Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/5/08
The Penn women’s lacrosse team drew the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Division I tournament and will host Colgate Sunday at Franklin Field. Game time will be announced Tuesday.
“We’re very excited to be in the tournament, and to be in the top four and be at home for the first two rounds,” said Quakers coach Karin Brower, whose Quakers are ranked first in Division I both major polls. “I think we need to just take this one game at a time like we have all season.”
This is the second consecutive appearance for Penn in the NCAA tournament. After winning the 2007 Ivy League title, the Quakers went on the defeat Boston University and Maryland to advance to the Final Four. They were defeated by the eventual national champion Northwestern in the semifinal.
The Quakers (14-1) have played Colgate twice, but not since 1978. Penn holds a slight advantage in the series at 1-0-1. Members of the Red and Blue will see a familiar face on the the opposing sideline, former Penn laxer Karrie Moore is an assistant for the Raiders.
The 2008 Patriot League Champion, Colgate is 11-9 this season and led by Brie Moran (45 goals) and Meghan Lawler (41 goals) with 53 points each. Junior midfielder Molly Carroll (Strath Haven) has 27 goals and the goalie is junior Sara Drexler (Hill School).
The Raiders have allowed 13.20 goals per game. By comparison, Penn has held opponents to 6.00 goals per game while scoring 10.40 on average.
“I think it will be fun to play Colgate who is coached by one of our former players – Karrie Moore. I’m sure it will be mixed emotions for her,” Brower.
Temple to play Terps again
Temple (13-6) will face off against third-seeded and host Maryland (17-2) Sunday (1 p.m.) in the First Round of the Division I Tournament.
This will be the third straight time that the Owls have played the Terps in First Round action, with Maryland taking the last two meetings in 2003 and 2004.
The winner will advance to play either Georgetown or Duke in the quarterfinals.
The Terps earned one of eight at-large bids to this year’s tournament and are making their 19th consecutive appearance in the championship. Maryland has won the most national championships in NCAA women’s lacrosse history with 10, including seven straight from 1995-2001.
Maryland, which is 17-2 with both losses coming by one goal, is coming off of a pair of dominating performances in its last two non-conference outings last week with an 18-9 win at No. 6 Princeton and a 20-4 triumph at Loyola.
Temple earned an automatic bid to the tournament when it beat Massachusetts in the Atlantic 10 championship game, 10-3, in Amherst, Mass. Temple’s offense ranks 20th in the nation but its defense is currently ninth, allowing 9.09 goals per game.
Whitney Richards ranks 16th in the country in points with 75 and senior goalie Bridget McMullan, ranks 10th in the nation with a 9.54 goals against average. The Owls also have a pair of players in the top 10 nationally in caused turnovers. Richards leads the team with 39 while Berkley Summerlin (Hill School) has accounted for 35 miscues.
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