W. Lax dominates despite injury

The No. 6 Penn women's lacrosse team trounced California, 10-2, Friday but may have suffered a long-term casualty in the process.

Sophomore attack Bridget Waclawik, who had problems staying healthy last year, had to be helped off the field near the end of the first half with an injury that appeared serious.

Though coach Karin Brower said after the game that she didn't know the exact extent of the apparent knee injury, she did admit that "it didn't look good." The team will know how serious it is today.

Rather than reeling from the emotional blow, however, the Quakers maintained their momentum with a goal with seven seconds left in the first half to extend their lead to 5-1.

"They all know that they're there for one another . and that Bridget wants them to win the game for [her]," Brower said. "They've been good about that because we've had those issues in the past."

Specifically, senior Becca Edwards tore her ACL in an early-season game last year against Stanford. However, unlike in Friday's game, Penn lost to the Cardinal.

After harping on offensive miscommunication and imperfect defensive execution in a 10-4 season-opening victory over Drexel, Brower thought the Quakers (2-0) corrected those issues and was encouraged by her team's performance against the Golden Bears (2-3).

Besides getting over season-opening jitters and having an extra week of practice, the team had some extra motivation.

"Wearing the pink shirts [for breast cancer awareness], we definitely came out wanting to play for a bigger cause than just us," junior goalkeeper Emily Szelest said. "I think we were just really fired up about that."

But the Quakers started slowly in the opening 10 minutes, as Cal set a harried pace early and held the majority of possession. With 16:36 left in the first half, however, Penn freshman Erin Brennan finally scored the game's first goal, opening up the floodgates.

"We were kind of letting them dictate to us how we were playing," Brennan said. "Once we got a goal, we just picked it up and we all kind of got back into our flow."

Junior Emma Spiro then proceeded to score three first-half goals. Her classmates Courtney Lubbe and Ali DeLuca each finished with a pair of goals, as Penn extended its lead to 10-1 with 12:18 left to play before coasting the rest of the way.

Compared to its performance in its season opener against Drexel, the defense saw the ball better, positioned itself more effectively and prevented cuts.

"[The defense] did a really nice job on the trap," Brower said. "I'm very proud of how much they worked as a unit. We really didn't have any letdowns."

Szelest only had to make one save in the first half but in a later sequence made a flurry of saves to keep Cal at bay until a garbage goal with 1:55 remaining.

"Any time that we had a mishap, Emily was there," Brennan said.

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