Pendulum swings against W. Lax

At the Penn-Lafayette women's lacrosse game last night, the momentum swung back and forth like a pendulum, with the teams alternating scoring bursts. Unfortunately for the Quakers, it was the Leopards who were ahead when the last tick expired on the Franklin Field scoreboard. Lafayette gained a thrilling 12-11 victory. "It's a shame," Quaker coach Anne Sage said. "I thought we had the momentum there. If we had played a good first half we wouldn't have got caught in that hole." Early on it looked as if the Leopards (6-8) were the ones about to be buried. Lafayette drew first blood with a goal by senior attacker Deb Coonley, but Penn (8-6) answered with three of its own, led by senior midfielder Franny Maguire, one of three seniors playing in their final game. Maguire scored Penn's first goal after getting behind the Leopard defense in transition and receiving a pass from junior attacker Katie Burg. After assisting on junior attacker Lori Frutkin's goal that gave the Quakers the lead, Maguire scored again on a penalty shot that raised the Penn lead to 3-1 with 18:44 left in the first half. It appeared the game was on the verge of being blown open. But Lafayette regrouped and answered with a dizzying blitz of scores that left much of the Quaker fans in mild shock. Lafayette exploded for three goals in a span of 46 seconds, controlling draws and using some nifty interior passing to take a 5-3 lead with 9:32 in the half. The Leopards extended their lead to 7-3 at the half. "In the first half, I think we were a little too excited and we didn't play our normal game," junior attacker Melissa Sage said. "We were out of position with our attack. We weren't running our plays and we weren't moving the ball. Instead we were trying to go through triple teams, and it just wouldn't work." Things did start to work for the Quakers in the second half. After Lafayette extended the lead to 8-3, Penn responded. Freshman Amy Tarr got things going, weaving her way through the heart of the Lafayette defense to score. Frutkin scored her second goal less than a minute later. The score was 8-5. "They were caught up in a zone," Sage said. "We made adjustments and got them caught in transition." Good things continued for the Quakers. Led by Melissa Sage and sophomore attacker Amy Shapiro, Penn scored four more goals to surge into the lead, 9-8. Shapiro scored three of the four goals, including two blasts from the point. Sage tallied the other goal and assisted Shapiro on another. "We told everyone to calm down, clear out and just play our normal game," Melissa Sage said. "For the first 15 minutes [of the second half] we played our normal game. I think we lost a little momentum the last 10 minutes, which hurt us." The momentum may have shifted immediately after Shapiro's third goal, which gave Penn the lead. Lafayette controlled the ensuing draw and Dagostino was able to maneuver inside the Quaker defense and score. Just when it seemed Penn was about to take the lead for good, the score was tied at 9 with 18:09 to go. The pendulum swung back to the Leopards. Lafayette took the lead a minute later. Three consecutive goals put the the Leopards ahead 12-9, but there was still plenty of time for the Quakers to come back, especially in a game as wild as this one. Four minutes later Penn mounted its last charge. Sharp passing by the Quakers brought the ball downfield quickly, and senior midfielder Sabrina Walheim put the ball past goalie Heather Bohanan with a shot from the side of the arc. Then, with only 1:23 left in the game, Penn scored again -- a near-frantic Quaker offense moved the ball downfield again, and sophomore midfielder Jessica Gilhorn scored with a shot similar to Walheim's. The deficit had shrunk to 12-11, and momentum had shifted back to Penn. But time ran out on the Quakers. Although it was able to control the ball and keep it in the Lafayette zone, Penn was not able to convert on two excruciating chances from near point-blank range. The Leopards managed to knock the ball free both times, and the clock, and the season, expired for the Quakers. The loss was disappointing for Penn, but Sage managed to find positives in it. "We came back from five goals down," Sage said. "I thought we played well enough to win. It's another indication of what we've been trying to do all year -- play two halves." And though the season is now over, Sage has hope for what she thinks is a program on the rise, for which she gives credit to the seniors -- Maguire, Walheim and Missy Hecht. "They've been with us through the low times," Sage said. "The last two years we've had good times. Overall we were 13-9 [since the middle of last season]. "I just feel that the seniors set the tone, and I think they went out and led the group well. You need leadership, you need experience, you need maturity, and that's what they gave us."