Two wins for W. Lax after triumph on Main Line

Penn exceeded last season's win total in a 14-7 rout of Villanova yesterday afternoon. VILLANOVA, Pa. -- Amid a deluge of rain at Villanova Stadium yesterday afternoon, the Penn women's lacrosse team unleashed a flood of its own. On the strength of five unanswered goals to close out the first half, the Quakers recovered from an early deficit and downed the Wildcats, 14-7. Penn (2-1) was led by sophomore Traci Marabella and freshman Crissy Book, who each netted four goals. The pair combined to score three times in a critical two-minute stretch in the first half, as the Quakers came out of a timeout and quickly turned a 3-2 deficit into a 5-3 lead. Penn never relinquished that advantage. "I told them that they had to do the easy things," Penn coach Karin Brower said of that timely timeout. "The passing and the catching. We've got to have the ground balls, and we've got to want the ground balls. And it shouldn't be a 3-2 game at that point -- that's basically what I said." Villanova (2-5), whose leading scorer, Cecily Pierce, was out with a pulled hamstring, was unable to generate any consistent offense. Wildcats freshman Meghan Carolan scored three goals, and senior Molly O'Conor added a pair, but the rest of the home squad could not break free of Penn's double-teaming on defense and put the ball in the net. "I think we got off to a very good start, but we let them come back on us," Villanova coach Joanie Milhous said. "There were a lot of turnovers in the midfield. And then I think we started playing very soft." With a sloppy game on both sides due to wet field conditions of near-biblical proportions, the speedy Quakers were able to come up with the majority of ground balls and turn them into attacking opportunities. Marabella and freshman Christy Bennett were two Penn players who excelled in this capacity. "The biggest thing with Traci that I liked is that today she really came back defensively, and so she came up with a lot of turnovers," Brower said. "And Christy Bennett had a great game. She pretty much dominated the turnovers. We got so many good turnovers because of her -- she came up with drops, double-teams, checks, interceptions." Marabella, who leads Penn with 10 goals on the season, almost did not make yesterday's game, showing up late for the team van due to a doctor's appointment. But Brower refused to leave West Philadelphia without the sophomore attacker -- a move that paid dividends early and often. Marabella scored 2:02 into the contest to put Penn up, 1-0, the first of her three first-half tallies. "For some reason, today was the first game that I wasn't nervous," Marabella said. With the temperature hovering around 40 degrees and wind-driven rain blowing in the players' faces, the conditions were less than ideal. "The weather sucked, but for some reason I like playing in the rain," Marabella said. "I don't know why, but I feel like I play better in the rain. Most people think of it as a disadvantage when it's raining and the conditions are horrible, but for some reason I like it." The Wildcats -- fresh off a 19-10 thrashing of La Salle on Sunday -- also came out hustling, scoring a pair of early goals to go up, 2-1. But Villanova struggled to clear the ball out of its end all day, and goalie Kelly O'Leary's 13 saves simply were not enough. Goalkeeper Christian Stover made nine big saves for the Quakers, none more important than one that came with 11 minutes left in the first half. With Penn up 5-3, a Wildcats attacker came in alone following a Penn turnover in their own end. But her shot was turned away by Stover, who held 'Nova scoreless for a 25-minute period. "Penn started to double-team us, and we just didn't respond to the double-team," Milhous said. "We didn't get it together in the midfield, and our attack didn't really go hard to goal." The Quakers' freshmen were a major part of the team's success. Midfielder Alison Polk-Williams notched one goal, attacker Kate Murray netted two and Bennett added another. Attacker Brooke Jenkins and midfielder Emily Foote, a DP sportswriter, also got into the scoring for the Quakers. Penn has now doubled its win total from a year ago with two victories.

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