Penn women's lacrosse uses huge second half to beat Brown, 16-10

It's often not how a team starts, but rather how it finishes that makes all the difference. 

Penn women's lacrosse proved that on Saturday afternoon after finding itself behind the eight ball early, taking down Brown, 16-10, in a come-from-behind victory.

The Quakers (8-1, 2-0 Ivy) struggled to slow down Brown's high-powered offense out of the gate and failed to convert their scoring opportunities, conceding three goals through the first 12 minutes of action.  

"We wanted to start strong today, so it was disappointing that we couldn’t take control right off the bat," sophomore Gabby Rosenzweig said. 

The Quakers rallied following a timeout, scoring two quick goals from the sticks of Rosenzweig and senior Alex Condon. 

The momentum did not hold for very long, however, as Brown (5-4, 0-3) quickly responded with four unanswered goals, giving the Bears a 7-2 advantage. Penn wasn’t finished though, and put together another run of their own, scoring three unanswered before the break, pulling within two of Brown.  

Halftime provided the perfect opportunity for the Red and Blue to adjust to Brown's stingy defense and correct their offensive miscues. 

"We started off the game in a man-to-man defense and later moved to a zone because they were playing well early against our defense," coach Karin Corbett said. "We made the offense a completely different motion because Brown was ready for most of our sets, and we just weren't attacking as well as we needed to be." 

The adjustments proved successful as the second half belonged solely to the Quakers, who outscored Brown 11-3 in the period. 

"It was a good gut check for us because we had to adjust to something different, and we worked really hard as a team to get out of that early hole," Rosenzweig said. 

Rosenzweig played a large role in the victory, scoring four goals and assisting on five scores. Her game-high nine-point line is also the most in the program since 2012. 

However, the Quakers will work to fine-tune their abilities and improve on their consistency as they will not be able to survive such early deficits later in the season. 

"I always want our team to play each game at a championship level no matter the opponent, and we have to consistently play our game for the sixty minutes and can't dig ourselves into holes," Corbett said. "We had some great looks in the first half that we didn’t finish, but I think we did a good job in the second converting our opportunities." 

The victory sets the Red and Blue in good position entering the bulk of Ivy League play in the coming weeks and the team is eager to keep it rolling. 

"It sets a great tone for the rest of the season and we're very excited to face more Ivy opponents going forward, as the goal is to always finish as Ivy League champions," Rosenzweig said. 

The final push for the Ivy League title is well on the horizon, as Penn closes the season with five consecutive Ivy League games following next weekend's showdown with Northwestern.