PHILADELPHIA – Following a pair of blowout wins away from home, the 15th-ranked University of Pennsylvania women's lacrosse team faces a statement game on Saturday as No. 6 Michigan comes to Franklin Field for the first meeting between these programs.
 
Saturday's game will be the first half of a women's/men's doubleheader at Franklin Field, as the men open Ivy League play with Brown in the nightcap at 3:30 p.m. It will be Alumni Day at Franklin Field and the 2009 and 2014 Ivy League championship women's teams will be recognized during the course of the day.
 
GAME 7 – #15 PENN (6-0, 1-0 Ivy League) vs. #6 MICHIGAN (9-0)
Saturday, March 16, 2024 | Noon
Philadelphia | Franklin Field
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats
 
The Series with Michigan
*The Quakers and the Wolverines are meeting for the first time in women's lacrosse.
 
Penn in the National Stats
*Penn is second in scoring defense (6.67 goals allowed per game), sixth in caused turnovers per game (11.33), 12th in shots per game (33.8), 13th in GB per game (19.67), and 16th in draw control percentage (.606).
 
*Senior goalie Kelly Van Hoesen is second in goals-against average (6.43).
 
*Junior Erika Chung is 11th in assists per game (3.00).
 
*Senior Aly Feeley is 14th in caused turnovers per game (2.17).
 
*Senior Niki Miles is 23rd in goals per game (3.67) and 31st in points per game (4.83).
 
Some Defensive Notes
*Penn has held its opponent scoreless for at least one 15-minute span in every game so far this season...
  Drexel (1): 15:35
  Johns Hopkins (1): 30:41
  Temple (2): 16:05 and 15:21
  Columbia (1): 20:10
  W&M (1): 24:13
  Georgetown (1): 29:15
 
*Penn has four shutout quarters so far this season: the second quarter against the Hop, the second and fourth quarters against Columbia, and the third quarter Tuesday against Georgetown.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn dropped another spot in the IWLCA poll last week and also is 15th in the Inside Lacrosse poll. The Quakers are getting more love from USA Lacrosse Magazine, which has them 10th.
 
*Penn has won ten Ivy League games in a row going back to the 2022 season. That includes an undefeated 7-0 campaign last year when they won their 14th Ancient Eight title.
 
*The Quakers then defeated Harvard and Yale to win the Ivy League Tournament, earning the league's NCAA Championship bid. In its 16th NCAA appearance, Penn beat UConn in the first round and gave eventual finalist Boston College all it could handle in the second round before falling, 9-7.
 
*Penn returns almost all the key components from last year's team including the reigning Ivy League Attacker of the Year (senior Niki Miles), Midfielder of the Year (junior Anna Brandt), and Defender of the Year (senior Izzy Rohr). The trio has garnered preseason All-America honors from Inside Lacrosse and US Lacrosse, and Miles and Rohr were named to the Tewaaraton Award's preseason watch list.
 
*The trio made history last year, as it marked the first time players from the same program won all three major positional honors since the Ivy League began awarding them in 2013. (Prior to that, the Ivy League did a Player of the Year and a Rookie of the Year.)
 
*Penn had 10 women earn All-Ivy last year; all of them are back this season.
  FIRST TEAM: Brandt (unanimous), Miles (unanimous), Rohr (unanimous)
  SECOND TEAM: Erika Chung, Kaitlyn Cumiskey, Grace Fujinaga, Maria Themelis, Kelly Van Hoesen
  HONORABLE MENTION: Aly Feeley, Natasha Gorriaran
 
*Not surprisingly, Penn was a unanimous pick to repeat as conference champion this season, scooping up all 16 first-place votes for 128 points in the Ivy League's preseason media poll that was announced on February 13.
 
*On top of the returning group, the Quakers secured two transfers for this season: Grace Turner (Stanford) and Carli Fleisher (Northwestern). Fleisher—named the 2022 National High School Player of the Year by USA Lacrosse Magazine—had her first two collegiate points last Wednesday at Temple, a goal and an assist.
 
*Miles has picked up where she left off last year, leading Penn with 22 goals and 29 points. She has recorded at least four points in all six games this season—including a season-high six Friday in each of the last two games, at William & Mary (4g/2a) and against Georgetown (5g/1a)—and has scored at least four goals in the last three and four of the last five contests.
 
*Miles reached the 100-goal milestone for her career in Tuesday's win over the Hoyas; she became the 14th player in program history to reach that milestone and the first since Zoe Belodeau in 2021.
 
*Miles also leads the team with 31 draw controls, followed by junior Anna Brandt (24) and senior Aly Feeley (12).
 
*Brandt might be the next to hit 100 career goals; the junior enters Saturday's contest with 89.
 
*Despite missing the Temple game, Chung leads the Quakers with 15 assists, dishing out four in the season opener against Drexel, three (to go with two goals) vs. Hopkins, five against Columbia (part of a seven-point day for the junior), and three last Friday at W&M.
 
*Junior Keeley Block was Penn's second-leading scorer and got honorable mention All-Ivy recognition as a freshman in 2022; she is back after missing all of last season due to injury. (So let's go ahead and make that 11 All-Ivy players in the lineup.) She appears to be picking up where she left off, going for multiple points in all but one game and multiple goals in all but two. She scored twice Tuesday against Georgetown.
 
*Freshman Catherine Berkery has 12 goals already this season and hit for multiple goals in four straight contests (4 vs. Hopkins, 2 each at Temple and vs. Columbia, 3 at W&M) before scoring just once against the Hoyas.
 
*Don't look now, but Penn may be unleashing still another weapon offensively; senior Julia Chai has ten points in the last three games—including four against Columbia (4g) and five at William & Mary (2g/3a)—after scoring just 14 points across her first two seasons.
 
*Overall, 13 different players have already scored for the Quakers through six games this season and two others have collected an assist.
 
*Defensively, senior Aly Feeley had four caused turnovers Friday at William & Mary and currently leads the team with 13 CTs. She is followed by Rohr, Miles, senior Grace Fujinaga and junior Natasha Gorriaran, all of whom have seven.
 
*At the other end, Van Hoesen has already earned Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week once this season; she has played all but five minutes in goal so far, boasting a 6.43 goals-against average and a .486 save percentage.
 
*Berkery is one of eight freshmen who have joined the Red and Blue roster this season; the group hails from six different states.
 
*The Quakers will be led by four captains this season: Miles, Rohr, Maria Themelis, and Morgan Smith.
 
*Head coach Karin Corbett is in her 25th season at the helm. The coach for 12 of Penn's 14 Ivy titles and a two-time Ivy League Coach of the Year—the honor has only been given since 2015—she has been head coach for 260 of the program's 413 wins.
 
For the latest on Penn women's lacrosse, follow @PennWomensLax on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.