Penn State’s women’s lacrosse (5-3) lost to No. 11 Princeton (6-0) on Saturday afternoon after giving up a late-game goal.

The Nittany Lions had a strong push in the second quarter to tie the game after initially trailing by as many as five goals. A last-minute goal gave Princeton the lead with 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

How It Happened

Ashley Bowan started off in the net for the Nittany Lions after a successful outing against Towson on Tuesday. Princeton opened up the scoring following some back-and-back play after the first draw of the game. The Tigers led 1-0 with 11:41 left in the first quarter.

Bowan made a great save to give the Nittany Lions an opportunity on offense. Taylor Regan assisted freshman Brooke Hoss, who scored to tie the game up 1-1 with 10:24 left in the first quarter.

Following three unsuccessful attempts, Ellie Mueller was able to get one past Bowan and Princeton led 2-1 with 5:01 left in the first frame. The Tigers ended the first quarter up 3-1 against the Nittany Lions.

Princeton scored first in the second quarter and led 4-1. Penn State’s Meghan Murray replied with a goal just a minute later, and the Nittany Lions trailed by two with 12:58 to go in the half.

The Tigers scored two goals a minute apart from each other. Penn State took a timeout to regroup and take a breather as Princeton led 6-2 with 10:23 left in the half.

Penn State’s Kristin O’Neill scored while falling to the ground to get her 20th goal of the season. The Nittany Lions trailed 7-3 with 8:34 to go in the first half. Later, O’Neill scored her second of the game on a free-position shot with 30 seconds left in the half. With one second left on the clock, Kara Nealon scored a beautiful goal to cut Penn State’s deficit to two entering the locker room.

O’Neill was quick to open up the second half with a goal just under a minute into the third quarter. The Nittany Lions trailed 7-6 and were one step closer to tying things up. The Tigers, meanwhile, had not scored since there were about 10 minutes left in the second quarter.

Princeton took a timeout after a goal by Murray on a free-position shot tied things up 7-7 thanks to a 5-0 scoring run for Penn State. The Nittany Lions’ first lead of the game after a goal by Hoss — her 13th of the season. The Nittany Lions led 8-7 with 10:09 to go in the third quarter.

The Tigers scored twice to retake the lead and break their dry spell, once again putting Penn State down. O’Neill scored her fourth of the game as Penn State trailed 10-9 with two minutes left in the third quarter.

O’Neill received a yellow card, so Princeton was a man up for two minutes. The Tigers scored off of the foul and led Penn State 11-9 to head into the final quarter of the game.

Murray scored her third goal of the game just 40 seconds into the fourth quarter. The Nittany Lions trailed by one and later took a timeout with 6:45 to go in the game after not scoring since the first minute of the quarter.

Regan’s 16th goal of the season tied up the game 11-11 with 1:41 left to go. Princeton answered and scored with 30 seconds left in the game and led 12-11.

Princeton went a man down with 23 seconds left in the game. O’Neill had a chance at a free-position shot with 14 seconds left in the game, but it went just wide of the net. Princeton finished out on top with a close 12-11 win.

Takeaways

• Goalkeeper Ashley Bowan is a machine in the net for Penn State. She made a total of 10 saves today to tie her season high, which she set against Towson.

• Kristin O’Neill showed up agaain in yet another game by scoring four goals to help Penn State almost come back and win. Meghan Murray was also an offensive force today and scored three for the Nittany Lions.

What’s Next?

Penn State will begin its Big Ten schedule at Ohio State on Saturday, March 26. The action will begin at 2:30 p.m.