By Jacob Adams
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/20/11
Germantown Friends junior midfielder Iris Williamson has made a verbal commitment to play Division I lacrosse at the University of Pennsylvania.
Williamson was an all-league pick as a freshman and a sophomore and already has 161 career goals. This year she has 53 goals and has helped lead the Tigers into the Friends Schools League championship game. The Tigers play at defending champion Friends’ Central Friday at 4 p.m.
Williamson, who also plays for the Phantastix, plans to focus her studies in art and micro-finance. A top-ranking student at GFS She chose Penn because she wants to stay in Philadelphia for a top education.
“I live in Philadelphia and I love Philadelphia,” Williamson said. “Penn is a great school and I really wanted a balance between lacrosse and school. I go to a private school so being at an Ivy League school is something I’ve always wanted to do.”
Williamson visited the Penn program multiple times for games and meetings and felt right at home.
“I also got to go to a bunch of their Franklin Field games because it’s 15 minutes away from my house,” Williamson said. “I got to see a lot of Penn life and I’ve grown up in center city in Philadelphia.”
Penn went 11-6 this year and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the fifth straight season where it fell to Duke last weekend. 12-9.
“I met with the girls and really, really liked the coach,” Williamson said. “Karin [Brower Corbett] is such a great teacher and I’m really excited to be coached by her.”
Williamson also was named captain of the soccer team for next year and has been an All-League pick for the past three seasons. She also was All-State in soccer her freshmen year. She played varsity basketball as a freshman and sophomore and this past year switched to varsity indoor track.
On the lacrosse field, Williamson has been happy to see the Tigers improve so much this year.
“We started out struggling a little bit,” Williamson said. “We have a young team and I guess that’s just difficult, but we’ve really improved.”
