Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/4/13
What at first glance appeared to potentially be an uneasy night in the Lehigh Valley quickly turned into a convincing win for Penn as the Quakers used a 10-goal second half to blow past Lehigh, 13-4, on Wednesday.
Before the game was more than five minutes old, the Quakers were trailing by two goals, 2-0. From there, the Quakers scored 13 of the game’s final 15 goals to cruise to their fifth win in six games.
Meredith Cain tied her career highs in both goals (four) and points (five) to lead the Quakers. She was joined atop the goal-scoring list by Tory Bensen who also netted four – a new career high for the junior. Maddie Poplawski (Springfield-Delco) scored one goal, but was dominant on the draw with a season-high six draw controls to help Penn win that battle on the circle, 10-9.
In a game where just four goals were given up, the defense was undoubtedly a start. The Quakers held Lehigh without a goal on five free position attempts – including an 0-for-4 night for Julie McBrien who entered the season with a 10-for-16 record on eight meter shots. Lely DeSimone was all over the field, with four caused turnovers and two ground balls. As a team, Penn caused 14 of Lehigh’s 17 turnovers with Shannon Mangini, Allie Martin (Radnor), Iris Williamson (Germantown Friends) and Courtney Tomchik each adding two.
