PHILADELPHIA – After a high-octane start to Wednesday's game at Franklin Field, the No. 14 University of Pennsylvania women's lacrosse team used a stout defensive performance to shut down No. 5 Loyola (Md.) for a 13-6 victory.
Penn was down 4-3 less than three minutes into the second quarter but held the Greyhounds to just two goals over the game's final 42 minutes in gaining the high-profile win. It was the Quakers' first win over Loyola since 1989 and snapped a 17-game losing streak to the traditional power.
Penn closed out the non-conference portion of its schedule with the win and improved to 10-3 overall. Loyola, which entered the day leading the Patriot League, fell to 13-2 with the loss.
Quaker Notemeal
*Loyola came into Wednesday night's game averaging 16.3 goals per game, but Penn held the Greyhounds to just six.
*Penn added another team to its list of opponents who have gone a 15-minute span without a goal, holding the Greyhounds scoreless for a staggering 28:09 of game time from the second to the fourth quarters. So make that 10 of 13 opponents who have been shut out for at least 15 minutes by the Red and Blue defensive crew.
*The 28:09 shutout streak was Penn's third-longest this season defensively, behind Johns Hopkins (30:41) and Georgetown (29:15).
*Penn shut Loyola out in the third, the fifth shutout quarter the Quakers have pitched this season.
*Offensively, junior
Anna Brandt once again led the way with four goals. It was her second straight four-goal game, her fourth such game in Penn's last six, and her tenth straight game with multiple goals and points.
*Junior
Keeley Block had a four-point game on Wednesday, scoring twice and dishing out a two assists.
*Senior
Niki Miles scored twice, extending her goal-scoring streak to 33 games and her point-scoring streak to 37.
*Freshman
Catherine Berkery also had two goals, her third straight multi-goal/multi-point game and eighth this season.
*Junior
Bella Kehoe and
Lexi Edmonds got on the scoresheet Wednesday, Edmonds scoring once for her second goal this season (the other against Columbia back on March 2) and Kehoe scoring her first goal of 2024 and dishing out an assist.
*Penn's other goal scorer was junior
Gracie Smith.
*At the other end, senior goalie
Kelly Van Hoesen had nine saves and was massive in the second half with some top-notch stops.
*Penn's defense finished with nine caused turnovers, led by three from
Izzy Rohr and two each from
Natasha Gorriaran and
Sophie Davis.
*Another defender, senior
Aly Feeley, tied for game-high honors with five draw controls while Miles and Gorriaran had two each.
*Loyola got three points from Georgia Latch (2g/1a), two goals from Sydni Black, and two assists from Anna Ruby.
How It Happened
Things started slowly on Wednesday, more than eight minutes going by before Block hit a free-position shot to open the scoring. Things moved quickly after that, though—Black hit on a spectacular no-look shot to tie things, then Loyola took its first lead less than a minute later. Penn needed just 12 second to level things, Smith taking the ball directly off a draw and going straight to goal while the defense waited too long to collapse. The score was 2-2 after one.
Loyola needed just 41 seconds to go back in front in an extra-player situation, but Brandt leveled things again with a free-position tally. Latch answered less than a minute later with her own free-position goal, the game's seventh goal in a span of 9:04.
Loyola went ice cold after that, and Penn took advantage.
Block got things started with an unassisted goal, tying things at 4-4, and about a minute later Berkery got on the board when
Julia Chai's shot was saved but the rebound landed in the freshman's stick. Nearly eight minutes went by scoreless, before Brandt scored on another free-position chance, and then a huge goal came in the final minutes of the half when Kehoe notched her first goal of the season on a Block feed. That gave the Quakers a 7-4 lead at the break.
Penn opened the second-half scoring three minutes in, Berkery finishing an
Erika Chung feed on an extra-player situation, and three minutes after that Edmonds got on the score sheet off a Block feed that came quickly on the heels of a missed Miles shot. Miles was on target after that, though, sniping a shot from the right side for her first of the day and then converting a free-position chance to push Penn's lead to 11-4 after three. At the other end, Van Hoesen had two spectacular saves to preserve the shutout quarter.
Loyola finally ended its lengthy drought 29 seconds into the fourth, scoring on an extra-player opportunity, and Penn's lead started to feel tenuous when the Greyhounds scored again with 10:10 left. However, that would be all the scoring Loyola would get the rest of the way, and Penn used patient offense to get a pair of goals from Brandt to close things out in the final five minutes.
Up Next
The Quakers are back at home on Saturday, hosting Brown at noon at Franklin Field. The team will honor its senior class on Saturday, as well.
For the latest on Penn women's lacrosse, follow @PennWomensLax on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.
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