W. Lax falters in ECAC final

BALTIMORE -- The Penn women's lacrosse team traveled to Baltimore for the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship on Sunday with one thing in mind -- scoring a lot of goals.

And the Quakers did just that, finding the back of the net 12 times in their first postseason appearance of any kind since 19'4.

Despite their third-highest offensive output of the season, though, Penn ('-9) was unable to keep pace with No. 17 Johns Hopkins (11-6), as the Blue Jays cruised to an 1'-12 victory on their home turf in the first-ever meeting between these two squads.

The 30 combined goals netted by the two teams was more than either the Quakers or Blue Jays had seen in a game this season.

"I think both teams were excited to be in the postseason," Penn senior Amy Weinstein said. "Not having played for two weeks, people just got a little trigger-happy, and there were a lot of shots."

The Quakers knew that they would need a strong defensive performance to contain a high-octane Hopkins offense that was averaging 11.75 goals a game.

But after giving up eight goals in the first half -- almost equalling the nine that the Quakers usually allowed per 60 minutes in the regular season -- Penn knew it was in for a rude awakening.

The Red and Blue kept it close as they were able to net six in the first half to stay within two goals of the Blue Jays at the break.

In the second half, however, the floodgates opened on the Quakers defense, as Hopkins netted five goals in the first six minutes of the second stanza to build an insurmountable 13-6 lead.

Leading the Blue Jays' second-half onslaught was junior attacker Erin Wellner, who scored all of her game-high five goals in the final 30 minutes.

And containing the Quakers at the other end of the field was Hopkins sophomore goalkeeper Jen McDonald, who was named the ECAC Championship MVP.

Leading Penn's offense were junior Jenny Hartman, who netted four goals, and sophomores Crissy Book and Alison Polk-Williams, who chipped in three and two, respectively.

Despite the outcome, both teams are looking toward the same goal next season.

"The last three teams that won the ECAC Championship are playing in the NCAA Tournament [this year]," Hopkins coach Janine Tucker said. "So that's our plan. This is a stepping stone for us."

Penn coach Karin Brower expressed similar plans for Penn in the upcoming season.

"We're very excited that we got into this [tournament], and it was nice for these girls to get the feel of postseason play," she said. "We won't be going for this next year. We'll be going for the [NCAA] Tournament."

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