Lady laxers reign over Monarchs after dropping one to Princeton

With a three-game losing streak on its back, the Penn State women's lacrosse team was in a freefall before yesterday's matchup with No. 15 Old Dominion.

It found a parachute.

Behind a strong defensive showing from senior goalkeeper Lauren Retzlaff, the No. 9 Lady Lions grabbed an 11-7 win from the Monarchs yesterday at Jeffrey Field. The win came on the heels of a 19-12 loss to No. 3 Princeton on Saturday that extended Penn State's losing streak to three games.

"We felt like we needed to stop the losing," Retzlaff said.

Behind a patient offense, the Monarchs (3-5) jumped out to a 3-1 lead midway through the first half. Old Dominion dominated possession and forced a lot of shots, but poor accuracy and Retzlaff saves prevented the Monarchs from taking a bigger lead.

"In this game, we were sloppy in the beginning," Lion coach Julie Williams said. "We were choosing the harder options."

After ODU's third goal, Penn State came alive. With increased intensity, the Monarchs tied the game before the half on goals by Christine Kenney and Jen Johnson, then assumed the lead early in the second stanza off Johnson's second goal of the game.

The Lions weren't out of the water yet, however. Monarch midfielder Katie Adler scored 94 seconds later to even the score. Old Dominion then took the ball downfield with the chance to retake the lead.

But Retzlaff and the Lion defenders prevented that.

The Monarchs fired three shots at the Penn State goalkeeper, but she stopped all three and allowed her team to get the ball back.

The Lions then charged downfield and regained the lead off a Julie Tice goal. Tice's score was the first of five unanswered goals that would give Penn State an insurmountable 9-4 lead with about 15 minutes to play.

Retzlaff finished the day with 14 saves. Williams said she was happy with the way her goalkeeper rebounded after giving up 12 goals Saturday against Princeton.

"That, I think, saved us a lot today that she was able to come up with so many (saves)," Williams said.

Old Dominion coach Sue Stahl, whose team was humbled 18-1 by Maryland Saturday, said in the second half her team forgot the game plan of playing patient offense.

"We got out of pattern and didn't have the discipline to carry it out," Stahl said. "If you don't have the discipline, you go to your own game plan. Evidently coaches knew a little more than players this week."

Despite being down by five goals late in the game, the Monarchs wouldn't quit. They traded goals with Penn State late in the game, but were only able to cut the deficit by one as the Lions held on for the 11-7 win.

Williams said the win was a bit sloppy, but with a three-game losing streak on its hands, Penn State just needed to win.

"To come away with a win that wasn't so pretty -- it's a win," she said.

In a scoring fest Saturday at Jeffrey Field, Princeton prevented Penn State from earning a win.

The game was tight for the first 39 minutes as there were five ties and three lead changes. However, the Tigers (5-0) used a 7-0, 14-minute second-half run to put the game out of reach, 17-9, with about seven minutes left to play.

The 31 goals scored in the 19-12 outcome were the most goals scored in a Penn State game since the Lions beat Shippensburg 31-4 during the 1990 season.

Although Penn State set no scoring records yesterday, it did manage to stop its fall.