The women's lacrosse team opened its season yesterday by squashing the University of Richmond, 15-1.

"For the first game, I thought we played very well," Coach Sue Sheetz said. "It was good to see so many different people score, so we were able to sub a great deal in the second half."

Senior co-captain Tami Worley moved onto third place on the all-time Penn State scoring list by netting six goals to move her career total to 158. She jumped over Sharon Duffey (154) and Laurie Gray (153).

Mary Ann Foley added five goals, Niki Staszesky scored twice and Diane Whipple and Karen Hoysted notched one goal apiece.

Last season's game was much closer as Penn State grabbed a high-scoring 16-10 win with Worley having seven goals. This year, however, the game was over by halftime as the Lady Lions had established a nine-goal lead.

Worley started the scoring by connecting at the 26:06 mark. Foley followed with a goal at 23:00, and then the floodgates opened.

At 19:03 Staszesky scored, assisted by fellow senior Lee Clough. Worley then pumped in three straight goals in less than a minute and a half. With 16:02 left in the half, Worley put herself in sole possesion of tenth place on the all-time assists list by helping Whipple score to make the lead 7-0.

Richmond's Robin Kohler finally got the Lady Spiders on the board with a goal at 10:35.

Foley and Staszesky scored goals only two seconds apart around the two-minute mark. Worley's goal at 1:31 ended the first half scoring.

In the second half Foley completed her hat trick at the 19:57 mark, then exchanged goals with Worley at 19:18 and 16:19. Hoysted joined the scoring list at 11:35 and Foley completed the rout with just 14 seconds to go.

Penn State totaled 48 shots on goal while allowing the Lady Spiders only six.

"Our defense did a super job of shutting down Richmond, especially the play of Tracy Mass and Rebecca Vaughan." Scheetz said.

Both goalkeepers, Sue Sommers and Cheri McMonagle, played one half and recorded had two saves.

This match was the first of the season since Saturday's scheduled William and Mary Invitational was cancelled due to inclement weather. Instead, the Lady Lions traveled to Old Dominion where they scrimmaged against the World Cup squad and won, 6-2. They also defeated Brown, 12-0, and Harvard, 7-1.

Next weekend the team returns to Lady Lion Field where they host James Madison at 1 on Saturday and their first-ever meeting with Colgate at 3 on Sunday.