PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania field hockey team went punch for punch with Lafayette in a cagey affair on Sunday, but suffered from a late goal by the Leopards in a 1-0 defeat at Ellen Vagelos Field.
 
The game rounded out Penn's stout nonconference schedule which featured five teams ranked in the latest Penn Monto/NFHCA Coaches Poll. The Quakers now sit at 6-9 after a split weekend and 3-2 in Ivy League play following a 4-2 victory over Yale on Saturday.
 
NOTES 
*Gracyn Banks made her first collegiate defensive save this afternoon to keep Lafayette off the board in the second quarter.
 
*Seniors Ava Rosati, Alexa Schneck, and Laura Shelton played all 60 minutes of today's game.

*Penn prevented Lafayette from getting a shot off in the first half of today's game.

*The Quakers fired six shots to the Leopards' four.
  
HOW IT HAPPENED
The opening stages of today's game suggested a cagy affair would be afoot. The suggestions were right. The game's first shot didn't come until late in the first half, with Schneck firing wide of the cage off a corner. The Quakers kept pushing. Shelton forced Lafayette's Sarah Park into action for the first time with a shot on goal, which was kicked away.
 
Still scoreless after 30 minutes, both teams pushed on the offensive front in the second half. Early in the third quarter, Erin Quinn dispossessed a Leopard defender high up the field and fired on Parks' goal, but the keeper did well to make the save.
 

39' | Erin Quinn with the best chance of the game so far, stealing the ball off a Leopards' defender high up the field, but her shot is saved.

Still scoreless. pic.twitter.com/FhE08Gu60X

— Penn Field Hockey (@PennFieldHockey) October 27, 2019

Minutes later, on a Lafayette corner, the Leopards' Lisa van der Geest fired a high shot on goal directly off a corner. The ball sailed above a diving Rosati, but Banks' outreached stick kept the game scoreless.
 

40' | Banks keeps the visitors off the board with a defensive save following a corner!

Still 0-0. pic.twitter.com/9NIXYs2FFK

— Penn Field Hockey (@PennFieldHockey) October 27, 2019

The visitors pushed on with two more shots on goal in the third period. Rosati did well to protect her cage with a pair of saves to keep the game knotted at 0-0.
 
Urgency increased in the final quarter with both teams fighting for a breakthrough. Penn went close with six minutes remaining, but a pair of saves by Park from a scrum in the circle kept the Quakers off the board.
 
With just over two minutes remaining, the Leopards broke off a counter attack and earned a corner. The visitors executed a well-worked routine, with Lafayette's leader in points, Lisa van der Geest, punching the ball into the back of the cage for the game's winning goal.
 
UP NEXT
The Quakers make their final away trip of the season with a visit to Rhode Island to take on Brown next Saturday, Nov. 2 at noon.