TOWSON, Md. - Senior attack Rachel Manson's 115 career goals ranks her second all-time in Penn women's lacrosse history.
But of all those tallies, No. 115 was the sweetest of them all.
With less than 45 seconds left in the second half of non-sudden death overtime in Friday's NCAA national semifinal against Duke, Penn freshman Giulia Giordano earned a free position shot. But instead of shooting, the freshman wisely dished a pass to her senior captain, letting Manson rocket the ball past Duke goalkeeper Kim Imbesi to take the lead once and for all.
The goal gave Penn a 9-8 lead, and after senior Allison Ambrozy came up with the ensuing draw, the Quakers ran out the clock to earn their first ever trip to the National Championship game. The No. 2 Quakers (17-1) will now face top-seeded Northwestern in today's 7 p.m. final at Towson University's Johnny Unitas Stadium.
"It was pretty sweet," Manson said of the winning goal. "I definitely blacked out on that goal; I don't remember how I scored it."
Prompted if she remembered anything about the goal, the product out of Alexandria, Va., did have something to say.
"I looked at Giulia and she looked at me, and I knew she was going to pass it to me," Manson said. "She gave me a great pass, and I scored."
With that bang-bang play, the Quakers will now have a chance to make not just program history, but Penn Athletics history: No Penn program has ever won an NCAA championship in a team sport.
For a while, though, it looked as if the Red and Blue's season would come to an end. Penn actually found itself down 7-4 with only 18 minutes to go.
But starting around the 15 minute mark, the Quakers went on a thrilling run to save their season. Starting with a Kaitlyn Lombardo goal assisted by Giordano, the Red and Blue ran off four straight goals, capped off by a great goal from senior Melissa Lehman who scorched down the middle of the crease to rifle a shot past Imbesi.
"When we were down 7-4, I knew we were going to score," Lehman said. "It all came down to the draws. We were determined to get the possession and I think everyone was confident."
"I think we are great playing from behind," Penn coach Karin Brower added. "We have done that over the past two years. We have a calm and composed and disciplined team."
Despite taking the lead, 8-7, off of Lehman's third goal of the night, Penn hadn't clinched anything yet. With just over three minutes left, the Quakers turned the ball over and Duke marched down the field. The Blue Devils' Lindsay Gilbride scored off of a free position shot from eight meters out to force overtime.
For Penn goalie Sarah Waxman, that turnaround from taking the lead to going to overtime had her emotions "all over the place."
"I really wanted to win in regulation. I went from being excited to winning, then sad to not save the eight meter, then back down to a normal calm knowing we had to win in overtime," she said.
Waxman had a solid game despite giving up eight goals, more than her nation-leading 5.97 goals-against-average. She had seven saves, including a key one in the first overtime period.
For Duke (13-8), this game was eerily familiar. In last year's Final Four game, the Blue Devils somehow lost 14-13 to Virginia despite leading 13-4 with 20:46 to go. Add to that an overtime 11-10 loss to Northwestern in 2006 and a 15-13 loss to UVA in 2005, and that's four straight years of Final Four losses for the Blue Devils.
"In my career we've been to the Final Four three times," said junior Carolyn Davis, who scored a game-high five goals. "It's heartbreaking [to lose again]."
Up next for the Quakers is Northwestern, who used a 9-0 run in the second half to clinch a 16-8 win over Syracuse in the first semifinal of the night. The Wildcats (20-1) have won the last three National Championships, and are 82-3 in the past four seasons.
But the most recent of those three losses came at the hands of Penn. On April 27, Penn upset then-No. 1 Northwestern 11-7, shutting out the Wildcats for the last 35 minutes of the game.
"We are fortunate to have had an opportunity to play [Northwestern] towards the end of the season," Lehman said. "Last year, our two losses were to Northwestern and we were not satisfied with that and we were heartbroken. Now we have another chance and we are ready."
