Penn women's lacrosse ousted in NCAA Tournament by Virginia

For 27 minutes, it looked as if the Penn women’s lacrosse team would be able to translate the momentum from its dominance of Ivy League play into a first round win in the NCAA Tournament, holding a 4-3 lead over Virginia as the first period wound down.

Then the Cavaliers charged.

Sparked by a goal from Casey Bocklet with 3:01 left in the first period, Virginia (10-9) went on to score seven unanswered goals, demoralizing the Quakers (11-6) en route to a 12-6 win that drew the Red and Blue’s season to an abrupt close at Georgetown’s Washington, D.C. campus.

Though Penn was riding high after a shot by senior stalwart Caroline Bunting gave them that 4-3 lead — their first (and only) of the day — Bocklet’s goal transformed the Cavaliers into an irresistible force.

After Bocklet tied the game at 4, a pair of free position goals by Maddy Keeshan and Bocklet inside of the period’s final minute gave Virginia a 6-4 lead over the stunned Quakers heading into halftime.

“That was frustrating, those last three minutes of the first half,” coach Karin Brower Corbett said. “You know, thinking maybe you’ll be going into halftime tied and to be down two,”

“But again, you still have thirty minutes to play.”

Coming out of the break, the Quakers briefly jolted back to life.

Top scorer Meredith Cain controlled the opening draw of the second half, allowing Penn to firmly entrench itself in Virginia’s defensive zone for the period’s early minutes.

But the Quakers couldn’t convert on a pair of free position attempts — one shot from Shannon Mangini went just wide and another by Tory Benson at point-blank range was saved by Virginia’s Kim Kolarik — and the Cavaliers made them pay dearly.

Virginia toyed with Penn’s defense, establishing possession and converting on easy passes, before a pair of goals by Liza Blue — separated by just 38 seconds — gave the Cavaliers a commanding 8-4 lead with a little more than 20 minutes left in the game.

“[Virginia] killed us on draws and they had the ball a lot,” Corbett said. “You can’t play defense for that long.”

After Bocklet capped her hat trick by slotting a shot past goalie Lucy Ferguson with 18:16 left to stretch the lead to five goals, the game — and Penn’s season — was as good as over.

Though Bunting and Nina Corcoran each tallied goals in the game’s final five minutes, they amounted to little more than window dressing as the Cavaliers ran out the clock.

And as the final horn sounded and the Cavaliers could finally look ahead to the opportunity to stay right where they are and take on the No. 6 Hoyas on Sunday, the Quakers could only look back and wonder what might have been, as a campaign that was at times brilliant fades into dust.

“We have to grow,” Corbett said. “We have to get better.”

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