A win is a win — and although one came in a 15-7 romp and the other in overtime, the women’s lacrosse team recorded two over the break.
After falling to No. 2 North Carolina, 15-6, on Mar. 3, the Quakers defeated Rutgers, 15-7, at Franklin Field last Wednesday. A few days later, sophomore Courtney Tomchik secured an exciting victory over Harvard Saturday, scoring her first game-winning goal and her fourth of the game to give the Quakers a narrow 14-13 overtime victory.
“Honestly, she has just a great first step and it’s really hard to defend against and her dodges from the top right corner were pretty unbeatable,” senior midfield Erin Brennan said of Tomchik’s goal. “She had a hot hand today and she played phenomenal.”
Brennan also recorded some impressive numbers over the break. The co-captain recorded seven assists against the Scarlet Knights, setting a program record for the most assists in a single game. And a few days later, the Garden City, N.Y., native also notched her 100th career goal in the first minutes of the Harvard match, making her one of seven players in program history to do so.
“She’s had a hell of week,” coach Karin Brower Corbett said. “She’s just such a great player for us and a competitor. She’s bringing it in all the games, especially the big games. She’s someone you can count on and really leads the team in her play as well as just that she’s that vocal leader out there as well.”
Brennan, along with Tomchik and Caroline Bunting, led the Quakers’ attacking corps with a combined 20 goals in the two matches.
Freshman Taylor Foussadier’s proved herself on defense well. Foussadier stripped Harvard’s Melanie Baskind of a fast break late in regulation, which set up Bunting’s game-tying free position goal, her fourth of the game.
“[Taylor] had an amazing play, against one of the fastest players on their team, busting her butt to get back and got a check off of a fast break situation,” Brennan said.
But the first half wasn’t the Quakers’ finest. The Crimson got on the board first when Baskind netted a goal after just 59 seconds had elapsed. According to Brennan, Penn struggled to clear the ball to their offensive end, while Corbett said the Quakers struggled with effective offensive dodges. As a result, Penn entered halftime trailing, 6-3.
“I think we were getting outplayed,” Corbett said. “And I think that Harvard, they came to beat us and we just looked like, again, like we were going to walk on and win. We didn’t have that intensity and that fire that we showed on Wednesday night when we started the game.”
Penn came out strong in the second half, netting two goals right off the bat, to bring the game within one. But Harvard was quick to retaliate with three unanswered goals of its own, two of which came from Baskind.
“We called a timeout and we said, ‘You know what, we’re running out of time. If we really want to win an Ivy League championship, it starts today and we got to start playing like we got to win one,’” Corbett said.
With some help from Maddie Poplawski, who recorded six draw controls on the day, the Quakers maintained possession late in regulation and during the overtime period on their way to their first Ivy win of the season.
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