Blue White Illustrated

P enn State goalkeeper Emi Smith would always hope for the best when she peered across the field and saw one of her teammates preparing to fire a shot at the opposite goal. But when the teammate in question was fellow senior Madison Cyr? On those occasions – and there were a lot of them during the past four years – the feeling was a little bit more definitive. "Whenever Mad Cyr goes to the goal, I'm like, OK, she's going to score. Juke one [player] there, one there, and boom! Into the back of the net," Smith said. "She rips on me in practice, and I'm like, 'How does she score these? I'm right there.' And she does it in games, too." She did it often enough this past season that the 11th-ranked Penn State women's lacrosse team reached the NCAA semifinals for the first time since 1999. After opening the tournament with a 16-6 rout of Winthrop, the Nittany Lions got four goals from Cyr and stunned second-ranked Florida in Gainesville, 14-13 in overtime, setting up a quarterfinal matchup with intrastate rival Penn back home in Uni- versity Park. The Lions won that one, too, thanks in no small part to their high- scoring senior. Playing her final home game in blue and white, Cyr finished with two goals and two assists in an 8-4 victory that propelled Penn State into a matchup with North Carolina in the NCAA semi- finals on May 27 in Chester, Pa. (The game took place after BWI's publication dead- line.) Cyr set the tone against Penn with an early goal in which she weaved through defenders and tied the score after the Quakers had jumped out to a 2-0 lead. She said she doesn't have any particular tactical approach when opportunities like that present themselves. "I don't think there's a strategy," she said. "I'm just thinking, move as fast as you can and get around them. I don't really want to make the contact, because that hurts. I think it's more speed." Cyr came to Penn State from Westminster, Md., in 2013, joining older sister Mackenzie Cyr on the team. On the heels of a senior season in which she led Winters Mill High to the state championship game, the 5- foot-3 midfielder became a starter in her first season on campus and took another big step forward as a sophomore, leading the Lions with 41 goals and winning third- team All-America honors. She was leading the team again as a senior, having amassed a career-high 57 goals heading into the final four, and she had also received sec- ond-team IWLCA All-America honors and been nominated for the Tewaaraton Award, which goes to the nation's top player. Coach Missy Doherty said the key to Cyr's goal-scoring prowess has been her vision. "She's not worried about this per- son or that person," the Nittany Lions' sixth-year coach explained. "Her head is up and seeing the cage." Cyr's success has contributed to the program's rise. The Nittany Lions have reached the NCAA quarterfinals in four of the past five seasons and were close to making last year's final four but were un- able to hold a four-goal lead against North Carolina in Chapel Hill, falling 11-8 to the Tar Heels after giving up seven unanswered goals to end the game. Doherty acknowledged that the team had been "knocking on the door the past couple of years." This year, that door finally swung open, and the Nittany Lions were eager to walk on through. "It's a huge step for our program," Do- herty said following the victory over the Quakers. "I love Penn State, I love our players. They work so hard, and to see them experience something that they'll never forget, that's why you love to coach. I love seeing them run on the field and be so excited and know that it's a time they won't forget. To provide that opportunity is pretty awesome." ■ VARSITY VIEWS HER AIM IS TRUE Madison Cyr scores big as Penn State laxers enjoy breakthrough season | IT'S A MAD WORLD Cyr was the Nittany Lions' leading goal-scor- er for the second time in the past three seasons. She had 57 goals through 20 games including four in Penn State's upset of second- ranked Florida in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Photo by Craig Houtz/Penn State Athletics

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