Penn State Starts Fast, Tops Princeton 13-8

Tuesday, March 21

2:00 PM

Princeton University

5-1

Penn State

9-1

PSU

Princeton

Anna Doherty

Photo by: Beverly Schaefer

March 21, 2017 | Women's Lacrosse

Box Score

The remnants of the snow that fell in the Princeton area seven days ago still frame Sherrerd Field, which on this Tuesday afternoon was covered in sunshine on a 50-degree day.

It's early spring, with a reminder that winter has not completely left, even if the calendar says so, and that warmer weather will be here soon. It's at this time of each year that the college lacrosse season starts to reach its midpoint, and Top 10 teams start to think about just how long they might be able to extend it.

Princeton and Penn State, two such Top 10 teams (Princeton is fifth in one poll and sixth in the other; Penn State is 10th and fifth), met Tuesday afternoon, looking to size up another Top 10 opponent on a spring break afternoon. Penn State started quickly, held off a Tiger charge and then pulled away, winning 13-8 and handing Princeton its first loss of the year.

Penn State was a Final Four team a year ago, and both teams want to be playing in Foxboro - the site of this year's NCAA championship weekend - come late May, still two months away. The game Tuesday was an early-spring glance at what might be waiting ahead for both.

In this one, Penn State led 5-0 after 3:15 of the first half, and the teams played an even game for the final 56:45, sort of. Princeton followed up the Penn State run with a 6-0 sprint of its own - getting two from Erin McNulty and one each for four other players - to take a 6-5 lead with 6:49 left in the half.

Penn State answered with another 5-0 run, three of which came in the first half to make it 8-6 at the break and then two more in the second to build it to a 10-6 game. Tess D'Orsi and Anna Doherty scored back-to-back goals for the Tigers, making it 10-8 with 13:18 left, and both teams had several good chances before the Nittany Lions finally scored again with 6:33 to play before adding two more to clinch it.

McNulty would end up as the one Tiger to score more than one, as six other players would have one each.

Up next for Princeton is a trip to Dartmouth Saturday, followed by home games against Syracuse next Wednesday and Delaware next Sunday.