PHILADELPHIA--The No. 3 Penn women's lacrosse team was upset by No. 13 Stanford Saturday afternoon as the Quakers were held to just six goals. It was the first back-to-back losses for Penn since the 2006 season and set its regular season record at 13-2 going into the NCAA tournament.

Stanford was hot out of the gates winning four of the first five draws and trading goals to tie the Quakers at one, three and four.

Ali DeLuca got the scoring started at 23:26 and was involved in the next two goals, assisting Giulia Giordano and then tallying another of her own at the half-way point of the first period. Freshman Erin Brennan put the Quakers ahead 4-3 with 10:29 to play, but a free position goal for Stanford tied the score again.

With 3:24 to go in the half, Lauren Schmidt scored two unassisted goals to put the Cardinal up two going into the break. The Cardinal continued to out-draw the Quakers in the second and scored two more goals in the first 10 minutes. In the game, Stanford won the draws 12-4.

After five unanswered goals, Penn was able to score thanks to Giordano connecting with Courtney Lubbe with 4:32 to play. Stanford was able to gain possession again and keep Penn at bay. Junior Emma Spiro was awarded a free position shot that brought Penn within two with 10 seconds to play, but time ran out on a Quaker comeback.

The Quakers put 17 shots on goal causing Stanford's keeper Annie Read to make 11 saves, including eight in the second half. Penn's goalkeeper Emily Szelest made a career-high 12 saves for the Red and Blue.

Penn now awaits it NCAA postseason fate in the selection show Sunday at 10:00 p.m. ET.

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In perhaps the biggest victory in the 15 years of Stanford women's varsity lacrosse, the visiting Cardinal stunned No. 3 Penn, 8-6, on Saturday in a regular season finale crucial to its NCAA hopes Lauren Schmidt scored three goals and Annie Read made 11 saves as Stanford (14-4) made its case for an at-large berth in the 17-team NCAA field. The selections will be announced Sunday between 7-8:00 p.m. PT on the CBS College Sports Network.

"I told the players after the game, we can't say with 100 percent certainty that we're in, but it was a quality win for us and I hope the committee recognizes that," Stanford coach Amy Bokker said. "I think we have a really good chance."

A day after a second-half collapse nearly cost the team in a 14-12 victory over visiting Louisville, Stanford players met at 4:30 a.m. on Friday for an early flight, and then had a late-afternoon walk-through at Franklin Field in preparation for Saturday's 1:00 p.m. start. Despite the potential for jetlag, Stanford players said they felt nothing but a surge of energy at the opening draw.

"There was a lot of emotion out there," Stanford senior Jamie Nesbitt said. "There was no doubt in anyone's mind that we were going to pull it off." Said Bokker, "We wanted to put it all on the line and have no excuses."

Penn (14-2) scored first and broke to a 3-1 lead after 15 minutes, but Lauren Schmidt had three goals and an assist over the next 15 to ignite a five-goal run that put the Cardinal in front at halftime, 6-3.

Goals by Sarah Flynn and Dana Lindsay within a span of one minute not only put Stanford in control, at 8-4, but signaled that this would be a repeat of Thursday's performance during which the Cardinal was outscored 10-1 down the stretch.

"The lesson we learned from Louisville, was that we wanted to keep attacking," Bokker said. "Especially in beginning of the second half, we had to do what we had done to be in the position we were in."

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2009-05-02