Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/16/15
From Press Release
Freshman Marie McCool (Moorestown) collected three goals, four draw controls and three groundballs to help host and No. 2 North Carolina to an 11-8 victory today over Penn State in the NCAA Division I Quarterfinals.
UNC outscored the Lions, 7-0 in the second half and will move on to the NCAA Semifinals to face No. 3 Duke.
Many Philly grads played key roles for both teams. Kelly Devlin (Downingtown East) and Stephanie Lobb (West Chester East) each had two groundballs and a caused turnover for the Tar Heels while defender Margaret Corzel (Merion Mercy) had a groundball.
Katie O’Donnell (Henderson) had a goal and an assist for the Lions while Ally Heavens (Garnet Valley) had an assist and two groundballs and Natalie Schmitt (Archbishop Carroll) two groundballs.
“Overall, I think our team did an awesome job (this season),” said head coach Missy Doherty. “We had so many injuries that we only ran one sub today, and in a game like this with the weather and how good UNC is, it’s really tough. So I think we ran out of gas a little bit there in the second half.”
For the first time all season, Penn State (16-5) was unable to hold a halftime lead as North Carolina (17-3) maintained possession and rallied by PSU. After opening an 8-4 lead with 28:47 left in the game, the Tar Heels reeled off seven straight goals to reach the NCAA Semifinals.
Maggie McCormick (Eldersburg, Md.) and Madison Cyr paced the Nittany Lion offense with a pair of goals, while goalkeeper Emi Smith made nine saves against a potent UNC offense.
Trailing 3-1 with 17 minutes to go, Penn State scored six of the next eight goals to open an 8-4 lead early in the second half. Exact free-position shooting by Kristin Brent, McCormick and Cyr gathered Penn State’s first lead, 4-3, with 9:48 remaining in the first half.
For Brent, she scored in her career-high fifth straight game, while becoming PSU’s 10th double-digit scorer this season.
Jess Loizeaux (Clearview Regional) continued the run 75 seconds later, putting away a Cyr pass by drawing the goalie out of the crease and depositing the ball into the empty net for a 5-3 advantage. McCormick and Loizeaux both tallied their first goals since April 19 in a win at Northwestern. The Lions connected on five of their first seven shot attempts.
Four minutes later, McCormick extended the lead to 6-3 on a feed from O’Donnell with 4:18 remaining. UNC briefly cut its deficit to two at 1:52, but Cyr took a Heavens assist 23 seconds later for a 7-4 lead.
The three-goal cushion at halftime matched UNC’s largest deficit of the season at the break, which occurred Feb. 22 at No. 1 Maryland, a 13-11 loss.
Penn State held a 15-0 record entering the second half with a lead and PSU’s lead grew to four when Tatum Coffey scored her team-leading 43rd goal of the season with 28:47 remaining. It would be the final goal Penn State.
Duke 7, Princeton 3
Taylor Trimble (Episcopal Academy) had a goal and two groundballs to help theBlue Devils advance to the semifinals at PPL Park.
The third-seeded Blue Devils turned in one of their strongest defensive efforts of the year, holding Princeton to a season-low scoring output.
Duke advanced to the final weekend of college lacrosse for the seventh time in program history while improving to 16-4 on the season. The program also moved to 15-3 all time in NCAA Tournament contests played at home in Durham.
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