No. 10 Penn State women’s lacrosse (3-4) had a rough game against Ohio State (2-7) on Friday, losing 15-12 due to draw losses and offensive mistakes.

Penn State fell behind early in this one. Despite mounting a spirited comeback effort, the Nittany Lions couldn’t finish the job on the road.

How It Happened

Six minutes into the game, the Nittany Lions trailed the Buckeyes 4-0. Penn State had the ball twice and forced the shot, leading to offensive turnovers that the Buckeyes took advantage of.

The Nittany Lions finally got on the board thanks to redshirt freshman Regan Nealon, who received an assist from Kara Nealon. Penn State had another turnover at midfield, leading to a goal by Nicole Ferrara to give the Buckeyes a 5-1 lead.

Maria Auth scored her 19th goal of the season off a free-position look, cutting the Buckeyes’ lead to 5-2. Later, an illegal check by Penn State’s Olivia Dirks led to a free position shot by Ohio State to extend the lead, 6-2, with 17:33 left in the first half.

Penn State was a player up for two minutes after Ferrara received a yellow card for a check to the head. The Ohio State goalie, Jillian Rizzo, made another save on a forced shot on goal by the Penn State Offense. A fired-up Coach Missy Doherty called a timeout to try to pull her Nittany Lions offense together.

Another yellow card was given to Ohio State for dangerous propelling after a shot and gave Penn State the two-man-up advantage for 15 seconds.

Kristin O’Neill, the three-time Big Freshman of the Week, received a shooting space free position shot and scored. The Nittany Lions trailed the Buckeye’s 6-4 with about eight minutes to go in the first.

Ferrara scored again for Ohio State, taking the Buckeye lead to 7-5 on another miscommunication by Penn State’s defense.

Straight off the last goal, Ohio State’s Chloe Johnson won another draw, passing to Sophie Baez, who ran straight to the net scoring to get the lead back to three for the Buckeyes.

A charging foul was called against Maria Auth and put Ohio State back on offense. Seconds later, a check to the head by Samantha Dupack put Penn State a player down for two minutes, and Lindsay Epstein scored Ohio State’s third unanswered goal in minutes.

Penn State made a goalie change after four unanswered goals to try and slow down the Ohio State offense. Taylor Suplee was switched out for Lucy Lowe in an effort to change up the momentum on the defense.

Olivia Dirks responded to Ohio State’s goals with a spin move off the crease scoring to get Penn State back on the board 10-6 with 1:44 to go in the half.

Ali Beekhuizen scored at the end of the first half giving the Buckeyes a strong lead of 11-6 going into the second half.

At the start of the second half, neither team scored for five minutes until Buckeye’s Jamie Level scored, taking the lead to 12-6 with 25:13 left to go.

Sophia Triandafils scored the first goal for the Nittany Lions of the second half after the Buckeye’s were on a 6 goals streak.

Coach Doherty decided to bring back goalie Taylor Suplee to give her the opportunity to get Penn State back into the game and give some much-needed confidence to the defense.

Regan Nealon scores on a man-up opportunity for Penn State which showed they are still in the game trailing 13-9 with 14:55 left to go in the game.

Suplee made a big free position save that lead to an accidental check to the face by Ohio State Sophie Baez. This was Ohio State’s fourth yellow of the game, and all yellows from that point on were non-releasable.

Triandafils scored on the man-up advantage cutting the lead to 13-10 with 13:17 to go in the half.

Penn State was on a five-goal unanswered streak with Dirks scoring to try and tie up the game and take the lead for the first time the whole game. The Nittany Lions trailed 13-12 with 4:25 left in the game.

With just 2:46 left in the game, Ohio State took control with two fast goals, giving the Buckeyes the 15-12 lead. Penn State couldn’t get its offense together in the remaining time, leading to the loss to an unranked team.

Takeaways

• Ohio State’s Chloe Johnson had strong draw control throughout the game, winning more than half the draws that gave the Buckeyes strong opportunities on offense.
• Miscommunication on the Penn State defense in the first half led to bad slides and open Ohio State players in the offensive zone of Penn State.
• Penn State offense had a rough time getting the ball into the net past Buckeye’s goalie Julia Rizzo. Rizzo had a strong game stopping many Penn State opportunities to score and try to take the lead against Ohio State.
• Penn State took advantage of the man-up situations to cut the Buckeyes lead throughout the game.
• Penn State will need to work on its draw game before Sunday to find an answer for Johnson.

What’s Next?

The Nittany Lions will play Ohio State again at noon on Sunday, March 28. The game will air on BTN+