Turnovers, missed chances sink Penn women's lacrosse

Ten shots on goal. Thirteen turnovers. That’s the recipe for a loss no matter who you’re playing.

On Wednesday night, offensive miscues and an inability to take advantage of short-range shots doomed Penn women’s lacrosse Wednesday night against Princeton in a 9-5 loss.

“Unfortunately, uncharacteristic of this year, we had a lot of turnovers,” coach Karin Brower Corbett said. “In the beginning of the game, we were winning the draw, and then we’d turn it over. It’s just sloppy, sloppy passes, getting trapped, that sort of thing.”

The Quakers (7-4, 3-1 Ivy) came into the game leading the Ivy League with the Tigers (9-4, 5-1) trailing by a game. The loss pushed Penn back into a first-place tie in the loss column with Princeton as the regular season winds its way down.

The Tigers came out strong to start the game, using a five-goal run to jump ahead to a 5-1 lead after Penn sophomore midfield Catherine Dickinson scored the opening goal of the game. The Quakers would spend the rest of the game struggling to catch up.

“That [deficit] was tough — it made us rush a couple shots,” Dickinson said. “Obviously we wanted to get back in the game, but things just didn’t go our way.”

The second half appeared to be a different story early on as the Red and Blue came roaring out of the gate to the tune of two early goals, one each by Dickinson and senior midfield Lindsey Smith.

“I thought our team had a lot of fight in the beginning of the second half to get it close, but from the first whistle, Princeton fought more,” Corbett said. “They’re physical, and we got pushed around a bit in that first half.”

However, it just wasn’t to be for the Quakers as the Tigers shut it down and scored three straight goals to close the game and eliminate any hopes for Penn.

Penn saw strong offensive performances from Dickinson and Smith, who combined to score all five goals on just seven combined shots on net.

“Catherine Dickinson had her best game of the season — obviously she really finished well,” Corbett said.

Despite the score, junior goalkeeper Lucy Ferguson also had a very strong game, coming up with difficult saves in a game that could have easily been more lopsided.

For Princeton, it was a diverse offensive attack as the Quakers expected. Six different players scored goals for a Tigers effort that keyed off of Penn miscues en route to 17 shots on goal.

Junior midfield Erin McMunn and junior attack Erin Slifer, Princeton’s leaders in points, were held relatively quiet in the game as the duo only scored four goals on 11 shots.

Moving forward, Penn has its sights set on its remaining three Ivy League contests and on taking a few lessons from the loss to Princeton.

“We need to take care of the ball, and defensively, we need to know the scout. A couple of their goals were what we expected, and we were a little undisciplined,” Corbett said. “On the attack side, turnovers [are] plaguing us and then shooting, that’s the problem.”

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