In the first half of Penn State’s 20-14 win over Vanderbilt, sophomore Maggie McCormick scored five goals. In the second half, junior Mackenzie Cyr led the Nittany Lions’ offense with three goals, showing the depth and balance of Penn State’s offense against its first ALC opponent on Sunday afternoon.
“Our offense has been a strength for us all season and having a lot of people score has been great,” coach Missy Doherty said. “They really play well together, they see each other well, which you could see today.”
In total Penn State featured eight different goal scorers, including a season-high six players with multiple-goal games and shot 30 times at the Vanderbilt net.
McCormick led the offense with five goals, while Cyr, Jenna Mosketti and captain Molly Fernandez added three each.
The game included seven total assists for Penn State with Tatum Coffey leading the team with two.
“I like how we have a variety on our team of the people that can score,” said the New Jersey native, who scored a goal. “It’s not one person taking it to the goal every time, each player on our team can carry the ball and put it in the back of the net.”
Mosketti had an effective game on both defense and offense, scoring twice when the Lions held four-goal leads after the Commodores had made small comebacks.
“Jenna played an awesome game,” McCormick said. “She was really aggressive, but she was also all over the field on ground balls and she was making incredible defensive plays. I think she was MVP of today’s game.”
The goals came in handy as the Lions allowed the second most goals in a game this season.
None of the Lions’ goals came off of free-position shots, the first time this season, leading to goals coming off of transitioning and draw controls, which Penn State won 15 of.
Haley Ford and Ally Heavens also scored two goals, while Kelly Lechner added one.
“When your attack is as balanced as we are and as threatening as we are, it just makes it easy because if someone is having a down day then you have someone else to turn to,” McCormick said. “Fortunately, today, no one was having a down day.”
