W. Lax splits first two games

The last time the Penn women's lacrosse team beat Yale was 1994, back when current freshmen Crissy Book and Kate Murray were in seventh grade. On Saturday at the Yale Bowl, Murray came within inches of changing that, hitting the goalpost with a shot with eight seconds remaining as the No. 10 Elis (3-0, 1-0 Ivy League) topped Penn, 9-8. Murray had earlier scored a goal in the game, and Book tallied two. After two games, Book is second on the Quakers (1-1, 0-1) with four goals. Penn defeated American (1-2) in the season opener last Tuesday, 17-8. "I think [the freshmen] are really doing a great job," Penn coach Karin Brower said. "They're really doing what they need to do." The freshmen scored 13 of Penn's 25 goals in the two games over spring break. Freshman Jayme Munnelly's late goal at Yale nearly broke down the Elis' stalling defense late in the game, bringing the Quakers to within one goal of overtime. Penn played from behind all day Saturday, falling behind by three goals in the first three minutes of action. "We knew that Yale was going to be the strongest team that we've come up against," Brower said. "The first three minutes didn't really shock me that they were up 3-0. I was surprised at how well we came back on a 3-0 deficit." The Quakers struck back, refusing to let the game get out of hand. Penn trailed 6-4 at halftime, and the Quakers defense clamped down on last year's Ivy League Rookie of the Year, Amanda Walton, who last year scored four goals against the Quakers and this year was held to three. Penn freshman Christy Bennett came off the bench to handle the responsibility of guarding Walton. "We had five freshmen starting," Brower said. "Bennett did a great job, and she's pretty much gone in and not come out since, so we pretty much have six freshmen out there who are really doing a nice job." Meanwhile, junior Amy Weinstein helped to hold Yale's other big gun on the attack, Heather Bentley, to just two goals on the day. "Our defense did really well," said Penn senior tri-captain Brooke Jenkins, who scored one goal against the Elis after a five-goal outburst at American. "They collapsed really well and stopped the other players." With her six goals, Jenkins is tied for the team lead with sophomore Traci Marabella, who is already halfway to her 12-goal total that was second on last year's Penn team. But this is a new year, and the Quakers have already matched their win total from a year ago. And such a close game on the road against a team as strong as Yale seems to have lit a fire under the Red and Blue going into today's game at Villanova. "They're enthusiastic -- real excited," Brower said. "I think after Yale they're even more excited because they've realized they can play with anybody." Penn certainly had no trouble with the Eagles after shaking off the opening-game jitters. The Quakers were only up by one goal until Jenkins found the net with 4:10 remaining in the first half to put her team up 5-3. After that, the rout was on. Penn scored three more goals in the half to the Eagles' one and scored the first three after intermission to put the game relatively out of reach at 11-4. Penn hit on 17-of-24 shots at American and is shooting at a 61 percent clip for the season's first two games, while holding its opponents to 46 percent shooting accuracy. Jenkins, Munnelly and freshman Dalton Cox have yet to miss a shot, while Marabella fanned on only one of her seven shots in the two games.

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