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Lady laxers grab 2 wins to end losing slide

By MICHAEL PALM
Collegian Sports Writer

After 60 minutes of confident play, Virginia was the victim of Penn State's women's lacrosse team as the Lady Lions broke their three-game losing skid.

"They never doubted themselves for a minute," Coach Julie Williams said. "They wanted it badly. They proved to themselves that they could do it."

The No. 8 Lady Lions (2-3) emerged from the weekend with two wins -- a 9-6 victory at No. 3 Virginia (1-3) and a 5-4 win at No. 6 William and Mary (4-1).

In the Virginia game, both teams went back and forth as the score was tied four times -- the last at 5-5 -- before the Lady Lions scored the next three goals on way to the win.

"I think that we really came together as a team," Michele DeJuliis said. "We weren't afraid to pass . . . we weren't afraid to shoot.

"We wanted to beat Virginia bad," she added. "It was the best feeling to walk off the field a winner."

Despite falling to the Lady Lions, Virginia had balanced scoring as six different players notched goals for the Cavaliers.

For Penn State, senior attacker Suzanne Weinberg scored two goals and sophomore defender Amy Carnaggio scored another --their first goals of the season --against Virginia. Freshman midfielder Sarah Long also added two goals.

"She's so fast," Williams said. "You don't think she could go faster and she does."

The William and Mary game was a little different. After a first half that saw each team score four goals, the teams started to slow down.

"In the second half, we started to lose steam," Williams said.

DeJuliis did not. The sophomore attacker scored three goals in the first half, and closed out the contest with the game-winning goal with just 30 seconds left. Her four-goal game tied her with junior midfielder Joanne Connelly for the team lead with eight goals.

But Williams said DeJuliis played strong defensively on Saturday as the other attackers contributed to the scoring. Getting the whole team to play defense as a skill and not just as a position is something Williams said the team has been working on.

"We're hoping to see it pay off down the road," she said.

Williams said she was impressed with the play of senior goaltender Heidi Shafer, who made nine saves on Saturday and 11 yesterday.

Williams was also concerned with the turnovers the Lady Lions gave up.

"I think we outhustled (William and Mary) a lot," Williams said, "except that we kept turning the ball over."

William and Mary Coach Feffie Barnhill was expecting scoring to come from all over her team.

"Our offense is very balanced," Barnhill said before the weekend.

It didn't turn out that way. Senior Jen Padova scored three of the team's four goals and senior Amy Umbach added the other.

Collegian sports writer Rob Amen contributed to this article.