Women's lacrosse may have come up short of a national championship, but two of the team's seniors can now say they won their final collegiate contest.
Becca Edwards and Kaitlyn Lombardo were selected by coach Karin Brower to represent Penn in the IWLCA/Under Armour North-South Senior All-Star game last Saturday.
As members of the South squad, Edwards and Lombardo played alongside former foes from the East Coast and came away with a lopsided 13-8 victory at the United Sports Training Center in Downingtown, Pa.
"We kind of blew them out early in the game," said Edwards, an attack who garnered Second Team Mid-Atlantic Region honors after the season.
It was no surprise the South team was offensively minded, with Maryland head coach Cathy Reese at the helm for the day. Reese's Terrapins finished the season second in the nation in total points with 491, and third in scoring offense, averaging 15.43 goals per contest.
"You can see why Maryland plays the way that they play with her," Edwards said. "She was all about playing up-tempo and scoring a lot of goals and not really concerned about defense - the way that Penn plays."
As a contrast, the Quakers led the NCAA in scoring defense, yielding just over six goals per game to their opponents.
South goalie Jen Heup from Louisville was named the game's MVP after shutting down the opposition early in the game. During the regular season, Heup boasted a 10.86 goals against average while recording 144 saves.
The Red and Blue representatives had a fine showing themselves, according to Lombardo, but nothing more.
"We did well [but] I don't think either of us had breakout games," the attack/midfield said, laughing. "It was more just to get a last touch on the ball."
Lombardo had a statistically balanced season on both ends of the field, notching 15 points in her 17 starts, scooping 21 ground balls in the process. The communication major will run a summer lacrosse camp at Penn this summer and yesterday interviewed for a marketing/sales position in the real world.
Edwards, meanwhile, finished the year with 14 assists and 26 goals, five of which were game-winners. She is spending her summer coaching a youth lacrosse team until she has to find a "real job."
"This [game] was obviously a totally different experience," Edwards said. "It was sort of like a last hurrah; we were all just playing for fun."
