Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 3/13/10
From Press Releases
Penn set a season-high in goals with 16 en route to a 16-6 win over Harvard in an Ivy League women’s lacrosse opener at soggy Franklin Field today.
The fourth-ranked Quakers (4-1) extended their Ivy League winning streak to 23 games.
Seven different players had goals for Penn in the win, including five with multiple scores. Sophomore Erin Brennan led the Red and Blue with a career-high four goals. Courtney Lubbe (Council Rock North) and Maddie Poplawski (Springfield-Delco) each had three goals, Ali DeLuca had two goals as did Bridget Waclawik. Giulia Giordano and Megan Smith (Henderson) were the final goal scorers for Penn in the win.
Brennan added three assists for the Quakers, giving her a career-high seven points. DeLuca was right behind her with three helpers while Lubbe and Carolyn Pollard each added one assist.
Emily Szelest won her fourth game of the season for the Quakers, making four saves while causing one turnover and coming up with one ground ball.
One could say that Brennan was all over the place on Saturday, and the scoresheet would reflect that. In addition to her offensive output, Brennan led the Quakers with four groundballs, three draw controls and three caused turnovers. Pollard and Lily Posner each had a pair of caused turnovers for the Quakers.
Harvard actually struck first, when rookie Jen VanderMeulen converted a free position 3:19 into the game. The Quakers rebounded with five goals in a row from five different scorers to pull ahead, 5-1.
The Crimson closed the gap to 5-3 with a pair of goals 1:34 apart from VanderMeulen and Tyler Petropulos. However, Poplawski and Brennan found the back of the cage before the end of the half to send Penn to the locker room ahead by four.
In the second half, four straight goals from the Quakers opened the lead to 11-3, before the teams traded goals over the final17:47 for the 16-6 final score.
Harvard falls to 2-2 and 0-1 in the Ancient Eight.
