May 31, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Penn bows to Northwestern dynasty
by TOM UTESCHER

Penn captain Chrissy Muller (Mt. St. Joseph) is challenged by the Wildcats’ Annie Elliott, #29. (Photo by Erin Vertreace)

Mount St. Joseph Academy alum Chrissy Muller and Springfield High School grad Becca Edwards each scored for the University of Pennsylvania’s lacrosse team in last Friday’s national semifinal match at Franklin Field.

Unfortunately for Penn and its supporters, those were the only two goals recorded by the Quakers all evening, and they occurred in the last 17 minutes of the game. Northwestern University rang up the first ten points of the contest (eight in the first half), then a pair of Penn goals sandwiched around two by the Wildcats set the final score at 12-2. Muller, a senior, got the Quakers on the board with 16:29 remaining, and Edwards, a sophomore, scored with 4:46 to go.

Northwestern (21-1) went on to win its third straight NCAA title, knocking off third-seeded University of Virginia, 15-13, in the championship game on Sunday. After scoring a hat trick against Penn and adding a goal against Virginia, Wildcats senior Kristen Kjellman finished her career with a record 39 goals in NCAA tournament play.

At Penn’s post-game press conference on Friday, an emotional Muller remarked, “Coming over here, our coach said ‘Don’t think about this game today; think about everything we’ve done.’ I’m just really sad to leave and that it has to end this way.”

Quakers mentor Karin Brower pointed out, “Nobody thought we’d be in this tournament, let alone in the final four. It’s the closest group of girls that I’ve ever been part of, and I’ve coached at a lot of schools.”

Northwestern, which has recruited Germantown Academy senior Colleen Magarity to join its program next year, was responsible for both blemishes on Penn’s final record of 16-2. The Wildcats defeated the Quakers by a 13-4 count in their regular-season meeting back on March 9. After opening with an overtime loss at North Carolina, Northwestern didn’t lose again, earning the top seed for the NCAA tournament, while Ivy League champ Pennsylvania was seeded fourth. The Quakers’ own Franklin Field was the predetermined site for the Final Four games, and Penn earned the right to play at home during the first two rounds of the tourney, as well.

Disappointing as their final outing might have been, the Quakers’ setback probably wasn’t as tough to swallow as the scenario that played out for number two Duke University in the second semifinal game on Friday. Ahead 13-4 with just over 20 minutes to go, the Blue Devils saw their defense disintegrate in a 14-13 loss to the Virginia Cavaliers.

Penn Charter’s Marghi Walters will play for Virginia next year, and Duke will get Emma Hamm, the Baldwin School senior who won the Girls Inter-Ac League’s Aimee Willard award for 2007.

Aside from their early loss to Northwestern, Penn’s Quakers were flawless during the regular season, winning the Ivy League championship outright for the first time in the history of the program [Penn shared the honor twice in the early 1980’s].

Capturing the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tourney, Penn overcame Boston University in the opening round, 11-5, as Muller registered two goals and two assists. The Quakers’ non-league schedule hadn’t been loaded with heavy-hitters, so a quarterfinal meeting with fifth-seeded Maryland offered a serious challenge.

In fact, the visiting Terrapins tore out to a 4-0 lead in the May 19 match. Midway through the half, Allison Ambrozy put Penn on the board, and Rachel Manson gave the Quakers a second marker with an assist from Edwards.

Still behind by two points (5-3) at the interlude, Penn moved ahead 7-5 on unassisted strikes by Ambrozy, Muller, Edwards and Melissa Lehman.

Muller then assisted on Edwards’ second goal to complete a 5-0 run for the hosts with 14 minutes remaining in the game. Maryland netted two of the last three goals, but Penn moved on with a 9-7 victory.

Last season, Edwards was the first attacker coming off the bench for the Quakers, but this year, she noted, “In a starting role you have a much more significant impact on the field. I was definitely expected to step up my scoring.”

She ended up third on the team in goal production, with 32, and adding in her five assists made her fourth in total points (37). Muller (23g + 25a = 48 pts) was the team’s top pointscorer, and was far and away the leader in assists.

Appearing somewhat jittery early in Friday night’s game, the Quakers did what they really didn’t want to do: repeatedly turn the ball over on the offensive end and give possession to Northwestern. The Wildcats, seasoned tournament veterans, calmly probed the Pennsylvania defense, which held up well at first.

After the match, Northwestern coach Kelly Amonte Hiller (sister of former Philadelphia Flyer Tony Amonte) related that her offense had been in a rush to score in the earlier rounds of the tournament, adding “Going into this game we wanted to be a little bit more controlled and take our time on our possessions and execute, and make sure that [on] each possession, whether it was a fast break or a settled play, we were getting quality opportunities.”

Due to this methodical approach, the stream of Wildcat goals began as a trickle, two in the first 12 minutes. Stretching out its players in the offensive set, Northwestern began to see opportunities to isolate U of P defenders. This opened up the offensive tap, and between 14:42 and 9:35 five goals flowed onto the visitors’ side of the scoreboard.

“When they started to go on a run and they put their high-pressure defense on, we just couldn’t control the ball,” Penn’s Brower commented.

In its most intense mode, the Cats’ defense puts constant pressure on opposing ballhandlers - usually with double-teams – so rivals can’t settle into a patterned offense.

“You can’t run any of your normal plays against that defense,” Edwards explained. “You have to try and play specifically to beat that defense, which is unlike any other team you face the rest of the season.”

Penn’s best chance to break the shutout came with just under two minutes left in the first period, when Muller passed the ball inside to Chelsea Kocis, and the junior sent a shot into the crossbar of the Wildcats’ cage. Just 53 seconds before halftime, Aly Josephs’ fifth goal of the game sent Northwestern to the locker room with an 8-0 advantage.

Rather than scoring immediately off of entry passes, the Cats simply gave their quick attackers the time and space to break down Penn defenders.

Penn coach Brower observed, “Aly Josephs is a phenomenal one-on-one attacker and she was killing us. She was beating us and we weren’t helping enough, and she has such a great first step.”

Penn defensive ace Hilary Renna had started out marking Wildcats playmaker Hannah Neilsen, an Australian import who chalked up 65 assists this season. Renna was reassigned to Josephs and contained her in the second half, but Northwestern still managed to post the first two goals in the new period, and the momentum shift Penn was seeking never materialized.

With 13-and-a-half minutes elapsed, the Quakers did manage to extinguish hopes of a shutout for Wildcat keeper Morgan Lathrop (seven saves). From out near the restraining line, Penn’s Kaitlyn Lombardo made a wide loop out to the right, came back in towards the near post, and fed the ball inside to Muller, who scored from just a few feet in front of the cage.

Northwestern responded just 23 seconds later, then went up 12-1 with 11:17 on the clock. With less than five minutes to go, Penn again fed the ball inside from the right, and although the pass did not reach its intended target, Edwards scooped the ball off the ground near the left crease and scored.

Northwestern seized the following draw, and Penn would only get off one more shot in the game. Overall, the Quakers cranked out just one less shot than their rivals (20-21), but obviously the Wildcats’ conversion rate was much higher.

“I think we beat ourselves today,” Muller said. “We took a lot of shots and we didn’t finish them. You can’t deny that they deserved to win today.”