Field Hockey wins third straight

Liz Lorelli can't be stopped. And neither, lately, can the Penn field hockey team.

For the third-straight game, the Quakers walked off the field with a victory in hand.

This time, Penn's win came at the demise of Georgetown, whom the Quakers thwarted, 3-2, yesterday in Washington, D.C. The Quakers are now 5-8.

And yet again, Lorelli -- the reigning Ivy player of the week -- led the way. She scored two goals, including the game winner with just over five minutes left in the contest.

"She has the stickwork to dribble in and out of most defenders," Penn assistant coach Lauren Worley said. "And in the last three games, she's been real successful at that."

The Hoyas got on the board first, in what was a frantic final minute of the first half.

Georgetown (8-7) netted the first goal of the contest, with slightly over 45 seconds remaining in the opening stanza, when Aislinn Connolly took a pass from Shelly Samperton and beat Penn freshman goalie Amanda Jacobs.

Penn would waste little time striking back, however. With 10 seconds remaining in the half, Lorelli scored an unassisted goal, beating Hoyas' goalie Jessica Herring and knotting the score at 1.

"The score was 0-0 with 45 seconds left in the first half, and then they scored, but immediately Liz struck back to tie the score," Worley said.

Though the Lorelli goal was the tying goal, the Quakers -- with a final surge before halftime -- headed into the locker room confident that the end result would be yet another Penn victory.

"It felt great to get that goal right before half," Worley said. "We really had the momentum."

Though the Quakers were the aggressor in the early stages of the second half, it Georgetown who once again struck first. The tally was 2-1 in Georgetown's favor after Katy Conicella notched an unassisted goal.

But the Quakers were unfazed by the one-goal deficit and answered yet again with vengence. This time, it was Brandi Alexander returning the favor off of a corner, with her second goal in as many games.

"Brandi inserted it off the corner and we did a straight shot," Worley said.

Though Penn let out a fury of shots on the Hoyas' Herring in the second half -- in fact, the Quakers outshot Georgetown, 15-1, in the second stanza -- the game would remain tied until the 65th minute.

Then Lorelli drove home the game-winner.

"When Liz hit that third goal, it helped us define just who we are as a team and what we could do and what we set out to do from the beginning," Worley said. "We knew that we really had them and from then on we had the presence of a winning team."

Lorelli's ninth goal of the season moved her into sole possession of fifth place in goals scored in the Ivy League this season.

She trails Brown's Laurel Pierpont for fourth place by one goal. Pierpont tallied her 10th goal of the season in yesterday's 3-2 win over Providence.

"Liz has set the goal that she is going to find that knack for scoring," Worley said. "She is recognizing that she has the skill to take charge out there, and she is being that spark that we need on offense."

Lorelli's offensive emergence has come as a by-product of the increased offensive aggressiveness of her teammates. In last night's game, Lea Salese and senior Kylee Jakobowski each attempted five shots.

"We're learning that from our opponents and as well as ourselves, that it is pretty rare for the first shot to go in," Worley said. "We are now passing more and are since we are executing our corners faster, it is helping us to take more shots."

With the win, the Quakers have now won three straight. Its final three games in the conference forthcoming -- Penn is currently 1-3 in the Ivy League -- the streak couldn't come at a better time.

"We had talked before the game about this being the peak part of our season, and we needed to show that," Worley said. "Winning three games in a row is going to help the momentum and morale of our team at this point."

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