The Ohio State women’s lacrosse team celebrates on the field after coming back to defeat No. 19 Penn State 9-8 at Ohio State Lacrosse Stadium Thursday. Credit: Courtesy of Ohio State Athletics
The Nittany Lions were all smiles going into the fourth quarter. They didn’t know what was to come.
The Ohio State women’s lacrosse team (7-4, 1-3 Big Ten) beat No. 19 Penn State (6-5, 2-1 Big Ten) 9-8 Thursday night at the Ohio State Lacrosse Stadium, winning their first Big Ten matchup since 2022. The Buckeyes were down by 6 points going into the final quarter where they scored seven unanswered goals, as the tiebreaker was scored with just 10 seconds left in the game.
“That was just incredible. The team fought so hard literally until the very end, and it took us until the very end to win the game,” head coach Amanda Moore said. “Credit to our team, our captains and our leaders, who buckled down and bounced back after a tough game on the road at Johns Hopkins, to really just be brilliant out there tonight.”
The upset was especially unanticipated as this was Penn State’s first game after its 14-13 overtime win against then-No. 1 Northwestern. With the Northwestern upset in mind, Moore said the team focused on what was ahead of them going into the game rather than dwelling on the Nittany Lions’ past successes.
“They just played an incredible game against Northwestern, the No. 1 team in the country, and they put together a great game,” Moore said. “We just kept the focus on us. We couldn’t worry about them and what they had done. The past is the past and the next game is the most important one on the schedule. And for us, it was them.”
The game started with intensity coming from both sides, but the quarter ended 2-0 — Penn State with the upper hand. Sophomore attacker Payton Wainman and graduate midfielder and 2023 Second Team All-Big Ten select Meghan Murray scored for the Nittany Lions.
Freshman goalkeeper and 2023 USA Lacrosse All-American Sydney Manning had two saves for the Lions, while senior captain and 2024 Big Ten Player to Watch Regan Alexander had one save for the Buckeyes.
The Nittany Lions picked things up in the second quarter and put 4 points on the scoreboard thanks to Murray, sophomore midfielder Emma Kelly and senior attacker and 2023 Second Team All-Big Ten select Gretchen Gilmore. Manning had one save, while Alexander had three.
Senior captain and attacker Jamie Lasda scored Ohio State’s first goal of the game, leaving the score 6-1 at halftime. Lasda currently leads the Buckeyes with 31 goals and 37 points. She said getting more shots off was key to the eventual comeback.
“I think it was just maintaining the belief in our system and what we were working on,” Lasda said. “We were getting really good looks, and we had the same amount of shots as them at the beginning, they just weren’t falling. I knew if we just kept shooting, one of them was bound to go in.”
Three goals were scored in the third quarter, two for Penn State and one for the Buckeyes, leaving the score 8-2 going into the final quarter. Nittany Lion goals were completed by Kelly and midfielder Lauren Saltz.
Senior captain and midfielder Emily Magalotti scored for Ohio State. Manning had four saves and Alexander had one.
The final quarter was dominated by the Buckeyes. The Nittany Lions couldn’t score as Ohio State maintained possession, winning 16 out of the 21 draw controls in the quarter.
The Buckeyes’ defense also picked things up in the final quarter, with Alexander having six saves and shutting the Lions out for the final 20:34 of the game. Moore said Alexander doing this early on in the quarter was crucial to allowing the offense to catch up in points.
“Regan [Alexander], our goalkeeper, was just really outstanding and she really gave us the stops that we needed to help build our momentum and get our shots to drop,” Moore said.
Moore utilized her timeouts during the final quarter, calling two timeouts in the last two minutes of the game. Lasda said that these timeouts helped boost morale and confidence above anything else.
“I think the whole game she stayed consistent with her belief in us,” Lasda said. “She knew that we were doing the right things and that if we kept working on it, it would fall. We just really felt her confidence within all of us and whoever had the ball, she knew that they were going to finish.
Seven Ohio State goals came from junior attacker Brynn Ammerman, freshman midfielder Kampbell Stone, senior captain and attacker Leah Sax, junior midfielder Annie Hargraves and a hat-trick from freshman attacker Kate Tyack to end the game’s scoring 9-8, as Tyack’s third and final came with only 10 seconds remaining on the clock.
The Buckeyes will take on Cincinnati (8-4, 1-1 AAC) Friday at noon at the Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio.
