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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
No. 11 Penn State
Players Mentioned
No. 13 Princeton Edges No. 11 Penn State, 12-11
March 18, 2015 | Women's Lacrosse
Box Score
PRINCETON, N.J. (3/18/15) - What's more fun on Spring Break than a warm beach? A big win.
The Princeton women's lacrosse team, playing a very rare Wednesday early afternoon game, celebrated Spring Break a little differently than the average college students. The 13th-ranked Tigers erased an early deficit and led most of the way to knock off No. 11 Penn State, 12-11.
Ally Heavens won the final draw and Madison Cyr had a chance to tie the game with her third free-position attempt of the game with 54 seconds left. The shot went wide and a teammate backed her up for possession. With jut 16 seconds left, junior Liz Bannantine picked off a pass by Cyr, got the ground ball and gave her team a sigh of relief.
The game started back-and-forth before Penn State (5-3) took the lead on a three-goal run, 4-2, midway though the first. After calling a timeout, the Tigers responded in a big way, tallying three goals to close out the first half with a 5-4 lead.
It was a messy game with 16 turnovers on each team. In fact the first save of the game, one of Ellie DeGarmo's seven, didn't come until the 15-minute mark of the first half.
The teams traded goals again to start the second. Princeton (5-1) took the lead for good on Slifer's fourth goal of the game at 21:29, which gave the Tigers its first two-goal lead, 8-6.
Penn State wouldn't go away, coming within striking distance of knotting the game up three more times. The Tigers took their largest lead of the game, 11-8, on freshman Colby Chanenchuk's first career goal at 9:37.
The Nittany Lions scored twice within 2:08 to cut it back to 11-10 at 7:29.
Princeton's Madeline Rodriguez won the next draw but an offensive charge was called on Lauren Steidl, giving Penn State possession. Sophomore defender Maddy Lynch made a huge play, just seconds later as she blocked a Madison Cyr shot and giving freshman Camille Sullivan a chance for the ground ball.
Olivia Hompe tallied her 14th goal of the season on a sheet from Erin McMunn, to give Princeton a 12-10 lead at 3:09. McMunn is now one assist away from tying the Princeton all-time record. She currently stands with 80, with Crista Samara '99 holding the title with 81.
Cyr scored her third goal, a free position, just two seconds after her first was called back, to again make it a one-goal game, 12-11 with 1:48 remaining.
Penn State outshot Princeton 29-21. Princeton won the ground ball battle 16-11 and won one more draw, 13-12.
Senior Erin Slifer had a four-goal game to lead the team offensively. McMunn had three goals and one assist, and sHompe tallied two goals and two assists. Junior Stephanie Paloscio scored a goal and an assist.
Cyr had a hat trick for Penn State, while Haley Ford and Maggie McCormick each had two goals and one assist apiece. Emi Smith made three saves in the losing effort.
Princeton resumes Ivy League action on Saturday, March 21 when it hosts Harvard at noon.