Coming into the 2007 season, Penn women's lacrosse coach Karin Brower believed that this year's freshman class was the team's best ever.
Led by Ali DeLuca's team-high 13 points and 10 goals, the Class of 2010 hasn't disappointed thus far.
The No. 15 Quakers went 1-1 over spring break, with a 15-7 win over Towson (2-1) on March 3, and a 13-4 loss to No. 2 and two-time defending national champion Northwestern (3-1) last Friday.
DeLuca had her best game in her short career against Towson, scoring five goals and getting one assist. She also netted one of the four Penn goals against Northwestern.
DeLuca "clearly was one of the key players" against Towson, Brower said.
Despite her accomplishment, DeLuca believes the win over the Tigers was a team effort.
"Our middies do really good on challenges and then our attackers are really good at getting shots, since we're good at drawing the doubles and creating opportunities," DeLuca said. "So the combination of the both really make it work."
Another key freshman in the Towson game was Barb Seaman, who scored three goals despite taking a couple of hard hits. Two of her goals came during the Quakers' dominant first half.
The Quakers outscored the Tigers 8-2 behind a solid performance by junior goalkeeper Sarah Waxman, who stopped 12 shots.
"Sarah played great in goal," Brower said after the Towson game. "She had some key stops for us."
In fact, combined with earlier games against Drexel and Temple, Waxman was named Ivy Defensive Player of the Week for the week from Feb. 28 to March 6.
Despite the impressive win, Brower and DeLuca found different weaknesses for the team to improve on before the Northwestern game.
"We talked to our team about draw controls, and that was really important," Brower said. "I think we can get better at them.
"We need to keep our hustle up and get ground balls."
During the Towson game, they got 14 ground balls as opposed to Towson's 12, and won 14 draw controls versus 10 for the Tigers.
However, the Quakers didn't improve on either front in the Northwestern game. They picked up one fewer ground ball, and only won three more draw controls than the Wildcats, as Penn got 11 to Northwestern's eight.
However, these two categories were not the only weak points for the Quakers. Penn was outshot 31-19, including 18-8 in the first half. That disparity helped pave the Wildcats' easy road to victory in Evanston, Ill.
Of Northwestern's 31 shots, 15 came from Aly Josephs and Kristen Kjellman, who scored four goals each.
However, both of these players are seniors, so the Quakers should be relieved that the duo won't be around during their next meeting.
