Road to title kicks off with BU

Facing their lowest seeding in four years of NCAA tournaments, the eight seniors on the Penn women’s lacrosse team, are looking to defy the odds and extend their collegiate careers as long as possible.

The first round of the NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Championship Tournament will be played at Immaculata University in Malvern, Pa., at 1 p.m. Saturday. Eighth-seeded Penn will take on an unranked Boston University team that is out for revenge.

Just as No. 2 seed Northwestern has ended the Quakers’ postseason hopes for the past three years, Penn has defeated the Terriers in the tournament two of the past three seasons.

“They have felt we have ended their season for several years, except for last year, so I think they have a lot of motivation,” coach Karin Brower Corbett said, “but I think we really want to be able to get to that quarterfinals.”

For the first time in three years, the Quakers (14-3, 7-0 Ivy) did not receive a top-four seed in the tournament. The team will have a tough road to the Final Four, which is likely to include top-seeded Maryland.

“Obviously we’re not happy with our seed, which is fine, but at the same time, we really don’t expect the Ivy League schools to get priority over the ACC,” senior co-captain Ali DeLuca said.

Although DeLuca and her fellow seniors have seen BU in the tournament twice before, she finds it “refreshing” to face a team that was not on the Quakers’ regular season schedule.

This season, the Terriers have worked to fill the offensive void left by Sarah Dalton, who finished her collegiate career with 91 goals in the 2009 season. Traci Landy and McKinley Curro have stepped up in her place, netting 50 and 48 goals, respectively.

“We’re going to have play really good team defense and just forcing the shots that we want to force,” Corbett said.

While the Quakers’ defense will be tending to the Terrier’s attack, BU will have to contend with Penn’s multi-faceted scoring corps — which is comprised of five players with more than 20 goals to their name. DeLuca, who was recently named a finalist for the Tewaaraton award, leads the pack with 40 goals this season.

Corbett also said that in order to succeed Saturday, her team will have to excel in the midfield and win as many draw controls as possible.

“In games that we’ve done well in the draw controls, we’ve been able to win,” she said. “It’s just such a huge stat and momentum changer that we’re really going to have to fight for them.”

In their two previous tourney wins, the Quakers have outdrawn the Terriers 19-13 — which bodes well for Penn’s hopes of advancing.

Though Penn was the higher seed both times, each game was played at a different location. The Quakers faced the Terriers at Rhodes Field in 2007 and Drexel’s Vidas Field in 2008. Penn will have had three days to practice at Immaculata before playing there for the first time this weekend.

Between their low seed, a new field and an opponent that they have not faced yet this season, there will be many “firsts” for the Quakers come tomorrow. But DeLuca is confident that her squad can advance to the next round.

“We’ve seen different attackers and different skills, but we play the same kind of game,” she said. “As long as we stick to what we know, we’ll be fine.”

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