Penn State women’s lacrosse (11-8) was beaten by Cornell (7-8) 14-8 on Saturday afternoon in Panzer Stadium.

The Nittany Lions struggled to get any sort of momentum going trailing in the first quarter and allowed three goals in the final minute of the frame as they trailed 9-2.

How It Happened

Head coach Missy Doherty led the Nittany Lion’s starting eleven into a matinee game at Panzer Stadium with Ashley Bowan in the cage and an opening draw taken by Erika Ho.

Cornell set the pace of the game with an opening goal made within the first two minutes. The goal was answered swiftly by Ho, who scored after a foul from the Big Red.

Cornell continued to beat the Nittany Lions with pressure added to the Nittany Lions’ defense and scored a goal after fouls on both Ellie Hollin and Lilly Spilker. Ho continued to take the draw and passed to Lauren Saltz. Saltz had a turnover resulting in Cornell obtaining the ball and taking it up the side of the field.

The Big Red capitalized on the gain and scored off of a free position attempt. Josie Vogel of Cornell quickly scored another goal after securing the ball from Ellie Bergin.

The Nittany Lions took a timeout to regain composure and attempt to slow down Cornell’s hot start. The timeout helped the Lions hold off Cornell for three minutes until Vogel scored her second goal of the afternoon off of a ground ball pickup from Sorelli Lawton.

Caitlyn Slaminko continued to pick up the intensity for Cornell with her second goal after a turnover and foul from Emma Kelly. With a 6-1 deficit, Bergen maintained control for the Big Red with a drawl control win. Fouls were then given to Penn State’s Kate Dougherty and Lauren Tinson, with Dougherty leaving the field with a yellow card and a free position attempt given to Maggie Pons. Pons scored on the attempt.

Sydney Manning substituted in the cage for Bowan but allowed three goals in the final minute of the first quarter.

The Nittany Lions switched to Kelly to take the draw to open the second quarter and she maintained composure before passing the ball to Brooke Hoss, who turned the ball over to Cornell in a ground ball pickup. Cornell kept the ball down in Nittany Lions’ territory which eventually led to Slaminko scoring her third goal of the game.

Cornell scored once again after a ground ball pickup by Ellie Horner who passed it to Dillyn Patten.

In a back-and-forth battle on the Nittany Lion’s half Mia DiChiara was given a green card for an illegal use of the stick which was quickly followed by another green card given to her teammate Pons for an illegal substitution.

The Nittany Lions were able to capitalize on the fouls and Saltz scored on a free position attempt, notching the Nittany Lions’ third goal of the afternoon.

The next eight minutes were a lengthy battle as Penn State was able to keep the ball in Cornell territory after a turnover and ground ball pickup from Hollin. Kelly MacKinney was able to finally put the ball in the back of the cage after an assist from Ellie Wisch.

Half a minute later, the Nittany Lions scored another goal by Ho after an in-the-air assist from MacKinney.

Coming out of the half, Tinson’s foul allowed Cornell the start the half with a goal by Pons.

After a foul given to two Cornell players, one of them resulting in a yellow card, Kelly was able to score a goal off of a free position attempt. The Nittany Lions scored another goal after Cornell failed to score on their free position attempt, and MacKinney hustled down the field to pass the ball to Ho for her 18th goal of the season.

With a foul given to Saltz, Cornell’s Slaminko picked up a ground ball and fed the ball to Lexie Tully for a goal. Slaminko then took the ball to the back of the cage after Cornell won the final drawl of the third quarter.

Beginning the final quarter of the game, Maggie Golder won possession and moved the ball to Ho but her shot went wide of the net. The attempt was picked up by Kelly who passed to Elise Smigiel for another missed shot. The shot was then picked up by Cornell who failed to maintain composure and forced a turnover by Golder.

Three Cornell players received fouls and Ho tried to score with the given advantage. Her attempt missed and was picked up by Cornell who carried the ball down to Nittany Lions territory. However, a shot clock violation gave the Nittany Lions the ball. Kelly attempted to make a shot, but it went high.

Penn State was able to recover the ball in a ground ball pick up by Brooke Long and fed it to MacKinney but she was unable to do much before a turnover was recovered by Patten. Cornell decided to take a timeout with seven minutes left in the match.

A foul by Golder and a shot clock violation on Cornell led to Penn State’s possession, but the Nittany Lions failed to clear an attempt down the field due to a turnover caused by Cornell’s Alexa Donahoe.

Cornell obtained a free position attempt after a foul on the Nittany Lions Golder. Unable to score on the attempt, Cornell’s sloppy possession by Kylie Gelabert led to a pickup by Hollin.

After a yellow card was given to Cornell, Brooke Hoss was able to notch her second goal of the game off an assist from MacKinney. With three minutes left in the game, the Nittany Lions forced Cornell to take a timeout, but then gained possession once Golder and Saltz were given fouls.

A foul on Cornell’s Annie Parker allowed Wisch to make one final attempt for the Nittany Lions but failed as Penn State fell 8-4.

Takeaways

• Penn State’s offense struggled heavily in this game as it was hard for them to maintain possession or find opportunities to clear the ball up the field before Cornell’s defense had time to drop back.
• The Nittany Lion’s defense held strong as they tried to force possessions and were able to recover key ground balls to send up the sidelines when offenders were open.
• After playing the majority of the game, goalie Sydney Manning was able to keep the Nittany Lions in the fight with a .533 save percentage.

What’s Next?

The Nittany Lions will take on Princeton on the road at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 5.