestern Wildcats of 36 game wining streak fame, and a 92-5 record over four plus seasons. This has got to be the Penn athletics highlight of the year so far.

After the women’s lacrosse team beat Princeton 9-5 yesterday to clinch at least a share of the Ivy title I interviewed sophomore Ali DeLuca, seniors Sarah Waxman and Rachel Manson and coach Karin Brower. Unfortunately I couldn’t include all of their quotes in my recap due to limited space in the DP, so over the next couple of days I’ll post some material here to the Buzz. First up was THE RUN. Second was THE IMPACT ON THE RANKINGS. Lastly here is PLAYERS’ REACTIONS.

—————————————————————————————————————————

Upon winning their second straight Ivy League title, the women’s lacrosse team was quite ecstatic. Despite their experience winning the league last year, the Quakers still had a very emotional response to clinching the league yet again.

“Oh my god, this is the most amazing feeling ever” sophomore attack Ali DeLuca said.

Even senior Sarah Waxman, last year’s All-American goalkeeper who leads the nation this year with a 6.23 goals-against-average, was quite emotional. After the game she barely could contain the tears, tears of joy.

“I am weeping; my emotions are all over the place,” Waxman said. “I’m speechless… This is the happiest day of my whole life, I’ll never forget it ever.

“We’re one of the hardest working teams here at this school. This means so much to the senior class, who’ve put so much into this truly believing we can turn this program around. I don’t know enough words to explain this.”

Waxman’s classmate and co-captain Rachel Manson also was quite flabbergasted after winning. While I interviewed her she literally was at a loss of words saying, “I can’t even think or concentrate right now. It feels amazing.”

Beating Princeton at Princeton — for the first time in 22 years — for the Ivy League title made the win even more remarkable for the team. This was especially true of DeLuca, who is a native New Jerseyan.

“It’s weird coming here,” said DeLuca, who hails from nearby Hillsborough, N.J. “We scrimmaged here in the fall, but I’ve never actually played in Princeton’s stadium. I remember coming here in high school and watching Princeton games. So it was an amazing feeling just to be able to play in this stadium and win here.”

UPDATE: THE QUAKERS JUST BEAT BROWN 12-5, AND NOW ARE OFFICIALLY IVY LEAGUE CHAMPIONS WITH A RECORD OF 12-1, 7-0 IVY.

After the women’s lacrosse team beat Princeton 9-5 yesterday to clinch at least a share of the Ivy title I interviewed sophomore Ali DeLuca, seniors Sarah Waxman and Rachel Manson and coach Karin Brower. Unfortunately I couldn’t include all of their quotes in my recap due to limited space in the DP, so over the next couple of days I’ll post some material here to the Buzz. First up was THE RUN. Now, THE IMPACT ON THE RANKINGS

—————————————————————————————————————————-

With the win over previously undefeated Princeton, the women’s lacrosse team will look to move up in the rankings when next week’s polls come out Monday. Right now the Quakers (11-1, 6-0 Ivy) are No. 6 in both the Inside Lacrosse media poll and the IWLCA coaches’ poll.

After beating Princeton (10-1, 4-1), the consensus No. 2 team in the nation according to both polls, the question isn’t really whether or not they’ll move up, but the question is how many spots.

Well, it’s only certain they’ll move up if they win at home against Brown Saturday. But that shouldn’t be a problem for the Quakers. Brown (5-7, 2-3) has only beaten the bottom two teams in the Ivy League (Dartmouth and Columbia), and all of its non-conference wins are over mediocre America East teams (their best win is over 9-7 Sacred Heart).

Another certain thing is that it’ll be nearly impossible for the Quakers to surpass three-time defending national champion Northwestern and become the No. 1 team. The unanimous No. 1 Wildcats have won all 13 of their games, and even if they were to lose either of their games this weekend (home against No. 17 Johns Hopkins and No. 11 North Carolina), there’s a good chance a 13-1 Northwestern with only a loss to a top 20 team would still maintain the top spot.

The teams currently ahead of Penn are the same in both polls, although their order is different. In the media poll, the three, four and five slots are Maryland (12-1), Syracuse (11-2) and Virginia (11-3), respectively. In the coaches’ poll the Cavaliers and the Orange are switched.

While beating No. 2 would be the best win of the week barring a Northwestern upset, Penn is not the only top-six team to earn a quality win this week. The Terrapins did beat No. 8/9 Georgetown handily, 14-7, so unless the Terps lose to 4-12 Virginia Tech Saturday, they likely would claim the Tigers’ No. 2 spot.

Virginia also got a quality win, beating No. 12 George Mason by a decisive 12-3 margin.

Syracuse doesn’t have any quality wins this week, as they’ve only beaten 7-8 Colgate and play 6-8 Loyola (Md.) Saturday.

At a minimum, Princeton should drop to six, and Penn would move up to five. More likely, Penn would leap frog at least Syracuse, regardless of the Orange’s game at the Greyhounds. At the same time, on just the strength of beating an undefeated team at their place, it’s still possible the Quakers would jump as high as third or even second.

While the Quakers don’t analyze the rankings too much, they still believe their impressive win over Princeton warrants a jump in the polls.

“9-5, that’s a decisive win,” senior attack Rachel Manson said. “If we don’t move up in the polls, that’s laughable.”

Coach Karin Brower, who has repeated on several occasions that she doesn’t look at polls, still believes the team should move up, plain and simple.

“It’s black and white,” she said. “We should be No. 2.”

Last year Penn was in a similar situation late in the season. On April 2, the Quakers were ranked 12/11, and after beating No. 10 Penn State at Happy Valley they jumped to No. 6 in both polls on April 9. Then after beating No. 14 Dartmouth, they moved up to 5/3. Finally after beating No. 15 Princeton the Quakers earned the four spot from Inside Lacrosse and the second spot from the coaches.

More importantly than regular season rankings, however, is seeding in the national tournament. The top four seeds are guaranteed home games for the first two rounds of the sixteen team tournament. The Final Four and championship games are played at a predetermined spot (this year it’s at Towson; last year it was at Franklin Field).

Last year, after finishing the regular season ranked third by Inside Lacrosse and second by IWLCA, the Quakers did earn a top seed, drawing the four seed.

Just like with the regular season polls, this year’s Quakers believe that by beating Princeton and earning the Ivy League’s automatic bid they deserve a high seed.

“I think we’re going to have a really good seed for the tournament,” Manson said. “And I think this proves that last year wasn’t a fluke. We’re here every year to dominate the Ivies. This is the beginning of a dynasty.”

Next up: Players’ reactions

UDPATE: Well only the minimum happened. The coaches’ poll has yet to be released, but in the media poll, Penn only moved up a spot to number 5. Ahead of them are Northwestern, Maryland, Syracuse and Virginia, respectively. One reason for the little movement is that no team ahead of Penn lost. Also, looking at laxpower.com’s power ratings, Penn is eighth, behind the above four teams as well as Duke, Boston University, and surprisingly Princeton. This last part is also surprising, since the Tigers not only lost to Penn last week, but also lost 13-12 to Dartmouth on Saturday. This probably hurt Penn’s chances of leap frogging a team like Syracuse since their win over the Tigers was slightly diminished. I’ll post the coaches’ poll later today when it comes out.

Update 2: Although it didn’t get updated until 8 am today, the IWLCA coaches’ poll finally got updated and there’s some good news for the Quakers (12-1).  The “more likely” scenario occurred here, as the Quakers jumped over 13-2 Syracuse and now are the No. 4 team behind Northwestern (15-0), Maryland (14-1) and Virginia (12-3). Syracuse (13-2) is No. 5, followed by Princeton (10-2) at No. 6, just like the media poll.

After the women’s lacrosse team beat Princeton 9-5 yesterday to clinch at least a share of the Ivy title I interviewed sophomore Ali DeLuca, seniors Sarah Waxman and Rachel Manson and coach Karin Brower. Unfortunately I couldn’t include all of their quotes in my recap due to limited space in the DP, so over the next couple of days I’ll post some material here to the Buzz. First up, THE RUN.

—————————————————————————————————————————

With the score 3-1 Penn at half time of the women’s lacrosse game against Princeton yesterday, the game was still very much in the air. Even though Penn had dominated the first half by holding onto the ball for at least 20 of the 30 minutes, Princeton was just a run away from taking back control of the game.

At the same time, the Quakers were pretty confident they’d be the team to pull away in the second.

“Going into the game and at halftime there never was a doubt in anyone’s mind that we weren’t going to win this game,” senior attack Rachel Manson said.

Still coach Karin Brower had to say something at halftime to make sure the Quakers followed through on their confidence.

“Our goal has been to play for 60 minutes,” she said. “I told them we played a great 30 minutes but we need to think like it’s 0-0. We got 30 minutes to beat Princeton and remember this for the rest of our lives.

“I think that defensively keep up what we were doing. They were very patient, playing good one-on-one defense and weren’t doubling early. Keep working on denying cuts. On offense we just wanted to be patient. And in the second half it just opened up for us.”

And open up it did. Within just the first 10 minutes of the second half, the Quakers scored five goals, while surrendering zero. During the stretch Princeton held the ball for less than two and a half minutes and only got off three shots, two of which were off target. By the end of the run the game had gone from a 3-1 tight-knit match, to an 8-1 dominating performance.

“I thought it was important to come out hard at the first whistle of the second half,” Manson said. “Just to put them away and make sure they’re not going to comeback, they’re not going to win this game. So I think it was really pretty awesome that we scored at the beginning of the second half and we kept that run going. And if they scored we either answered back or got a stop. We never let them back in it.”

While she’d never take responsibility herself, if you had to credit just one player for the run, it’d have to be Manson. The product out of lacrosse power St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes in Alexandria, Va. scored the first two goals of the run (she also had the game’s first goal). The first goal in the run came off of a free position shot that bounced its way past Princeton goalie Kaitlin Perrelle, and the second was off of a heads up play when she cradled a rebound off of Perrelle and shot it right back into the net.

But the best goal of the run was scored by sophomore Ali DeLuca. Senior Chelsea Kocis, weaving behind the Princeton goal, threw up a pass over the goal that DeLuca jumped for, snagged out of mid-air, cradled and shoot, all without touching the ground, just like an Alley-oop.

Despite the increased scoring in the second half, some Quakers didn’t really feel they had changed their game plan after the break.

“It wasn’t anything different,” goalkeeper Sarah Waxman said. “In the first half we had the ball a lot, and we were patient and they just didn’t have the ball at all … People bash our attack as well. But I think that run we went on is another example of how our attack is good.”

With the lead much larger than it had just been 10 minutes ago, a significant degree of pressure was lifted from Waxman after the run.

The run “was like a gift from God,” the senior captain said. “But any good goalie is going to tell you they don’t let the momentum of their team dictate their play. So it was 0-0 to me the entire game. But in the back of my head when we scored I’d be like, ‘ok, we’re up by six goals.’ It’s also a lot easier to talk to people going back to the draw [after a goal].”

Regardless of its impact on Waxman, the run in it of itself was significant. How significant? Without it, Penn would’ve lost by one goal, 5-4.

Next up: Impact on the rankings

Hello everyone,

Zach Klitzman here blogging live from Princeton University’s Class of 1952 stadium as the women’s lacrosse team faces its New Jersey rivals in a game that will determine the Ivy League title.

Princeton has been on tear this season, ripping off 10 straight wins to bring its record to 10-0, 4-0 Ivy. Penn has also been on a long winning streak, winning eight in a row since losing at Stanford 10-8 March 9. They’re 10-1 overall and 5-0 in Ivy play. I’ll provide highlights throughout the night, although I’m also the DP’s photographer for the night, so I’ll be taking photos for the majority of the game.

27:00 first half, Penn 0 Princeton 0

Within the first three minutes both Penn and Princeton have ripped off shots, but both have been saved by the goalies.

24:00 Penn 0 Princeton 0

With 24:05 Princeton’s Marine Graham was defending Ali DeLuca when she hit the deck, apparently with an injured ankle. Of note, the Washington D.C. native sang the national anthem prior to the game.

Immediately after DeLuca takes the ball, drives to the goal, but the shot is saved again by Princeton goalkeeper Kaitlin Perrelle.

18:50 Penn 1 Princeton 0

With 18:50, Penn sets up the offense, and after working the ball from behind the net, Kaitlin Lombardo passes it to senior Rachel Manson who shoots, scoring her 101st career goal. Penn 1 Princeton 0. Ok, with a timeout called by Princeton, there’s now a pause in the action. So I’m going to head down to the field to take some photos. So the next update will be at halftime.

Halftime Penn 3 Princeton 1

Well it’s halftime here, and if you’re a Penn fan you’re going to be happy. The score stands at 3-1 Quakers, despite an even 6-6 in shots. After the Manson goal, Princeton tied it back up at 1 when senior Ashley Amo scored with 15:42 left in the half. However, the rest of the half was all Penn, as senior Melissa Lehman (12:30) and sophomore Ali DeLuca (1:00) both scored.

Overall the game has been very deliberate. I’ve only seen about 20 games of lacrosse, but without a doubt this is the lowest scoring I’ve seen. Penn, which dominated in time of possession, has purposely been deliberate with the ball, waiting until the best available shot before shooting. Hence just the six shots per side. (How ironic that in a Penn-Princeton game it’s the Tigers who are pushing the tempo while the Quakers are going at a slow tempo).

As we wait I wait as well describe the crowd. On this nice day the turnout is pretty good, as the main side of the ‘52 Stadium is mainly filled. I’d estimate about 500 people are in attendance. Among them is the Princeton band, who as I write this, is playing their alma mater… actually it’s 99 Red Balloons.

27:33 Penn 4 Princeton 1

With 27:33 it’s Manson again, this time scoring off of a bounce shot. It’s her 102nd goal in her career and it ties the largest deficit Princeton has faced this year as the lead is now 4-1.

26:46 Penn 5 Princeton 1

Less than a minute later a Penn pass overshoots its target, hitting of Perrelle. But Manson is there again, scooping the ball out of the air and earning a hat trick with a put back. Penn now leads 5-1.

25:18 Penn 6 Princeton 1

And again, another short spurt before another Penn goal. Senior Chelsea Kocis, weaving behind the Princeton goal, throws up a pass and DeLuca jumps in the air, cradles the ball and shoots, all without touching the ground. Call it an Alley-oop goal for the sophomore product out of Hillsborough, N.J. This three goal spurt in under 5:00 minutes forces Princeton to take its second timeout of the night. During the timeout the Princeton band plays Eye of the Tiger, begging the question is this song more appropriate for Princeton because of its nickname or Penn for the connections the song has to Philly.

22:01 Penn 7 Princeton 1

Another three minutes go by, and this time a freshman is the difference. Off an Ali DeLuca pass, freshman Giulia Giordano ripped off a shot.

Just two minutes later Giordano scores yet again, this time off a free position shot at 20:39. The score now stands at 8-1.

And as the clock approaches the 20:00 minute, Penn goalie Sarah Waxman is now 67% on her way to her 99% prediction of winning this game coming 100% true.

Final Penn 9 Princeton 5

Sorry for the delay, I was shooting photos and interviewing players. But the final score was 9-5 Penn. The Quakers (11-1, 6-0) have now clinched at least a share of the Ivy League title and the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament that comes with it.

Quick stats: Ali DeLuca 3 goals, 2 assists, Rachel Manson three goals, Sarah Waxman 8 saves.

A full recap will appear in tomorrow’s DP and more info will be posted later to this Buzz.

The Penn men’s lacrosse team is young, but it’s learning how to win close games.

After getting trounced by No. 8 Cornell at Franklin Field, the Quakers scored 28 seconds into overtime to beat Dartmouth, 9-8.

The Red and Blue have allowed three more goals than they have scored in the Ivy league, yet have come out with a 3-1 Ivy record. In all, Penn has played in four one-goal games, and has won four games (three in the league) by two goals or less.

After building up a 7-1 lead, Dartmouth stormed back by netting four goals in a row, and then tying it up at eight with just over two minutes to go. In overtime, though, Justin Lynch won the opening faceoff, and Penn called timeout to set up a play. A shot went awry, but just seconds later, Corey Winkoff found Garvey Heiderman for the game-winner.

The Quakers have a nice conference record, but have tough tests to go against Brown and Princeton if they want to win the league or make the NCAA Tournament.