W. Lax comes up with 15-14 sudden-death win at Cornell

So far, the 1997 season of Penn women's lacrosse has been a mirror image of last year's with one exception -- the Quakers are more competitive. At last year's league opener, Penn just edged out Cornell with a score of 10-9 in regulation. On Saturday, the Red and Blue again defeated the Big Red 15-14 in sudden death, as junior Sue Pierce got the game-winning goal at the 1:14 mark. Both teams entered the game with a must-win attitude, the Big Red determined to seek revenge for last year's loss, and the Quakers determined to have a repeat performance. Cornell (2-2, 0-1 Ivy League) met the Quakers after two successful matches during which they scored a total of 29 goals. The Quakers (1-1, 1-0), however, had a losing record and only four goals in their first game of the season. Last week's loss to Loyola had taught the Quakers many lessons. While Loyola had easily beaten Penn last year, the Quakers proved a much more competitive team last week. Blaming last week's defeat on turnovers, the Red and Blue entered Saturday's match knowing they had to play a controlled game on the defensive side while remaining aggressive on offense. Cornell senior Lauren Feinstein was also expected to be a threat. Feinstein has been leading the Big Red with seven goals in the last two games and a career best of five in the most recent match. But on Saturday, the Quakers' defense restricted her to two goals and one assist. "It was snowing, and the conditions were not very good. Also, Curran Kelly got sick before the game. We had everything going against us," Penn tri-captain Jill Brown said. "It was a very similar type game to last year -- a little bit panicked at times, a running game back and forth. This year, Cornell was in the lead most of the time, which shows our persistence." Although Cornell's offense had been consistently improving, Penn was aggressive in the fan and took 39 shots on goal. The Quakers scored on two of six free positions, whereas Cornell missed all eight of theirs. Freshman Brooke Jenkins scored her second goal of the season and Tarr scored two points. "A key point was the balanced shooting. We had some key shots--Darah Ross was our leading scorer and Sue Pierce came up with a great one at the end [of double overtime]," said Tarr. Otherwise the score was controlled by Penn's juniors. Ross led the Quakers with five goals while teammates Jamie Schemberg, Emily Hansel, and Pierce scored two points each. Sophomore goalie Sue Back had two saves in 18 minutes, and freshman goalkeeper Melissa Rantz made her collegiate debut. In the final 50 minutes of the game, Rantz recorded seven saves. "It was a great win as a team and gives us momentum going into this week with two tough games, Temple and Harvard," Tarr said. Despite its 1-1 record, Penn is optimistic about the season. With noticeable improvement so early in the season, the Quakers are confident that they can improve last year's standing of 3-3 in the Ivy League.

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