No. 24 Rutgers women's lacrosse defeats Penn State for first time in program history
- Jim Kryjer
- Apr 26, 2021
- 2 min read
The No. 24 Rutgers women's lacrosse team defeated No. 13 Penn State this afternoon by a score of 17-16.
Continuing their success from last weekend, the Nittany Lions (4-7, 4-7) came out of the gates hot with an immediate goal. Trailing 1-0, the Scarlet Knights (4-7, 4-7) followed the leadership of redshirt freshman midfielder/attacker Grace Curran as she took over the next 5 minutes of play. Curran netted a goal and added two more assists to help Rutgers take an early 3-1 lead over Penn State.
Later on, in the first half, senior attacker Taralyn Naslonski found sophomore midfielder Cassidy Spilis in front of the Nittany Lions' cage for a goal. A minute later, Spilis found the back of the net again as she extended the Knights' lead to 5-2. The goals were Spilis’s 28th and 29th on the season. With 16 minutes left to play in the first half, Naslonski scored her first of the game, putting Rutgers up 6-2.
Although the Knights had a commanding lead, Penn State produced a 3-0 scoring run to bring the game to within 1. Rutgers responded by putting up 3 more goals to make the score 8-5, but the Nittany Lions went on another 3-0 scoring run to tie the game as the first half concluded.
Out of the half, Penn State opened up the scoring with 2 more goals of its own, but the early momentum was not enough to contain the Knights. Led by sophomore attacker Jenna Byrne, Rutgers took a 14-12 lead and never looked back.
While Byrne finished the day with 4 goals, she was not the only Knight to contribute on the offensive end. Junior attacker Marin Hartshorn had 4 goals of her own. In addition, Naslonski had two assists to go along with her 2 goals, and Spilis completed a hat trick.
Before this afternoon's game, the Nittany Lions led the all-time series with Rutgers 21-0. The Knights also got a little payback for their loss to Penn State in their season opener. The victory gives Rutgers its highest-ranked win since 2012.
In a game that reached all the expectations of a conference rivalry, the Knights get a significant confidence booster heading into this weekend’s battle with Maryland. They finish their regular season off on Sunday at 3 p.m. in Piscataway.
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