Late-game heroics spur W. Lax to win

Better late than never. After Saturday's last-minute, 9-8 victory at Brown for the Penn women's lacrosse team, there's a good chance that the Quakers could be taking this on as their motto. For nearly 14 minutes in the second half, the Quakers (7-7, 3-4 Ivy League) found themselves down 8-7, constantly on the verge of tying the score but never breaking through. Then in a span of 44 seconds, Penn scored two goals to catapult itself to a dramatic, last-second win. With only 2:20 remaining, Penn freshman Lindsey Cassidy beat Bears goalie Niki Caggiano to knot the score at 8-8. "Kate [Murray] just kind of told me to go up on attack, and then Jenny [Hartman] fed it to me in transition, and I think it caught Brown off guard," said Cassidy of her equalizing score. And with just 1:36 left on the clock, sophomore Murray netted her sixth score of the game -- a career high -- to put Penn ahead to stay. "[Coach] Karin [Brower] told me to go to the crease and fake like I was going to pass, and then roll under my defender and shoot, and I did, and it worked," said Murray of her game-winning goal. Despite trailing for most of the day, Penn never let the Bears (5-7, 2-4) get too far out of its sights. Although the Quakers led for only six of the 60 minutes of play, they never allowed Brown to go up more than two goals. "It was one of those games where we were behind the whole game, but for some reason, we never thought we would lose," said Penn tri-captain Traci Marabella, who had two assists. "Karin pulled some people over to talk to them in the second half, and I know she said to me, 'We need you right here.' So we were pretty aggressive at the end." One Red and Blue player who was aggressive not only at the end, but throughout the game, was Murray. Penn's leading scorer with 27 goals, Murray personally kept pace with Brown. With the Quakers down 3-1, Murray netted her first two goals to tie the game at 3-3 heading into the half. And with Penn down 7-5 in the second frame, Murray scored two goals a minute apart to tie it again. "We stopped at this convenience store on the bus ride home, and Kate said to me, 'Wow, we beat Brown.' And I said, 'No, you beat Brown,'" Marabella said. "It's huge, the way Kate played. And they were amazing goals, not like shots where the Brown goalie missed the saves." The Bears, who defeated Penn 9-5 last spring, looked to be on the verge of pulling away when they netted three goals in less than two minutes early in the second half. But the Quakers, behind strong goalkeeping from sophomore Alaina Harper and a 14-5 advantage on draw controls, remained in the thick of things. "The draw controls were a huge part of the win. It allowed us to go down and set up our offense right away," Murray said. "And our defense held up big and kept them out in the final minutes." Indeed, Harper held the Bears attack in check when it mattered most, keeping Brown scoreless over the final 18 minutes of the first half and final 16 minutes of the second frame. Crissy Book added a goal in each half for the Quakers and along with classmate Whitney Horton, was a major force in the midfield. This victory marks the first time since 1997 that Penn has won three Ivy games in a season, and only the second time since 1983 that the Red and Blue have topped the six-win plateau. Coming off of back-to-back losses to No. 10 Dartmouth and No. 3 Princeton --in which Penn was outscored 18-4 in the second-halves of those contests -- it was clear from the Quakers' resilient late-game play on Saturday that the team is maturing and able to rebound from defeat. "It was really important to win this game. To move up to fifth place in the Ivies was huge," Cassidy said. "Losing to Princeton and Dartmouth isn't as bad as losing to Brown would be, because we knew we were better than Brown and we knew we could beat Brown. "And next year we hope we can compete with the Princetons and Dartmouths. We needed this victory."

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