PHILADELPHIA – The 17th-ranked University of Pennsylvania women's lacrosse team looked like it might get overrun by No. 13 Loyola Maryland on Saturday, but the Quakers fought back valiantly before ultimately falling to the Greyhounds, 10-8. 
 
Saturday's game was bookended by scoring droughts in the first and fourth quarters, just a combined three goals scored in those periods. In the second, Loyola ripped off eight goals in a row and led by as many as seven (8-1), while in the third it was Penn that had the run with five as the Quakers got as close as one, at 9-8. 
 
Penn is now 1-3 on the young season while Loyola improved to 3-3 overall. 
 
Quaker Notemeal 
*Catherine Berkery led Penn with three goals on Saturday, while Olivia Nicoll scored twice. 
 
*Patricia Columbia-Walsh finished with two points, scoring a goal and dishing out an assist. 
 
*Lela Greene and Regan O'Brien were Penn's other goal scorers on Saturday. 
 
*At the other end, Orly Sedransk came up with eight saves. 
 
*Loyola was led by Mim Suares-Jury, who scored three goals, and Morgan Quade who finished the day with two goals and two assists for four points. Delaney Jackson also scored twice for the Greyhounds. 
 
How It Happened 
Goals were hard to come by in the first quarter Saturday, as Loyola keeper Makenzie Butler made four saves and Sedransk stopped both shots on goal that she saw. It was more than 11 minutes before either team scored, Berkery finally breaking the ice with a quick-stick goal off an Emma Hrzich feed from behind the goal. That ended up being the only goal in the first 15. 
 
After a scoreless first quarter, Loyola Maryland exploded in the second.  
 
With the Quakers down a player, Morgan Ruhnke beat her defender on the left side and side-armed a shot past Sedransk inside the far post. Less than a minute later, Suares-Jury gave the Greyhounds their first lead as she beat a pair of defenders in front and fired one past Sedransk's right side. More than two minutes after that, Quade made it 3-1 with a rifle on the free position, and then 90 seconds later Suares-Jury carved through the Penn defense from near midfield to score her second of the day. That forced a Red and Blue timeout.  
 
The stoppage didn't help. Suares-Jury completed her hat trick on a free-position effort, the three goals coming less than seven minutes apart, and shortly after that Ava Kane and Jackson combined for the next three goals across a 1:02 span of game time. O'Brien ended the Loyola run at the free-position spot with about a minute left in the half, but the Greyhounds took an 8-2 lead into the locker room. 
 
Berkery opened the second-half scoring early in the third quarter, the Quakers taking advantage of an unsettled situation around the Loyola cage and Columbia-Walsh finding the junior wide open in front for the one-timer. Four minutes later, Nicoll got a free-position chance and made the most of it, potting it in the  upper corner to make the score 8-4. Just 1:20 later, Berkery was on the fan and she went with a worm-burner inside the left corner to complete her hat trick. That got Penn within 8-5 at the 3Q media timeout. 
 
Greene made it a two-goal game with 4:07 left in the third, beating her defender and switching hands on the way to her first goal of the day. That forced a Loyola timeout, and less than a minute out after the stoppage the Greyhounds ended Penn's five-goal run with a Quade tally. However, Columbia-Walsh converted yet another free-position shot in the final minute of the period and it was 9-7 heading into the final 15. 
 
Penn started the fourth quarter with the ball and needed just 18 seconds to score, Nicoll wrong-footing her defender on the right side and firing it home from about 10 yards out. However, just 37 seconds later Loyola was back in front by two thanks to Elisa Faklaris. 
 
That ended up being all the scoring in the game, though Penn caught some lousy breaks in the final five minutes as O'Brien took a shot up top that was blocked by Butler and bounced past her off the crossbar and then Columbia-Walsh also rang a pipe in the final two minutes. 
 
Up Next 
Penn opens Ivy League play next Saturday at Dartmouth; first draw with the Big Green is scheduled for noon in Hanover, N.H.