PHILADELPHIA – The 14th-ranked University of Pennsylvania women's lacrosse team faces its most formidable challenge of the season to this point, traveling to College Park for a midweek matchup against the newly minted No. 1 team in the country, Maryland. Wednesday night's game will air on the Big Ten Network.
 
GAME 9 – #14 PENN (7-1, 2-0 Ivy League) at #1 MARYLAND (9-1)
Wednesday, March 27, 2024 | 6 p.m.
College Park, Md. | Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex
Watch Live on BTN | Live Stats
 
The Series with Maryland
*This is the 30th meeting between the Quakers and the Terrapins in women's lacrosse, Maryland holding a 27-2 lead in the all-time series.
 
*This has been a pretty regular non-conference game on Penn's schedule, including each of the last two seasons in the post-pandemic world. Maryland won last year's game in Philadelphia, 16-12, and took a 15-11 decision the last time these teams met in College Park.
 
*Penn's only regular-season win in the series came in 1983; the Quakers also won an NCAA Championship quarterfinal in 2007 to earn the first of three straight Championship Weekend appearances (making the final in 2008).
 
Penn in the National Stats
*Penn is second in scoring defense (6.75 goals allowed per game), fifth in clear percentage (.938), sixth in caused turnovers per game (11.63) and draw control percentage (.629), 12th in shots per game (33.50) and scoring margin (+6.25), and 18th in GB per game (18.13).
 
*Senior goalie Kelly Van Hoesen is second in goals-against average (6.57) and 24th in save percentage (.469).
 
*Junior Erika Chung is 15th in assists per game (2.57).
 
*Senior Aly Feeley is 24th in caused turnovers per game (1.88).
 
Penn in the Ivy Stats (all games)
*Senior Niki Miles is third in draw controls per game (5.13), fourth in goals per game (3.38), fifth in points per game (4.50), and fifth in shots per game (6.75).
 
*Chung is third in assists per game (2.57).
 
*Feeley is first in caused turnovers per game (1.88) while senior Sophie Davis is second (1.75).
 
*Van Hoesen is second in GAA (6.57) and third in save percentage (.469).
 
Some Defensive Notes
*In addition to being second nationally in GAA, 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
  Michigan (1): 15:27
  Harvard (1): 17:59
 
*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 against Georgetown.
 
*On Sunday, Penn held Harvard to eight goals; the Crimson entered the contest averaging 18.8 goals per game.
 
*On March 16, against current No. 2 Michigan—a matchup of the top two defensive units in the country by GAA—the Quakers held the Wolverines to six goals, exactly half their average heading into the contest (12.0 gpg).
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn moved up one spot in the IWLCA and IL polls this week, to 14th, and remained 10th in the USA Lacrosse Magazine poll.
 
*Penn has won 11 Ivy League regular-season games in a row going back to the 2022 season. That includes an undefeated 7-0 campaign last year when the Quakers won their 14th Ancient Eight title.
 
*The Red and Blue then defeated Harvard and Yale to win the Ivy League Tournament, earning the league's NCAA Championship automatic 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. (This does not include junior Keeley Block, who missed last season due to injury after earning honorable mention All-Ivy recognition as a freshman in 2022. So make it 11 All-Ivy players in the lineup.)
  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 at Temple, a goal and an assist.
 
*Miles has picked up where she left off last year, leading Penn with 27 goals and 36 points. She has multiple points in all eight games this season and has scored at least four goals in three of the last four contests.
 
*On Monday, Miles was named the Ivy League's Offensive Player of the Week for the first time this season and the second time in her career.
 
*Miles reached the 100-goal milestone for her career in Penn's win over Georgetown on March 12; she became the 14th player in program history to reach that milestone and the first since Zoe Belodeau in 2021.
 
*Currently, Miles has 108 career goals (10th all-time at Penn) and 154 career points (t-10th).
     UP NEXT (GOALS): Karen McFadden (1985-88) ninth, 111; Alex Condon (2015-18) eighth, 112
     UP NEXT (POINTS): Rachel Manson (2005-08) ninth, 157; Tory Bensen (2011-15) eighth, 163
 
*Miles also leads the team with 41 draw controls and had just the fifth double-figure game in program history in that category on Sunday with 10 against Harvard. She is followed by Brandt (28) and Feeley (22), who had six against Michigan and four more vs. the Crimson.
 
*Brandt tied her career high with five goals on Sunday; coincidentally, she originally set the mark against Harvard, at Penn Park, in last year's Ivy League Tournament semifinal. In the process, the junior moved past 100 career points (currently at 103). She enters Wednesday's game with 97 career goals and needs three to become the program's 15th 100-goal scorer.
 
*After going without an assist against Georgetown and Michigan, Chung was back to her feeding frenzy on Sunday with three helpers against Harvard. She leads the Quakers with 18 assists.
 
*Block was Penn's second-leading scorer and honorable mention All-Ivy recognition as a freshman in 2022; she is back after missing all of last season due to injury. The junior has multiple points in six games, multiple goals in five—including three hat tricks—and had four points in Sunday's win over Harvard (3g/1a).
 
*Freshman Catherine Berkery has 15 goals and hit for four points (3g/1a) in Sunday's win over Harvard; she already has six multi-point and five multi-goal games this season.
 
*Defensively, Feeley leads the team with 15 caused turnovers. She is followed by Davis (14)—who has ten in the last three games—junior Natasha Gorriaran (11) and Rohr (9).
 
*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 261 of the program's 414 wins.
 
For the latest on Penn women's lacrosse, follow @PennWomensLax on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.