Less than two minutes into Saturday's women's lacrosse game, Penn's Ali Ryan put the team on the board to set the pace early on for the Quakers' 14-3 domination of Monmouth.
Penn (1-0) would go on to score seven more goals in twenty minutes before Carolyn Raveia of Monmouth (0-1) was able to put two in a row past goalkeeper Karrie Moore.
Freshman Becca Edwards recorded her first collegiate goal early in the game, then followed up with another four minutes later.
Melissa Lehman's goal with 21 seconds remaining in the first half put the Quakers up 9-2 at the break.
However, they were not able to keep up this explosive offensive pace in the second half.
A scoring draught came on midway through when Penn was unable to put the ball in the net for over 13 minutes.
During that time, Monmouth's Jeanette Stott scored one goal.
Penn coach Karin Brower felt that the girls weren't being patient and were forcing shots that just weren't there. Lehman, a midfielder, agrees.
"We were rushing," Lehman said. "We were so excited but had to realize that we still needed to let things open up."
Allison Ambrozy broke this dry spell though, scoring her second goal of the game.
Its drought broken, the Red and the Blue scored three more goals and shut down Monmouth to coast to the win.
Brower commented on Ambrozy's performance, saying that she set the pace for the offense.
"She was solid," Brower said. "We had a long stint without a goal and she came through."
Ambrozy tied Lehman for the leading scorer of the game, racking up three goals and one assist.
Also contributing was Rachel Manson, with a pair of goals. Hannah Rudloff and Emily Cochran scored one each.
Defensively, Brower said that getting the ball down the field on fast breaks was one of the areas that the team excelled in and that this powered the scoring drive in the first half.
The coach was also impressed with freshman Hilary Renna's strong performance.
Moore and Sarah Waxman equally split time in the goal, making four and six saves, respectively.
Brower said, though, that the girls didn't control the draws as well as she thought they could have. The Quakers took 11 of the 19 total.
"I'm glad it was a win, but it was not clean" said Brower.
Senior captain Cochran was also disappointed with some of the things she saw.
"We really need to work on the movement of the ball on the attack and up the field," she said.
Penn was missing two of its starting line. Kaitlin Farmer and Chrissy Muller both sat out with injuries.
Brower hopes that Muller will be able to play tomorrow when the Quakers take on Temple at Franklin Field.
