Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/16/15
From Press Releases
A patient and deliberate offense led to No. 13 Princeton taking a 9-7 win over No. 11 Penn at Franklin Field Wednesday evening, and the Tigers remain undefeated in the Ivy League with perfect 5-0 record.
Highlighting the win was senior All-America Erin McMunn scoring her 200th career point. She is just the sixth Tiger in Princeton history to collect 200 points.
Princeton (10-3, 5-0 Ivy) hosts Columbia and Brown to end the regular season. A win in either game would mean Princeton would be the site for the Ivy League tournament and would give Princeton at least a share of the Ivy championship.
The first half was everything one would expect from a Penn-Princeton game. There were three lead changes and three ties in the opening period, Penn only holding a slight 5-4 edge at the break following an Emily Rogers-Healion goal with 12 seconds to play in the opening period.
The Quakers did not have a shot in the first 10:28 of play – but connected on the first offering as Tory Bensen sent in her 39th goal of the season to halt a 2-0 Princeton run to start the game. Penn’s defense had held nicely despite the early deficit, keeping the Tigers at bay for during long possessions before Princeton would ultimately find seams in the Quaker defensive unit for Erin Slifer and Abby Finkelstein goals.
Bensen’s goal sparked a three-goal Quaker rally, the trio of scores coming in 2:02 as DeSimone followed Bensen 48 seconds later and Nina Corcoran gave Penn its first lead of the game with 16:38 to play in the first half.
Almost seven minutes later, the Tigers tied the game with Slifer’s second of the night. Again it was a sustained possession which paid off for the Tigers, Slifer finishing an almost four-minute offensive set with a spinning shot from just inside the eight-meter arc. Almost three minutes after her goal, Slifer found a cutting Olivia Hompe to put Princeton back ahead, 4-3.
The Red and Blue had the final two goals of the half, Lindsey Smith answering Hompe’s goal 26 seconds later. She took a pass after a Princeton foul on the draw, and ran 35 yards to goal to knot the game at 4-4 with 6:22 remaining in the first half. With under two minutes to play in the half, Megan Kelly caused a turnover and picked up the ground ball to send Penn down for one last offensive look. Nina Corcoran created space for herself behind the goal, and found Rogers-Healion who put together a nice catch-and-shoot motion to send Penn to halftime up by one.
The second half started similar to the first, Princeton scoring twice in the first five minutes to retake the lead. Both goals were from Hompe, the second a free position. Lely DeSimone tied the game at 6-6 with 21:18 remaining, but that was the last time Penn would score for almost 15 minutes.
Erin McMunn scored with 18:11 to play, finishing a Stephanie Paloscio pass to give Princeton the lead for good. Just over six minutes later, Paloscio fluttered in a McMunn pass to give the Tigers a two-goal lead at 9-7. An Anya Gersoff goal with 7:37 7o play put the Tigers ahead, 9-6.
Tory Bensen gave Penn some life with her 40th goal of the season, scoring with 6:48 to play. The Quakers had to kill off a yellow card to Megan Kelly with 5:22 to play, and Meg Markham caused a turnover with 40 seconds remaining to provide Penn a chance to attempt a comeback. Bensen had a look with 20 seconds to play, but her shot was blocked and time ran out on the Quakers.
Penn drops to 4-1 inside the Ivy League with two Ancient Eight games to play. The Tigers are now in sole possession of first place at 5-0.
Villanova 9, Temple 7
The Wildcats improved to 8-6 (3-2 BIG EAST) after posting a 9-7 victory over the host Owls (9-5, 1-4) for the first time in nine meetings between the two teams. The Wildcats continue to fight for their first BIG EAST Tournament berth as they will now look to a Sunday matchup against Vanderbilt which will decide both teams’ fates in the post season.
Senior Jackie Froccaro posted four goals against the Owls to officially reach two significant milestones in her career. Her fourth goal of the afternoon which was unassisted, marked the senior’s 40th goal of the season, her golden number as Froccaro wears number 40 on her back.
Her 40 goals now surpasses her previous record of 39 goals in a single season, to tied her tally from 2013: 39 goals; a number that got her the 10th best season record in program history. Froccaro has posted eight hat tricks on the season so far as she continues to climb up the program’s career goal list with only 3 seasons of play.
With 90 goals, Froccaro now logs the seventh best career goal tally in the program.
It was the final home game of the season for Temple and the Owls honored their four seniors prior to the game for Senior Day.
Junior Rachel Schwaab and sophomore Morgan Glassford (Strath Haven) each scored a pair of goals for Temple, while Schwaab also recorded an assist for three total points.
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