Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/1/21
From Press Release
Coming off a shortened 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Pennsylvania women’s lacrosse team is primed and ready to get back on the turf as the Quakers enter the 2021 campaign ranked No. 17 in the IWLCA Division I Preseason Coaches Poll.
This poll comes a couple weeks after being listed No. 11 in the Nike/US Lacrosse Preseason Top 20 back in early January.
Penn is the highest ranked team out of the Ivy League, with Dartmouth coming in at No. 19 and Princeton at No. 25. The University of North Carolina tops the poll, followed by Notre Dame University and Syracuse University.
Penn only played five games last year, rolling to four straight wins to open the season including wins over nationally-ranked Georgetown and the league opener at Yale. The Quakers’ lone loss came in a back-and-forth battle with No. 4 Loyola on Franklin Field.
Although Penn graduated a decorated senior class, the program returns a lot of experience including several top scorers from the 2020 season. Offensively, senior Zoe Belodeau is the returning leader in points from last year with 11, while junior Taylyn Stadler added 10.
In the midfield, senior All-America Abby Bosco returns after ranking among the leaders in Division I last season in ground balls (13) and caused turnovers (12).
The Quakers are in search of the program’s 14th Ivy title and 16th NCAA Championship appearance. Without counting 2020, Penn has made the NCAA postseason for 13 straight seasons and earned the Ivy title 11 of the last 13 years.
IWLCA Rankings – Division I
Rank Institution Points FPV Record 2020 Final Poll
1 North Carolina 625 25 0-0 1
2 Notre Dame 585 0 0-0 2
3 Syracuse 563 0 0-0 4
4 Loyola Maryland 533 0 0-0 3
5 Northwestern 529 0 0-0 6
6 Stony Brook 495 0 0-0 5
7 Maryland 471 0 0-0 11
8 Florida 452 0 0-0 8
9 Michigan 395 0 0-0 12
10 James Madison 360 0 0-0 14
11 Denver 306 0 0-0 16
12 Boston College 305 0 0-0 20
13 Southern California 295 0 0-0 7
14 Richmond 288 0 0-0 17
15 Duke 274 0 0-0 18
16 Virginia 255 0 0-0 15
17 Pennsylvania 236 0 0-0 9
18 Virginia Tech 179 0 0-0 23
19 Dartmouth 160 0 0-0 10
20 Massachusetts 140 0 0-0 21
T-21 Navy 139 0 0-0 19
T-21 Penn State 139 0 0-0 22
23 Stanford 135 0 0-0 24
24 Colorado 98 0 0-0 25
25 Princeton 55 0 0-0 13
