La Plume, Pa. – Penn State Abington scored eight of the last nine goals in Thursday's non-conference women's lacrosse game at Keystone College to pull away with a 16-7 victory. The Nittany Lions move to 2-0 on the year with the victory while the Giants slip to 1-2 on the young season.
Nina Hodanich (Scranton, Pa./West Scranton) opened the scoring 5:14 into Thursday's contest with an unassisted tally before Penn State Abington countered with the next three goals to claim a 3-1 edge at the 19:29 mark of the first half.
Ayana Crawford (Washington, D.C./Elizabeth Seton) netted the first goal of her collegiate career off a
Kayla Bain (Lancaster, Pa./J.P. McCaskey) assist a minute later to make it a one-goal game, but the Nittany Lions scored the final three goals of the period to hold a 6-2 lead at halftime.
Hodanich netted her second goal of the game five minutes into the second half before Penn State Abington responded with a pair of goals to claim an 8-3. Back-to-back goals by
Emily Hawkins (Glenside, Pa./Cheltenham) and
Hannah Zuchowski (Wellsboro, Pa./Wellsboro Area) brought Keystone to within three goals at 8-5, but the Nittany Lions netted the next five goals to build a 13-5 advantage.
After Zuchowski tallied her second goal of the contest off an
April Llewellyn (Plains, Pa./Coughlin) assist at the 10:58 mark, the visitors scored three markers before Hawkins closed out the scoring with an unassisted tally with 4:04 left on the clock.
Alynn Phelan scored four goals while Sarah Eisele added a goal and three assists to lead Penn State Abington. Marah Hayes added a hat trick for the Nittany Lions, who received 12 saves from winning goalkeeper Megan Danella.
Hodanich led Keystone with three points on two goals and an assist while Hawkins and Zuchowski added a pair of goals each. April and
Amy Llewellyn (Plains, Pa./Coughlin) tied for a game-high with five groundballs apiece while
Megan Novak (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./Coughlin) and
Savanna Robinson (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./Coughlin) collected a pair of caused turnovers apiece. Robinson and Hawkins tied for the team-lead with a three draw controls each while
Daphne Leenas (Ringwood, N.J./Lakeland Regional) made a game-high 16 saves in the loss for the Giants.
Penn State Abington held a 40-23 advantage in shots for the game, a 29-24 edge in groundballs, and an 18-7 lead in draw controls.
Keystone will next open conference play at Gwynedd Mercy University on Saturday, March 18. Opening draw between the Giants and Griffins is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. in Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania.
