W. Lax eats up Cardinal defense

The Penn women's lacrosse team hammered out 19 goals. Perhaps the management at Abner's should offer fans free cheesesteaks when the Penn women's lacrosse team scores 20 goals rather than every time the men's basketball team scores 100 points. The Michael Jordan-led Quakers never came close to breaking the century mark. But Penn coach Anne Sage's lacrosse team came within inches of scoring 20 goals in their season-opener against Stanford. And in lacrosse, 20 goals generally signals more than just a defensive lapse by the other team. After an uneventful trip to New Haven, where inclement weather prevented the Quakers from challenging No. 14 Yale, Penn opened the season last night with a 19-8 victory over Stanford. The visiting Cardinal team is only in its fourth year of existence and lacks experience. "We are coming back as pioneers in West Coast lacrosse. We are a better team than we showed today. I think we got rattled today and that affected us throughout," Stanford assistant coach Amy Fein said. Penn continually exploited gaping seams between defenders. Most of the Quakers' goals came through long runs over the middle and set plays. Penn co-captain Darah Ross led six Quakers in the scoring column with six goals. Freshman Annie Henderson and senior co-captain Emily Hansel poured in four more scores each, while sophomore Amy Padula, freshman Amy Goh and junior Jen Leisman chipped in with one apiece. After Stanford tied the game at 2-2 at the 4:45 mark in the first half, Penn went on a decisive 10-1 run that sealed the win by halftime. "This was a very important first game and we got off to a good start," Sage said. "It was a confident win. The defense got into a pattern of some nice clearing patterns and the young offense produced 50 shots. We were solid today but we have to play well in the league too." "[Stanford] does well out in California, but the competition is not as tough there. It turned out to be a warm up game for us since it was our season opener. The match up with Stanford was one which provided the Quakers with an opportunity for a confidence booster. "It's nice to start against weaker competition but we won because we played hard," Penn coach Alanna Wren said. The Cardinal had recorded very convincing wins, including defeats of St. Mary's College (19-3) and Chico State (21-3) but ran into a stronger and more skilled Penn team. The Quakers played especially strong in transition and scored at least five goals after intercepting the ball in their own backfield. Ross had one of the better individual goals for Penn in the first half. After stepping in front of a pass, she took it the length of the field and managed to beat the keeper low in the right corner despite being fouled by a Stanford defender. "I saw some room for improvement in our fundamentals, but for the most part our defense was very tight," Ross said. "Our offense took advantage of the opportunities we faced. We created a lot of chances through our intensity."