W. Lax tops Lions for first Ivy victory

The third time is always the charm. After dropping its first two Ivy contests, the Penn women's lacrosse team came up victorious in its third Ivy League game, downing Columbia, 11-7, at Franklin Field on Saturday afternoon. The Lions (3-3, 0-3 Ivy) grabbed an early 2-1 lead, but the Quakers (4-2, 1-2) responded with five unanswered goals to close out the first half up 6-2, and the Red and Blue were never seriously threatened in the final 30 minutes of play. With the win, the Quakers are on their first two-game winning streak in over two years. Columbia, meanwhile, remains winless in Ivy play in three seasons of varsity competition. "I think that going into it, all of us knew that we would win, but we knew also that Columbia was going to be really psyched up. They thought we were the closest ones for them to beat in the Ivy League," Penn goalie Christian Stover said. "I don't know if it was just because we were overconfident, or because of the weather, or what, but we just weren't playing up to our level. "I think that we should have won by a lot more." Penn was once again led on offense by sophomore Traci Marabella, who found the net three times. Marabella, who leads the Quakers with 15 goals, beat the Columbia netminder just 89 seconds in, off a pass from freshman Jayme Munnelly, to put Penn up 1-0. Columbia quickly retaliated with early goals from senior captain Sara Brubaker and junior midfielder Devin Fitzpatrick to take an unexpected 2-1 lead. But after those tallies, the Lions were unable to find the net again before the break. Much like in Penn's 11-8 win over Lafayette on Tuesday, the Quakers recovered from a slow start to take a 6-2 lead into the break. "I think we came out a little too confident," Penn defender Christy Bennett said. "We just weren't really playing, weren't really running like we should have been. When they were up, it just gave us that quick scare that we needed to realize that we really had to play and that we weren't going to roll over for them." While Munnelly and fellow freshman Crissy Book joined Marabella as multiple-goal scorers for Penn, no Lions player scored more than once or could establish herself as a consistent threat. Both Munnelly and Book added an assist, as the Quakers attack moved the ball up the field well. "We weren't as aggressive as in other games," Penn senior captain Brooke Jenkins said. "But our midfield transition was very good. We were fine in the middle of the field." Lions goalie Gina Kline posted 21 saves, but it was not nearly enough, as the Quakers peppered her with more shots than she could handle. In the other cage, Stover came up big with 18 saves, upping her save percentage to over 60 percent. The Quakers success in stopping Columbia's attack, however, lay not just in Stover, but in strong play from the entire defensive corps. "Christy Bennett played awesome. She always does, and she always steps it up," Stover said. "All around, she's just aggressive and makes herself known. She's very prominent on the field -- even as a freshman." Bennett attributed Columbia's low offensive output to preparation and good execution on Penn's part, but was quick to credit her teammates in the victory. "We don't really change our game much for anybody. We just try to do the same strong things over and over -- the passes and the collapsing on the ball," Bennett said. Jenkins, junior Annie Henderson, sophomore Jenny Hartman and freshman Whitney Horton finished off the Quakers' scoring. "I think this is giving us more confidence, but we have to be careful that we don't end up with too much, like we've done before," Bennett said. "We'd like to get a streak going, but we still need to be careful."