W. Lax Update | Stanford once again Penn's Achilles' heel

Considering it hadn't lost at home in the regular season since 2006, the Penn women's lacrosse team was confident coming into their home matchup against Stanford Saturday.

Coupled with their sole regular season loss in 2008 at Stanford, the No. 3 Quakers were looking to blow out the No. 13 Cardinal.

"We thought we would just come today and walk away with the win," coach Karin Brower said.

But that was not the case. Instead, Penn suffered its second consecutive loss as it fell, 8-6, to No. 13 Stanford.

Quakers' junior midfield Ali DeLuca was the first to score, netting a low goal off a feed from behind the net. Brower, however, had instructed her players to shoot high on Stanford sophomore goalie Annie Read - and rightfully so. Read, very capable of stopping the low shot, made 11 saves on the day.

"You never shoot at a goalie's feet. It's just stupid," Brower said. "If you are going to shoot low, you have to shoot deep and low."

Although DeLuca assisted fellow midfield Giulia Giordano's goal and then went on to score her own unassisted goal later in the half, Penn's offense struggled to put goals on the board. The Cardinal (14-4) alternated between man-to-man and back-up styles of defense, forcing the Quakers (13-2) to rush their 28 shots on goal.

Even when they were fouled within the eight meter arc, the Red and Blue were not effective on their seven free position shots. Junior midfield Emma Spiro converted the lone free position with 11 seconds left on the clock, but by then it was too late.

"Our shooting was just not falling and we didn't pick it up," Spiro said. "We didn't have possession until the very end of the game and at that point it's hard to just turn on shooting."

The Quakers, who averaged 11.07 draw controls before Saturday, were unable to grab possession off the draws. Penn was only able to come up with four draw controls - the same number that Stanford senior midfield Jaime Nesbitt contributed on her own. The Cardinal grabbed 12 overall.

"They dominated us on the draws," Brower said. "You have to give them a lot of credit for wanting it more and being more aggressive and taking that first step."

Nesbitt, after a check to her head, benefitted from one of the Quakers' 23 fouls and scored the free position goal that allowed her team to pull away from the 3-3 tie in the first half. The Cardinal were up 6-4 at the break.

Both of the additional second-quarter goals were scored by lefty junior midfield Lauren Schmit, who broke away from her original matchup, against Penn's Kaitlyn Lombardo, to score unassisted. After Schmit's two goals, Spiro matched up against her at the start of the second half, only allowing the Bay Shore, N.Y., native to score once more.

"We were getting beat around the crease, we weren't helping one another - just not good team defense," Brower said. "That's what we pride ourselves on."

After what Brower called a "disheartening" loss Saturday, the Quakers didn't have much of their pride intact.

"It looked like we just came to play a game and they came to win and that's what they did," Brower said, "They deserved it 100 percent."

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