Penn State women’s lacrosse (5-2) defeated Townson University (2-4) 15-6 in Maryland on Tuesday.

The Nittany Lions and the Tigers kept playing catch-up in the first half with goal-for-goal scores. Penn State started to pull ahead in the third quarter and entered the final frame up 9-6.

Several free-position shots allowed the Nittany Lions to get an extra step ahead of Townson and earn their third straight win.

How It Happened

Both teams started off the game a little slow, but the Nittany Lions quickly picked up the pace after the first two minutes. Right at the three-minute mark, Penn State’s Brooke Hoss landed the first goal of the game.

The Nittany Lions rode the high from Hoss’s goal and earned a second just over 30 seconds later from Mary Muldoon with an assist from Kara Nealon, putting the Nittany Lions up 2-0.

Townson got a turnover and was able to generate a goal with 8:39 left following a missed shot. The Tigers won draw control immediately after, and Koras scored once again, tying things up 2-2 in the eighth minute of the quarter.

The Tigers won draw control a second time, and Koras scored Townson’s third goal in the team’s third consecutive minute with 6:31 to go.

Moving into the second quarter, Townson won draw control but was not able to quickly turn it into a score. Penn State then closed the score gap with 12:18 left in the quarter with a goal from Kristin O’Neill.

Shortly after O’Neill’s shot, the Tigers took back the lead with 10:46 to go, making the score 4-3 off of a shot by Kerri Thornton.

After another five minutes of missed shots and saves from both Penn State and Townson, Penn State’s Taylor Regan landed a goal to even out the score yet again with 4:54 to go before the half ended. Just over a minute later, Gretchen Gilmore scored another one for the Nittany Lions and notched the last goal of the half.

Within the first two seconds of the second half, Townson’s Blair Pearre tied up the game 5-5 for the Tigers.

Both the tigers and the Nittany Lions worked the goal for about half of the match before either could create a point deficit for their opponent. Penn State’s Brook Hoss finally made the goal with 8:06 left in the third quarter. The goal came off of a free-position shot due to a foul on Townson’s Shannon Sullivan, making the score 6-5 in favor of the Nittany Lions.

Penn State widened the score gap with 4:36 left in the quarter from a goal made by Mary Muldoon. The goal brought the Nittany Lions up 7-5 thanks to an assist by Kara Nealon.

Townson’s sixth goal of the match came with 3:50 to go as the Tigers attempted to mount a comeback. Penn State responded with yet another goal from Hoss with just over a minute left in the third quarter, bringing the score up to 8-6.

Less than a minute after, and with less than a minute to go in the frame, Meghan Murray scored the ninth goal for the Nittany Lions and ended the third quarter with a bang.

The final quarter opened with a foul on Townson, giving Penn State a free position shot opportunity. Murray took the shot and scored, bringing Penn State into the double digits with exactly 14 minutes to go.

Regan from the Nittany Lion squad made the score 11-6 at the 12:58 mark. Just shy of a minute later, O’Neill had her second goal of the match and doubled Penn State’s advantage on Towson.

Muldoon did it again for Penn State and brought up the score to 13-6 with 9:30 left in the game. After a lull in scoring with some back and forth possession for both teams, Gilmore scored a goal with 4:11 to go and the Nittany Lions far in the lead.

About three minutes later, Gilmore scored her third goal of the match (and the final goal of the game), giving Penn State the 15-6 win.

What’s Next?

The Nittany Lions return home on Saturday, March 19, to face Princeton. The game is set to begin at 1 p.m. on BTN+.