The Penn women's lacrosse team was able to steal a 10-9 quadruple overtime victory from No. 9 James Madison University on Saturday, despite an hour and a half weather delay and frigid temperatures.
The Quakers traveled to Harrisonburg, Va., as heavy underdogs.
"We knew going into it we were underdogs, but we also knew were prepared to give them a game," junior attacker Kate Murray said.
Murray lead the Quakers to victory, scoring six goals, including the game winner with 2:13 remaining in the fourth overtime -- sudden death -- period.
The Quakers preparation and concentration on the game ultimately propelled them to victory.
"We practiced for a long time leading up to this game, and we changed our preparation methods," junior goalkeeper Alaina Harper said. "We did a lot of visualization of what we would do in specific situations, and I was ready to go."
Harper finished the day in goal with 13 saves.
After warming up for 45 minutes, the Quakers were forced to leave the field and standby for an hour and a half while a snowstorm passed. At the conclusion of the storm, warmups were completed, and the game began in the midst of steady rain and 40 degree temperatures.
"We play in the snow and rain all year. It didn't affect us," Murray said. "They weren't prepared to play in the snow, though."
Freshman midfielder Katie Spofford agreed with Murray.
"The weather served as an equalizer for us," she said.
The Quakers realized that they would need a strong defensive performance, in addition to goal scoring, if they were going to knock off the Dukes.
And they got all they wanted.
"Whitney Horton and Crissy Book did a great job shutting down their best players," Murray said.
JMU distanced themselves from the Quakers by two goals at two different points in the game. Nonetheless, the Dukes were never able to pull away from the Quakers.
"We did a good job of keeping ourselves in a position to win," Harper said. "We were able to close out the game and finish strong."
At the end of regulation, after Penn had scored two goals to even the score at 8, the teams headed into overtime.
Both teams managed a goal in overtime. Penn senior attacker and quad-captain, Jenny Hartman, netted the goal, sending the game into sudden-death overtime, on a free position attempt with only 59 seconds remaining in the initial six minute overtime session.
After the second and third overtime periods remained scoreless, Murray scored the game winning goal after almost 73 minutes of play.
"We weren't surprised with the victory. We played our hearts out the whole game," Murray said. "It was a great start to the season. Collectively, everyone had a good game."
The Penn freshmen experienced their first taste of college play in this marathon game.
"I was nervous, very nervous and excited going into the game," Spofford said.
Penn will take the field again on Friday, March 8 at 3 p.m. when they will welcome Lafayette to Franklin Field.
Last season, the Quakers dropped a dissapointing defeat to the Leopards, 9-6.
"We will use the win against JMU as a springboard to beat Lafayette," Harper said. "We're ready to go. Everyone is fired up for Friday."
