Lions left crying 'Uncle!' at Franklin Field

Unlike Little League baseball, there's no 10-goal mercy rule in women's lacrosse. But if there were, Saturday's matchup between Penn and Columbia would've ended well before 60 minutes were up: The Lions were thoroughly thrashed, 13-2.

That gave the Quakers reason to cheer when they lined up in front of a sparsely populated grandstand to sing their rendition of "The Red and the Blue" after the game.

With their dominating performance against Ivy rival Columbia, No. 9 Penn moves to 7-1 on the season and 3-0 in Ivy League competition.

Columbia (3-5, 0-3) presented an opportunity for the Quakers to rest their starters and give their bench some playing time.

"We really wanted to get ahead early so that we could play everyone," coach Karin Brower said.

And that's exactly what they did. The 7-0 halftime score didn't begin to reflect Penn's dominance. Penn allowed just three shots on goal while taking 24 of its own.

"It was a boring game," senior goalie Sarah Waxman said. "I don't think they spent more than two minutes on offense."

Waxman recorded one save on a free-position shot during a first period shutout of the Lions before being replaced by freshman Emily Szelest.

After a fiery halftime speech from their coach, the Lions emerged looking poised to take advantage of Penn's inexperienced second string. They scored a goal just over two minutes into the second period.

But even the Quakers' non-starters eventually made Columbia look more like a misplaced intramural team than a collegiate rival: In the second half, Penn scored six goals and notched 17 shots.

The Red and Blue could have left Columbia with some dignity, but Franklin Field was no country for the Lions.

They barely ever touched the ball as the Quakers kept pouring it on. Penn controlled 9 of 14 draws, while forcing 10 turnovers and allowing just six shots on goal during the second period.

"All week we were working on our trap in the midfield, to cause turnovers," attacker Melissa Lehman said.

"We're really excited, and we have a tough week ahead of us," Brower said.

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