Balanced offensive attack lends Penn women's lacrosse dominance

This week, Penn women’s lacrosse will attempt to tame the Lions before encountering top-ranked Wildcats.

The Quakers, off to a fast start and ranked No. 11 in the country, are set to face off with a Columbia against with momentum on Wednesday prior to a bout with No. 6 Northwestern in Evanston, Ill.

The Quakers (8-1, 2-0 Ivy) will travel to New York to play the Lions (4-5, 1-2 Ivy),who have won their last four games, including a 5-3 victory over Yale on March 21 that was the first conference win for them since the 2011 season.

So far in the campaign, Penn has outscored opponents 104-63 behind 31 goals from senior attack Tory Benson, with five other players having 10 or more goals to their names. One of them, junior midfielder Nina Corcoran, has also racked up 21 assists.

Coach Karin Corbett believes the attack is robust because of how balanced it is.

“Having a lot of threats makes you stronger, and we’re not reliant on one or two kids to be everything to our offense,” she said. “I think they all feel they can impact.”

Junior attack Iris Williamson notes that the team’s offense has been more effective this year while playing at a faster pace.

“There’s more confidence out of our attack, we have a lot of upperclassmen leadership, and in practice we go hard everyday,” she said. “We play against one of the best defenses in the country, our defense, and that makes us better and more dynamic when we go out and play other defenses.”

“I think we started last year at playing a bit of a quicker clip, and it’s just creating a lot of movement,” coach Karen Corbett added.

The Quakers are coming off home games against Dartmouth and Towson where they scored 10 and 12 goals, respectively. And junior midfielder Brooke Kiley thinks Penn’s attack is just starting to get going.

“At the beginning of the season, we’re always a little behind because we don’t have as much practice time [because of Ivy League restrictions], but now that we’re meshing and playing together more our attack has been coming together the past two games.”

At the other end, Penn has the ninth-best scoring defense in Division I Lacrosse, allowing only seven goals per game, on average. Notably, senior goalie Lucy Ferguson has notched 66 saves, good for a .512 save percentage.

“I don’t think Columbia has seen a defense as strong as ours, so I think we have a good opportunity to wear them down defensively,” Corbett said.

Columbia boasts a balanced offensive attack, also with six players who have recorded 10 or more goals. The group is led by Taylor Quinn, who has 21 goals. Between the pipes, the Lions’ Kelsey Gedin has a 10.33 goals-allowed average and .486 save percentage.

On Saturday, the Red and Blue will attempt to take down Northwestern (6-3), which has played six of its nine games against teams ranked in the top 10, going 3-3 in those games. Unlike Penn and Columbia, the Wildcats place the weight of their offense on the shoulders of midfielder Selena Lasota, who leads the Wildcats with 34 goals.

Corbett insists the Quakers will prepare for both Columbia and Northwestern by exploiting weaknesses and dictating tempo.

“We’re going to play our offense the way we’ve been playing, going at a good clip, creating a lot of havoc on their defense,” Corbett said.

A week from Saturday, Penn will play at Harvard before a three game homestand to conclude regular season play against Princeton, Yale and Cornell.

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