The game against Harvard started off perfectly for the Penn women's lacrosse team. The Quakers were ahead, 2-0, after a goal by senior co-captain Lindsey Cassidy just 25 seconds into the game, and another tally by sophomore Ali Ryan with 15:49 to go in the first half.
But then the game appeared to unravel for the Quakers in front of the largest home crowd of the season at Franklin Field. Harvard scored five straight goals, and it looked like Penn's two-game winning streak in Ivy League play would be snapped as the Crimson took a 7-4 lead into halftime.
The teams traded four goals apiece after intermission, making the score 9-6 with 12:48 to go in the second half after Harvard's Margaret Yellott scored her second goal of the game.
It was at that point that the Quakers began an improbable comeback, stunning the Crimson with four straight goals, capped off by freshman Chrissy Muller's game-winning free position goal with just 59 seconds left to give the Quakers a 10-9 victory.
The winner ended a frantic sequence in which the Red and Blue (7-5, 3-1 Ivy) had several free position shots and other scoring chances in the last seven minutes but could not put the ball in the net.
Muller said the goal, her 18th of the season, was definitely a relief for her in a game in which she admitted did not play as strong as she has this season.
"I've had a lot better games than that before," she said. "I guess I really wanted to finish, I wanted to redeem" myself.
The shot, which was from eight meters away on the left side, was one that she knew she could make.
"I had a lot of confidence when I stepped up there," Muller added. I've taken that shot a lot of times."
Muller's winner would not have been possible without Cassidy's effort in the last 10 minutes. The senior scored three times in a four-and-a-half-minute span to tie the game. She played with ferocity and a will to score that the Crimson (5-5, 0-3 Ivy) could not contain.
"I was just thinking, we're not losing to Harvard," Cassidy said.
Penn coach Karin Brower had high praise for Cassidy.
"She's a competitor," she said. "She was hungry for it."
Brower was not happy with her team's play at the end of the first half, as the Quakers experienced several defensive lapses, one of which led to Yellott's first goal of the game right at the end of the first half.
"They were just being lazy," Brower said.
However, at halftime, she was composed rather than angry, and the Quakers took on their coach's demeanor.
"Just calm down and play our game," Brower said to her team at the break.
She added that the fact that the Red and Blue had won their last three games over the Crimson gave them the confidence to come back, something that has surfaced before this season. The Quakers made a similar comeback against a Delaware team they had previously beaten, while they failed to complete comebacks against Yale, Johns Hopkins and Penn State, teams which Penn has not defeated recently.
Cassidy also credited the Quakers' mindset as being instrumental in their second-half turnaround.
"When Chrissy made that last shot it was because we had the momentum," she said. "We regained confidence in ourselves."
Above all, both Brower and Cassidy said that it was an overall team effort that led to the thrilling victory.
Penn could have won by even more were it not for the tremendous play of Harvard goalie Kathryn Tylander, who stopped 13 of the Quakers' 23 shots on goal.
Junior Allie Juras scored twice for Penn, and junior Katie Spofford and freshman Caroline Finger added single tallies of their own.
The large crowd was due in part to the team hosting both next year's freshman class as well as juniors in high school who the Quakers are recruiting. Cassidy, the only senior on the team, put on quite a show for the future Quakers.
"It's important for them to see that we continue to beat teams so that they know they're coming to a good school," Cassidy said.
Even though Cassidy starred, the game-winning goal was scored by a freshman, something the co-captain did not overlook.
"They're coming in next year, and it could be any one of them," Cassidy said of the potential of the class of 2008.
