To begin with, West Chester doesn't have a very good women's lacrosse team.
Furthermore, the Rams pin many of their faint hopes on the offensive output of Erika Baker, the leading scorer in Division I and II. You could say that, with Baker, the Rams are putting all of their eggs in one basket.
Yesterday, they got shelled.
No. 4 Penn State (9-2) held Baker scoreless and got four goals and three assists from Chris McGinley on the way to an eggs-cellent 14-3 victory, the Lady Lions' fifth in a row.
How bad was it for West Chester? So bad that the Rams (3-8) would have lost even if they had scored on every shot at goal. Penn State had 14 goals and West Chester had nine shots on goal.
McGinley, who scored the game-winning goal against Dartmouth on Monday, was, in the words of Coach Julie Williams, "awesome."
"She was exploding through the midfield, picking up ground balls and interceptions," Williams said. "Chris was gravitating to the ball."
In fact, the whole Penn State squad was gravitating toward the ball despite the cold and slippery conditions at West Chester's field.
"We slipped, we fell and we'd get back up and get the ball back," Williams said.
Actually, the ball probably spent more time in the back of West Chester's net than it did in Penn State's possession yesterday. Lori Fitzgerald opened the scoring, and became the first Lady Lion to notch 20 goals this season, just 27 seconds into the match.
Ann Kolongowski scored three minutes later and Fitzgerald scored again two minutes after that to give Penn State a 3-0 lead. The Rams got the goose egg off the scoreboard on a goal by Sarah Harris with 14:46 left in the first half.
The Lady Lions then ended any hopes the Rams may have had by reeling off four goals -- by McGinley, Donna Bucci, Kolongowski and Deanna Blood -- in six minutes to up their lead to 7-1. It was 8-2 at halftime.
More than the offense, though, it was Penn State's defense which left the Rams hopping mad yesterday.
Baker entered the game with 24 goals and 23 assists this season, and West Chester's sports information department didn't have to worry about updating those numbers after the game.
Penn State defense, especially junior Sue Nutter, shadowed the all-star and allowed her few open shots at Lady Lion goalkeeper Kay Young.
"Sue Nutter did a great job," Williams said. "There was a good job of double-teaming and good communication."
After West Chester made its halftime adjustments, Penn State promptly went back on the field and outscored the Rams 6-1. Like a certain bunny with batteries, the Lady Lion offense kept scoring and scoring and scoring.
McGinley and Blood were the second-half stars. McGinley had three goals and an assist and Blood added three assists.
