Penn State Game of the Week: No. 18 Women’s Lacrosse Loses to No. 2 Maryland

In what could prove to be its toughest test of the season, the No. 18 Penn State women’s lacrosse team saw an impressive start turn into an ugly defeat.

Penn State took a 6-3 lead into halftime against second-ranked Maryland, but the Terrapins stormed out of the gates in the second half, scoring 11 consecutive goals en route to a 17-9 win. Lions head coach Suzanne Isidor said her team failed to do the little things in the second half that made them so successful in the first.

“We just needed to slow the ball down and do the basics,” Isidor said. “The groundballs, the 50-50 balls we could’ve gotten, they are little things that would’ve amounted to something big.”

A first half hat trick by senior midfielder Theresa Bucci and clutch saves by senior goaltender Stephanie Ellis helped the Lions race out to an early lead. Bucci’s third goal of the half came with just 21 seconds remaining and put the Lions ahead 6-2.

However, the Terrapins responded with a goal of their own 19 seconds later, halting the Lions’ momentum with two seconds remaining in the first half. Insisting the team wasn’t rattled by the goal, Bucci said she felt like it was one the team wanted to have back.

“The girl that scored is a great player and it was a great shot, but we should’ve stopped it,” Bucci said.

After that, it was all Maryland, all the time.

Maryland – led by senior midfielder Caitlyn McFadden’s six goals – took its first lead just under three minutes into the second half and never relented, building their lead to 14-6 before Bucci added her fourth goal of the game. Freshman attacker Molly Fernandez followed by completing a hat trick of her own, but it was too little, too late. 

Once Maryland got rolling, the Lions struggled to find any answers to stop the high-powered Terrapin attack. Isidor said that when a team gets on a roll like Maryland did, it’s mentally tough for the players to stay calm.

“I think a lot of it was composure,” Isidor said. “Maryland definitely turned up the intensity and they came out firing in the second half. We just didn’t have the answer.”

Mental toughness is something the Lions have tried to address this season, Bucci said. But despite its efforts to improve, the Lions unraveled with the pressure on.

“I think from now on, we know what its like,” Bucci said. “We’ve been down before and we’re going to take this as a learning experience.”

Ellis said the loss was particularly disappointing because of the preparation the team had in the week leading up to the game. The Lions knew what to expect and couldn’t maintain their level of play in the first half, she said.

“[Losing] sucks, but it makes us that much more hungry for the next team that we play,” Ellis said. “I really feel bad for Vermont and Colgate because we really have to prove to each other and to the school that we are not this team that’s just go to lose this badly.”