PHILADELPHIA -- The Penn women's lacrosse team's defense controlled the game again, shutting down Yale, 10-2, Saturday at Franklin Field. It was the first Ivy game for both teams and Penn remained undefeated at 5-0 on the season and 1-0 in the league.

Several statistical categories jump off the page, namely Penn's perfection on draw controls. The Quakers won all 14 draws and maintained possession for a large part of the game. Freshman Erin Brennan has been handling the draw circle for Penn this season while Katie Mazer and Giulia Giordano each came away with three draw controls in the game.

When Yale did gain control, it was not for long as the Elis failed on more than half its clear attempts, going 8-17 on the day. Penn meanwhile, was perfect again at 7-for-7. As a result, Penn easily out-shot the Bulldogs by a 21-8 margin in the game.

Junior Courtney Lubbe continued to show her prowess on attack assisting on four goals in the first and scoring one of her own. Also in the first, junior Ali DeLuca completed a hat trick for the second time this season.

After making one save and with a six-goal lead in the first half, junior goalkeeper Emily Szelest retired in the second and newcomer Emily Leitner got her first collegiate minutes in goal. Leitner made three saves, including two on free-position attempts.

After a goal-laden first half, the pace slowed and neither team score for the first 15 minutes. Finally, Yale's Jenn Warden broke through with her second unassisted goal of the game. She was the only Bulldog to gain points against Penn.

As usual, it was not just one or two players that Penn looked to for goals, in addition to Lubbe and DeLuca, five other Quakers registered goals.

One of those goal-scorers was Samantha Bird who inked an exclamation mark with just one second left on the clock. Cutting in front of the goal, she picked up a pass from Hannah Rudloff to reach the 10-goal mark. No team has kept the Quakers out of double digits this season.

After starting the season with five home games, the Quakers will leave the friendly confines of Franklin Field and take their show on the road to Penn State. The Nittany Lions will host Penn on Wednesday, March 18 at 7:00 p.m.

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PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – For the first 15 minutes on Saturday afternoon at Franklin Field, Yale hung with No. 5 Penn. But with the game tied at one, the Quakers reeled off six straight goals over the course of 10 minutes to take a commanding 7-1 lead. And on a day where Penn won all 14 draw controls, the Bulldogs simply could not mount a comeback. So even after the Yale defense buckled down and held the Quakers scoreless for nearly 25 minutes at one point midway through the game, the defending Ivy League champion Quakers still came away with a 10-2 win.

After winning the opening draw, Penn (5-0, 1-0 Ivy League) had the ball in Yale's end for nearly three minutes before a caused turnover by junior defender Michele Fiorentino ended the possession. But the Quakers were able to get the ball back, and attacker/midfielder Courtney Lubbe got the first of her four assists on the day by feeding midfielder Giulia Giordano for a goal at 26:25.

After an offside call against the Quakers with 20 minutes left in the half, the Bulldogs had an extended possession that ended with senior midfielder Jenn Warden scoring an unassisted goal at 17:55 to tie the game. Less than a minute later freshman goalkeeper Whitney Quackenbush denied a low shot attempt on a free position by attacker Becca Edwards.

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2009-03-14