If you left early, you may have thought the women's lacrosse team's season was in trouble. If you arrived late, you would have seen just how dominant the Quakers can be.
After a slow start, No. 20 Penn (1-0) exploded in the second half, ending the game on a 7-0 run to dominate Drexel (0-1), 12-4.
Penn went into halftime up only 5-3 after a shaky first half which coach Karin Brower attributed simply to "first-game jitters." The Quakers got off just ten shots and allowed Drexel to convert on three out of nine.
An early second-half Drexel goal cut the lead to one, but it was all Red and Blue for the remainder of the game.
The Penn attack was led by both rookies and veterans, with senior captain Chrissy Muller and freshman Ali DeLuca each notching hat tricks and an assist over the course of the game. DeLuca's second and third goals, which came within three minutes of each other, began the final run which put the Dragons away for good. Sophomore Becca Edwards also notched two goals in her first career start.
Muller credited the explosive scoring of the final 17 minutes, in which the Quakers netted all seven of their second-half goals, to the team's willingness to shoot, compared to the patience displayed in the first half.
"We have plays that have a lot of different things that work off of them; we were almost too patient," she said. "You can't score unless you shoot."
On the other side of the field, junior goalkeeper Sarah Waxman had an outstanding game. She played all sixty minutes, recording nine saves and allowing only four goals, none of which were scored after the twelve-second mark of the second half. Although many of her saves were in one-on-one situations, Waxman was quick to give credit to the entire team's defense.
"Good goalies come from good defenders and good defenders come from good middies, and it goes all the way up to the attack," she said.
Asked about her second-half performance, Waxman wasn't as coy. "I was just trying to shut them out," she said.
Despite tripling its opponent's score, Penn lost out on the draw control battle, 10-7, including a 7-1 Drexel edge in the first half.
The Quakers' ranking and talent set high expectations for this year. And, while the first half may not have been indicative of this, the final score definitely set the tone for the remainder of the season - one with lofty goals.
"We're expecting to win every game," Brower said.
Breaking their next-door neighbors' 24-game non-conference win streak makes for a good start, but it is far from the goal.
"It's like the beginning of a dynasty," Waxman said. "That's what we said before we went out today, and we're looking at a good year."
