Pride offense falters in loss to Penn State
Penn State University midfielder Tatum Coffey, left, and Hofstra midfielder Jill Maier battle for a faceoff in the first half. (March 14, 2012) Credit: James Escher
Hofstra women's lacrosse coach Abby Morgan was looking for her squad to start fast and maintain its intensity Wednesday against No. 11 Penn State.
The Pride obliged their coach for a while, going goal-for-goal against Penn State. But an early second-half turnover helped spark the visiting Nittany Lions to an 11-9 win over the Pride at Shuart Stadium.
Morgan was pleased with the improvement shown since Saturday's 15-7 home loss to Rutgers, but wants to see it lead to more wins.
"In that span of 10 minutes of the second half . . . We lost us. And we did not run out stuff," said Morgan. "When we run our offense we score goals."
After battling to a 6-6 first-half tie, Hofstra won the draw control to begin the second, but turned the ball over.
The miscue led to an unassisted goal by Kelly Lechner that gave Penn State a 7-6 lead 48 seconds into the second half. Penn Stated added two more goals over the next 13:12 and led 9-6 with 16:00 left.
"It's beautiful when we run our game plan," said freshman Brittain Altomare. "When we deviate from our game plan is when we turn over the ball and we get shots that we don't necessarily need."
Penn State (6-2) took a 4-1 lead on three straight free position goals by Tatum Coffey and a score from Kelly Lechner.
Hofstra (2-5) stopped the bleeding thanks to some strong goaltending by Jaclyn Pandolf (11 saves) and outscored the Nittany Lions 5-2 as the teams went into the break tied 6-6.
Altomare had a career-high three goals and Maryann Miller had two scores for the Pride. Jill Maier, April Iannetta, Casey Kellogg and Emily von Hollen (concussion), who returned from a two-game absence, also scored for Hofstra.
Coffey had four goals and Lechner chipped in three for Penn State.
The loss, Hofstra's third straight, was tough to take, but Altomare saw improvement.
"I think it's definitely a confidence booster. It was team effort with everyone working together that got me my three goals," said Altomare. "The main thing to take from today was how much more we worked as a team than we did last week against Rutgers."
Morgan agreed.
"I would feel much better if we were learning on a win, but we did get better," said Morgan. "What we stressed to the team was, from here, it's got to get better."
