Women's Lacrosse

Syracuse to face Pennsylvania in 2nd round of NCAA tournament on Sunday

Syracuse will face Pennsylvania (14-4, 6-1 Ivy) on Sunday at 3 p.m. at SU Soccer Stadium in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

The No. 4-seeded Orange (14-7, 3-4 Atlantic Coast) earned a first-round bye and the chance to sit in the stands at SU Soccer Stadium as Penn needed overtime to beat Albany 11-10 in the first round on Friday afternoon.

The Quakers began preparing for Syracuse as soon as they got the bid into the tournament, head coach Karin Corbett said. Penn will now be tasked with having to stop Syracuse’s Kayla Treanor, a Tewaaraton Award finalist and the ACC’s Offensive Player of the Year.

“(Treanor’s) a great player, but we have a great defense,” said Lely DeSimone, who scored the game-winning goal against Albany. “You know, Penn defense, that’s what we’re known for and we have great one v. one defenders and we’ll just slide and do what we usually do.”

Penn has held opponents to under 10 goals in 14 out of 17 games this season. The Quakers rank ninth in Division I allowing 7.29 goals per game.



Corbett said what stands out about the Syracuse offense is its creativity.

“Knowing where that ball is with a lot of the flips and fake flips that they do,” Corbett said of what Penn has to do on defense. “Knowing that we’re communicating on that and being in the correct position when they’re doing those things, those are really key.”

Penn lost 14-11 to Princeton in the Ivy League championship game on May 3. In the semifinal, the Quakers beat Cornell 10-9. Syracuse played Cornell on March 17 and won 14-8.

Penn’s Tory Bensen leads the team with 54 goals and 60 points. She scored three goals against Albany. DeSimone has 30 goals this season and scored three on Friday, including the game-winner in overtime.
Syracuse is coming off a 9-8 loss to Loyola (Maryland) on Sunday and an ACC tournament championship two weekends ago.





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