When Penn women’s lacrosse coach Karin Brower first found out that the No.2-seeded Quakers (14-1, 7-0 Ivy) would be playing Colgate in the first round of the NCAA tournament, she literally had no clue what kind of team Colgate is, saying “we don’t know anything about Colgate.” While she’s certainly scouted the Raiders since then, most readers probably have not. So here it is, a preview on the Colgate women’s lacrosse team:

Despite starting slow at 7-9, the Raiders have whipped off four straight victories to earn their spot in the NCAA tournament. But the run to get here certainly was pressure-filled, as their last three games all were single elimination ones. First they had the Patriot League Tournament semifinal against Lehigh, which they won 22-12. Then came the championship game at regular season champion American who they had previously lost to 13-10. But they exacted revenge winning 13-8. But their spot in the NCAAs wasn’t clinched yet. They still had to win the play-in game against MAAC champion Marist. Yet they won that 19-18 to earn an NCAA bid.

They’ll look to their recent stretch for inspiration.

“We’ve definitely already had that [pressure] experience with the play-in game,” coach Heather Bliss said. “It was able to get some people to really focus for the week at hand. It was good to get some experience under our belt. Obviously we were successful in that game so that should give us a lot of confidence against Penn.”

With the win the they are now in their third NCAA tournament in five years. (Penn meanwhile is only playing in its second since 1984 and fourth all-time.) However, the experience of playing in the tournament will be new to all but one player and one assistant coach.

“We actually have a really young team right now,” Bliss said. “And with that our coaching staff is only in its second year. So for a lot of girls on the team it’s going to be our first time. So as a program Colgate has been there three times in the past five year, but … we only have two seniors on the team and actually one wasn’t here freshmen year because she transferred. So it’ll be a new experience for a lot of the girls. It’s something we’re definitely enjoying; we’re soaking it all up.”

Senior Jessica Van der Meulen and assistant coach Heidi Ross (a Colgate ‘06 alum) are the only two tournament veterans.

Van der Muelen has 14 assists and 32 goals (which would lead the Quakers), putting her third on the team in points. But in addition to the senior captain, the Raiders are led by sophomores Brie Moran and Meghan Lawler who have 53 points apiece.

This balance on offense is one of the teams biggest strengths.

“Some of our biggest strengths are on our attack,” Bliss said. “We have seven girls that can be put the ball in the back of the net. Having that balance is really great for us. When teams mark up on two of us, we still have other girls who can get it done. We have a lot of depth.”

If their offensive balance is their strength, their schedule was one of their weaknesses, according to Bliss.

“One of the weaker points is that we haven’t played as many top teams as Penn has played this season,” Bliss said. “But I don’t think that’s anything that will hurt us going into the game. We’ll still be really excited about it. But they’ve definitely faced some tougher competition than us this season.”

So how do the Raiders matchup with the Quakers?

Looking at Colgate’s past performance, they should watch out.  The Raiders are 4-7 on the road, and they’re 0-5 when they score less than 10 goals.  Considering that the game is at Franklin Field and that Penn not only averages only six goals allowed per game, but its only given up as many as 10 goals once, the Raiders better hope their past performance is just that, in the past.

Knowing this, Bliss wants her team to focus.

“We have to be very patient with the attack,” she said. “They have some very good one-on-one defenders. We’re going to try to get some feeds.  We need to be disciplined and get control of the ball when its on our end.”

The Raiders are aware that Penn has had a great season, and as such they will try to elevate their play to Penn’s level.

“They’ve definitely had a great season,” Bliss said.  “They’re on a great run, and we know they obviously can get it done and be very successful against numerous teams. It’s something that we’re keeping in on the back of our minds, trying to come  in there  and step up our play and hopefully get a win against them.”

In less than 15 hours we’ll know if the Raiders can do just that and score one of the biggest first round upsets in women’s lacrosse history.

Despite claiming they’re hated 0n, the women’s lacrosse team dominated the Ivy League All-Ivy selections (although the release does misstate that Princeton is facing Colgate in the second round when it’s actually Penn that’s facing the Raiders).

The Quakers led the conference with six selections, including Player of the Year Sarah Waxman, and two other unanimous First Teamers, senior attack Rachel Manson and sophomore midfield Ali DeLuca. The other three recognized Quakers were senior midfield Melissa Lehman and senior defense Tarah Kirnan on the First Team and junior defense Hilary Renna on the Second Team.

Waxman, who leads the nation’s goalkeepers with a 5.97 goals-against-average with only 82 goals given up, is only the Quakers’ second Ivy League POY ever. The other one, ironically also a goalie, was Wendy DiDomenico who won it in 1989. Waxman was voted the IWLCA Goalkeeper of the Year last season.

DeLuca was Ivy League Rookie of the Year last year and appears near the top of the Quakers’ stat sheets in nearly ever category this year, ranking first in draw controls (36), caused turnovers (21) and tied for first in game-winning goals (3). She’s also second in assists (14), third in goals (19) and points (33) and fourth in ground balls (21).

Manson and Lehman have led the Quakers’ attack with 27 and 26 goals, and 18 and 10 assists, respectively. Manson was a Second Team selection and Lehman an honorable mention last year. Kirnan and Renna have anchored a defense that has only given up 6.00 goals per game, best in the nation. Renna was a unanimous First Teamer last year.

Looking towards the Quakers’ first round opponent in the NCAA tournament tomorrow, Colgate has only one All-Patriot League selection. Freshman midfield Colleen Bubnack got a Second Team selection after leading the Raiders in assists, caused turnovers and draw controls.

ON THE MEN’S SIDE: Junior attacker Craig Andrzejewski earned the Quakers’ sole First Team recognition. The product out of Parkton, Md., lead the Quakers with 40 points, becoming the first All-Ivy First Teamer since both Will Phillips and Patrick Connelly earned the nod in 2004. The Quakers also had a Second Teamer — freshman midfielder Al Kohart — and an honorable mention — senior Max Mauro, a defender.

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: Did the Quakers get shafted? Second: Will the Quakers see some familiar faces? Third: Are people biased against Penn and in love with Northwestern? Now up: Isn’t that a Quaker on the wrong sideline?

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The last time Karrie Moore was actively involved in a lacrosse game at Franklin Field, it was her Senior Day game against Brown on April 22, 2006. Minding the net for the Quakers, Moore gave up only six goals as Penn coasted to a 15-6 win.

And although she returned to 33rd and South to watch Northwestern play Penn in the Final Four last year, Sunday will mark the first time Moore will return to Franklin Field not as a spectator.

But she won’t be on Penn’s side of the field.

Instead, the 2006 graduate of the College will be coaching against the Quakers as an assistant coach for Colgate in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

“I think it’s a big coincidence,” Colgate head coach Heather Bliss said. “Obviously you see this happen with coaches in other sports too. But … we were very excited when we were watching the selection show and we saw that we drew Penn.”

For Moore, this was a dream come true.

“I was very excited,” she said about learning she’d coach against her alma mater. “It was the matchup I was hoping for. It’s always exciting to go back to Penn.”

Moore was the main Quaker goalkeeper in the 2006 season, going 8-3 with 10 starts and five other appearances in the team’s 16 games. While she might not be playing goalkeeper any longer, she still spends time near the net; her main responsibility on the Colgate staff is to help with the Raiders’ goalies.

While she’ll be all business during the game with instructing Raiders’ goalie Sara Drexler, she did admit that before and after the game she’d be somewhat conflicted.

“Before the game it definitely will be strange being on the other sideline,” she said. “But once the game starts, the excitement of the game will pull me in. And then after the game it will be a little odd seeing my [former] teammates.”

This potential unusualness of seeing current and past teammates face off against each other wasn’t lost on Moore’s superior.

“I know it’s nice for her to come back and see her teammates play, but at the same time we’re trying to win the game against them,” Bliss said. “I think for Karrie she will be happy for them if they win, but she would be ecstatic for us if we win.”

In addition to providing Moore with a good story to tell the grandkids one day, returning to face her alma mater will also give her current team some help in the scouting report.

“I think that I have more of an idea of what to expect and with knowing half the team, that makes it a lot easier,” the Lutherville, Md. native said.

Bliss agreed: “I definitely think it helps with some things because she does know some players, certainly better than you ever can from watching film.”

But giving the Raiders some advice on the Quakers isn’t the only thing Moore can tell the team.

“She’ll be our tour guide in Philly since she knows everything” about it, Bliss said. “I know it’s a really good feeling for her coming back.”

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: Did the Quakers get shafted? Second: Will the Quakers see some familiar faces? Now up: Are people biased against Penn and in love with Northwestern?

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If there’s one theme that the Penn women’s lacrosse team has reiterated this season, it’s that everyone thinks last year’s record of 16-2 was a fluke, that the Quakers’ Final Four appearance was nothing but a lucky break, and that they don’t deserve national recognition this year.

In February when I first interviewed the senior captains about the upcoming season they mentioned the apparent bias against Penn.

“People love to hate us,” senior goalkeeper Sarah Waxman said back then. “They make up excuses like ‘Penn’s not that good.’”

“Definitely some people in the Ivy League think [last year] was a fluke,” attack Allison Ambrozy said that day as well.

The most recent instance of this perceived bias came on Monday during the bracket selection show. Some might say that Northwestern getting the one seed over Penn is an example of bias against Penn. But as stated in a previous post, most statistical evidence pointed to Northwestern getting the one. So can numbers be biased? However, after the seeding was announced a commentator on CBS’s CollegeSports TV, which aired the selection show, was apparently anti-Penn.

While she admitted she was over Northwestern getting the one seed, Ambrozy was not happy with the commentator’s analysis.

“There was this additional commentator… she pretty much was hating on us,” the senior said.

“She predicted that us beating Northwestern, which no one else had done, was the best thing for [the Wildcats’] season. That they’re only going to be more fired up for Penn, and that essentially it was a fluke and there’s no way we could beat Maryland [in the Final Four], which is a lot of crap, a lot of crap.”

Ignoring the UMD part for now, the part about Northwestern being extra fired up for Penn has some validity. To be honest, my initial reaction after Penn’s win over Northwestern was similar, although I did not think it was a fluke, or that Penn could not accomplish the feat again. However, Northwestern will now have a whole game to look at Penn and learn from its mistakes. Does that mean the Wildcats automatically going to win a potential rematch? No. But will they have extra motivation to beat the Quakers and earn revenge? Yes.

(For example, yesterday (fourth paragraph from the bottom) I compared the Quakers and Wildcats to the Colts and Patriots, respectively. Continuing with this, in 2006 the Colts upset the Pats 27-20 in the regular season. When the two teams met in the AFC championship, many pundits believed the Pats couldn’t lose to the Colts twice, and that Tom Brady et al would get revenge for the earlier loss. Well they didn’t. They blew a lead and lost 38-34.)

At the same time, suggesting the Northwestern game was a fluke is a slight. Basically the commentator was scoffing at Penn, diminishing what has to be the biggest win of the year so far. Was holding Northwestern — a team that averages 16.00 goals per game — scoreless for over an entire half a fluke? I would say not. Marginalizing a great win does no service to the sport.

The second “hating” on Penn, picking No. 3 Maryland over No. 2 Penn in the Final Four, is less insulting. While one does not have to agree with her, the commentator’s prediction is valid.

Maryland had an outstanding year, going an incredible 17-2 and only losing to rivals Duke and Virginia by a goal apiece. Both of those teams are in the tournament, and the Cavaliers needed overtime to dispatch the Terps in the ACC Conference Tournament finals.

So to pick the three seed over the two seed isn’t that surprising, especially considering a) the Final Four will be played in Towson, Md., just under a hour from College Park, and b) the three seed (UVA) beat the two seed (Duke) in last year’s Final Four.

Penn Coach Karin Brower, picking her words carefully, did acknowledge the commentator’s bias.

“They were talking about the Final Four, and we weren’t even given any chance” of advancing from it, Brower said. “[The commentator] said it was Maryland and Northwestern.

“And we’re frustrated with that. But then again, it’s similar to how it’s been all year. No one has thought that we’re any good. And that’s fine … Hopefully we can prove some people wrong.”

Not everyone disrespects Penn. In its short preview of the Quakers’ first round matchup against Colgate, Inside Lacrosse says “The Quakers are the best team in the country right now.” Well, apparently everyone can’t hate the Quakers. (NB: I’ll be writing a more substantial preview later this weekend).

After the jump, the opposite situation: Northwestern Read the rest of this entry »

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?

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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.

A Penn Athletics press release earlier today announced that the football game this year at Princeton will be moved to Friday November 7th from Saturday the 8th. (Actually I just read the Princeton Athletics release and it’s more detailed). The reason for the change? So it can be aired live on ESPNU. The meeting will be the 100th between the schools.

The Quakers’ previous game is Saturday the 1st home against Brown, so the short week should not be that big of a deal. Princeton, meanwhile, will be disadvantaged more by the short week. They play at Cornell on the 1st.

But The Tigers are used to playing under the lights on a national TV audience on Friday night. They beat Brown 17-3 two years ago and Cornell 34-31 last year, both Friday ESPNU games.

This would be the first non-Saturday game the Quakers have played since Thursday October 10 at Villanova in 2002.

What are your thoughts about the change? Post in the comments below.

The NCAA released its Academic Progress Report last week, and it should obviously come as no surprise that the Ivy League dominated the rankings. However, the order might be different from what you would expect.

The Ivies swept the top six spots on the national rankings, in the following order.

1. Yale (28 teams honored)

2. Dartmouth (24 teams honored)

3. Brown (21 teams honored)

4. Penn (20 teams honored)

5. Princeton (19 teams honored)

6. Harvard (18 teams honored)

Then, there’s a bit of a drop off…

t16. Cornell (11 sports honored)

20. Columbia (9 sports honored)

Of course, you have to take the report with a grain of salt, as a lot of the rankings depend on the number of sports a school has and fail to take into account understandable reasons for GPA differences (engineering major vs. history major; Engineering vs. Wharton vs. College, Hotel Management vs. School of Agriculture, etc.). The Academic Progress Report really serves no purpose for the Ivy League — the goal is to improve the LSU’s of the world — but it’s still interesting either way.

If you want to peruse Penn’s report, you can find the link here.

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?
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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.