Penn WLAX One Win Away From Final Four
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The University of Pennsylvania women's lacrosse team did not mess around in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
The 15-4 Quakers rolled Wagner (17-7) and Towson (12-4) to advance to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2010. Now Penn will take on Penn State on Saturday afternoon up in State College with the winner advancing to the Final Four.
Penn head coach Karin Corbett was very pleased with what her squad was able to accomplish in the first two rounds, specifically on the attack.
"Especially against Towson," Corbett tells KYW Newsradio. "They have a zone and they have been limiting a lot of goals all year. We had seen zone a couple times this year and had kind of struggled with it. So we'd been working all week in trying to really understand how the zone works and how to exploit it and was very pleased with how our attack really took to that and understood what they were looking for and were able to finish."
Listen to the entire interview with Penn's Karin Corbett:
As she has been all season long, Penn senior attacker Nina Corcoran was big in the first two games of the tournament. Corcoran had 4 goals and 6 assists in the two wins and she continues to pace the country with 58 assists. She also has set the Ivy League career assists mark (127) and her 85 points this season are a Penn record. The Point Lookout, New York native is proud of how the team has bounced back after losing to Cornell in the championship game of the Ivy League Tournament.
"We were going to learn from that game and just go after it," Corcoran tells KYW Newsradio. "Play every single game like it was our last. So I think that everyone has really stepped up, the underclassmen have been playing great and everything. So I think that really was the mentality, to play every single game like it's our last and leave it all out on the field."
Listen to the entire interview with Penn's Nina Corcoran:
Penn State is 13-6 and coming off a huge 14-13 overtime win over Florida in the second round.
"They are extremely athletic," Corbett says. "They play with a lot of fight and a lot of passion out there. They have a lot of threats on attack. It's two teams that have very strong attacks, so it should be pretty exciting."
Now the Final Four this year will be held in the Philadelphia area, at Talen Energy Stadium in Chester, which would make an appearance by Penn very special. But Corbett says they are focused on the match-up with the Nittany Lions.
"This season for us has really been about the game in front of us," Corbett says. "Since we had a loss earlier this season, it's been about each game and that's how we've taken this season. So that's what we're looking at this week is how do we play our best against Penn State and come out with that win? How do we do that? What do we need to do in order to do that?"
Penn and Penn State get underway at noon on Saturday.
