PHILADELPHIA – After a big win at then-No. 1 Maryland last Wednesday, the University of Pennsylvania women's lacrosse team made a significant jump in the IWLCA rankings up to No. 7. The Quakers put that top-10 ranking on the line in an important Ivy League contest Wednesday night, making the short trip North to face archrival Princeton.
 
GAME 10 – #7 PENN (8-1, 2-0 Ivy League) at #18 PRINCETON (5-3, 1-1)
Wednesday, April 3, 2024 | 7 p.m.
Princeton, N.J. | Sherrerd Field
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats
 
The Series with Princeton
*This will be the 56th meeting between the Quakers and the Tigers in women's lacrosse, with Princeton owning a 29-23-3 lead in a series that began in 1974.
 
*Penn snapped a six-game losing streak in the series last season, scoring a 15-9 win at Franklin Field last season. The Quakers are looking for their first win at Old Nassau since 2016, having lost their last three on Sherrerd Field.
 
*Wednesday's meeting pits the two programs that have won the most Ivy League titles (Princeton 16, Penn 14). Additionally, the Quakers and/or Tigers have won at least a share of the Ivy title every season dating back to 2006.

Ivy Weekly Honors For Fujinaga
Senior defender Grace Fujinaga was named the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week on Monday after she caused five turnovers and scooped up three ground balls in Penn's 13-9 win at No. 1 Maryland last Wednesday. It was the Quakers' first win over a No. 1 team since 2008, just their third win over Maryland in a series that was played for the 30th time, and their first win ever in College Park.
 
Penn in the National Stats (team)
*Third in scoring defense (7.00 goals allowed per game)
*Sixth in caused turnovers per game (11.56)
*Seventh in draw control percentage (.623)
*11th in shots per game (33.44)
*12th in scoring margin (+6.00)
*14th in clear percentage (.921)
*16th in shots on goal per game (24.00)
 
Penn in the National Stats (players)
*Senior goalie Kelly Van Hoesen is second in goals-against average (6.85) and 30th in save percentage (.460).
 
*Junior Erika Chung is 20th in assists per game (2.38).
 
Penn in the Ivy Stats (all games)
*Senior Niki Miles is fourth in draw controls per game (5.22), fourth in goals per game (3.22), fourth in shots per game (6.89), and fifth in points per game (4.56).
 
*Chung is third in assists per game (2.38).
 
*Junior Keeley Block is fifth in shots per game (6.56) while classmate Anna Brandt is sixth (6.22).
 
*Seniors Sophie Davis, Aly Feeley and Izzy Rohr are tied for first in caused turnovers per game (1.67) while classmate Fujinaga is tied for sixth (1.56); Davis also is t-5th in ground balls per game (2.00).
 
*Van Hoesen leads the league in GAA (6.85) and is third in save percentage (.460).
 
Some Defensive Notes
*In addition to being third nationally in GAA, Penn has held its opponent scoreless for at least one 15-minute span in all but one 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
  Maryland (0): shutout streaks of 12:44, 12:31, and 11:09
 
*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.
 
*Last Wednesday, Penn held then-No. 1 Maryland to nine goals; the Terps entered the contest averaging 13.0 goals per game.
 
*On March 24, 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 at the time—the Quakers held the Wolverines to six goals, exactly half their average heading into the contest (12.0 gpg).
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn moved all the way up to seventh in this week's IWLCA poll and is fifth in the USA Lacrosse Magazine national poll.
 
*Perhaps more importantly, when the NCAA's Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) came out on Monday Penn was second, behind only Maryland.
 
*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 garnered Midseason All-America recognition from Inside Lacrosse last week, Brandt and Rohr earning the Ivy League's only two honors above Honorable Mention with Third-Team recognition while Miles was Honorable Mention on attack.
 
*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 29 goals and 41 points. She has multiple points in all nine games this season and has scored at least four goals in three of the last five contests.
 
*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 110 career goals (10th all-time at Penn) and 159 career points (9th).
            UP NEXT (GOALS): Karen McFadden (1985-88) ninth, 111; Alex Condon (2015-18) eighth, 112; Rachel Manson (2005-08) seventh, 116
            UP NEXT (POINTS): Tory Bensen (2011-15) eighth, 163; Emily Rogers-Healion (2014-18) seventh, 165
 
*Miles also leads the team with 47 draw controls and had just the fifth double-figure game in program history in that category on March 24 with 10 against Harvard. She is followed by Brandt (31) and Feeley (26).
 
*Brandt tied her career high with five goals against the Crimson (on five shots); 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 107).
 
*Brandt then scored four times last Wednesday at Maryland, in the process becoming the program's 15th 100-goal scorer (she currently has 101 in 43 games).
 
*After going without an assist against Georgetown and Michigan, Chung was back to her feeding frenzy with three helpers against Harvard and one at Maryland. She leads the Quakers with 19 assists.
 
*Block was Penn's second-leading scorer and honorable mention All-Ivy as a freshman in 2022; she is back after missing all of last season due to injury. The junior has multiple points in seven games and multiple goals in five including three hat tricks.
 
*Freshman Catherine Berkery has 16 goals and hit for four points (3g/1a) in the Harvard win; she already has seven multi-point and five multi-goal games this season.
 
*Defensively, junior Natasha Gorriaran joins the senior group of Davis, Feeley, Fujinaga and Rohr. She has 11 caused turnovers this season and scored her first goal of 2023 last Wednesday at Maryland.
 
*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 262 of the program's 415 wins.
 
For the latest on Penn women's lacrosse, follow @PennWomensLax on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.