Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1520787
J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 2 4 4 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M F rom a certain point of view, the Penn State men's lacrosse team had every reason to feel good going into half- time of its first-round NCAA Tourna- ment matchup against Georgetown on May 12 with a 7-6 lead. The Hoyas were, after all, the higher- ranked team, holding down the No. 7 spot in the U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Asso- ciation coaches' poll, two spots ahead of the Nittany Lions. They were also play- ing at home and had 2,532 fans at Cooper Field in Washington, D.C., cheering them on. That Penn State went into the break with a slender lead was surely a positive sign for the visitors. Except that the lead hadn't been slen- der earlier in the first half. The Lions had jumped out to a 7-2 advantage, only to see Georgetown come storming back late in the second quarter. The Hoyas' rally, which included 4 straight goals in the final 5 minutes, 26 seconds of the half, damp- ened PSU's mood considerably. "Even though we were up 7-2, I thought we could have easily stretched that to 8- or 9-2," coach Jeff Tambroni told USALacrosse.com. "If you told us we'd go into halftime leading 7-6, we should have been feeling good. It's two evenly matched teams. It didn't feel good, though, because of the way we were play- ing in that second quarter." The deflating end to the first half fore- shadowed what was to come in the sec- ond. After surrendering 7 goals in the game's first 22 minutes, Georgetown gave up just 2 the rest of the way. The Hoyas took their first lead, 10-9, on a goal with 8:31 to play in the game, and they held on for a 12-9 win that ended Penn State's season and thwarted its hope of return- ing to the final four after a heartbreaking overtime loss to No 1 Duke in last year's national semifinals. Penn State's bid for the program's first national title had suffered a major setback at the Big Ten Tournament eight days ear- lier. The Lions had surged into the cham- pionship game with wins over Rutgers (14-8, April 27) and Maryland (19-9, May 2), but they came out flat in the title game against Michigan, falling 16-4 on May 4. On the heels of that defeat, Penn State found itself with an arduous path to Philadelphia, site of this year's NCAA Tournament final four. In addition to their tourney opener at Georgetown, the Lions were faced with the possibil- ity of a quarterfinal matchup against top-seeded Notre Dame, the defending national champion. Also on their side of the bracket were fourth-seeded Syracuse and fifth-seeded Denver, along with the same Michigan team that had dispatched them handily at Big Tens. All of that became moot, however, with the loss to the Hoyas. Penn State got 3 goals from junior midfielder Matt Traynor and 2 goals apiece from graduate attack- man TJ Malone and redshirt sophomore attackman Luke Walstrum, but its of- fense bogged down in the second half, and Georgetown freshman goalie Anderson Moore grew stronger as the game went on, totaling 10 saves on Penn State's last 14 shots. "Offensively, we got off to a really good start. We were sharing the ball and moving off the ball," Tambroni said. "I thought we slowed significantly in the offense in terms of our ability to share the ball and dodging opportunities. "We tended to look to TJ probably a little bit too much. He was doing a good job early. If we had just shared the pos- sessions, shared our dodges, I think we would have had a bit more success." Penn State finished its season at 11-5 overall and 3-2 in the Big Ten. The Nittany Lions were led this season by Malone with a career-high 78 points Too Good To Last The PSU men's lacrosse team sees its early lead evaporate in a season-ending NCAA Tournament loss M AT T H E R B | M AT T. H E R B @ O N 3 . C O M OLYMPIC SPORTS Graduate attackman TJ Malone finished his Penn State career with 252 points, the third-highest total in program history. PHOTO BY MARK SELDERS/PENN STATE ATHLETICS