Brilliant Start in First-Ever Home Game, but Statesmen Fall to St. Ambrose

Oskaloosa — With their first-ever home game in program history, the William Penn women’s lacrosse team produced a great opening half against St. Ambrose, a program receiving votes nationally. However, the Queen Bees showed their veteran depth by dominating the rest of the game, winning by a final score of 14-3. The Statesmen drop to 1-1 on the year and are now 0-1 after losing their first-ever Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference game.

The first half was a great showing from the Statesmen as they hounded SAU and looked poised and focused on the attack. After killing off an early penalty, Emma Lady (Sr., Richmond, Ind., Masters of Sports Management) collected a ground ball and bore down unopposed into the inner arc, scoring the first-ever home goal for the program just past the three-minute mark.

William Penn then forced the Queen Bees into a turnover, with Lady setting up behind the net. Hallie Clark (Fr., Centerville, Utah) made a cross out in front of the net, caught the pass from Lady, and slipped a back-handed shot in for goal number two at the 22:29 mark.

The fans were already involved, but unleased a might roar three minutes later. Lady started a drive from the top of the arc and flipped it to MacKenzie Petersen (Fr., Albertville, Minn., Public Accounting), who roofed the shot to make it 3-0. With some stellar defense and a surprising lead, the team forced St. Ambrose to call a timeout.

The visitors then found a goal with 16:34 to go in the half to make it 3-1. SAU started to play into the game, but the contest was lively and featured some good up-and-down play. Each team took 12 shots in the first half and each goalie made three saves. WPU picked up 13 ground balls, while SAU had seven. However, the Queen Bees won four draws to just one for WPU and they also were 8-for-8 on clearances, as the Statesmen were 6-for-10.

The second half was all St. Ambrose, as the visiting crew would outshoot the Statesmen 23-4 and outscore them 12-1.

While WPU was forced to defend most of the frame, the team did get a couple more chances in the final 30 minutes. Lady scored on a free-position shot in the second half for the lone tally for the hosts, but that was all the Statesmen could put together.

Madison Reed (Fr., Shakopee, Minn., Secondary Education) made a couple stellar saves in the first half, including one that she punched away with her hands. She was under siege in the second half, but still made five saves, including a couple point-blank chances that she turned aside. She finished with eight total saves on the night.

Lady led the way with two goals, two assists, and four shots. Mia Arnone (Fr., St. Louis, Mo., Digital Communication) had two shots, as did Petersen, Clark, and Araceli Angel (Sr., Tama, Iowa, Masters of Sports Management).

WPU won the ground ball category 17-11, but lost the draw count 14-4. The Statesmen made 10 successful clearances in 18 attempts.

“We started tonight as a strong, cohesive unit,” said Head Coach Corrine Smeak. “We will use the second half as a learning opportunity to better ourselves and prepare for our games during spring break. This is a young team that takes every game as an opportunity to grow and get better.”

Next Up: The Statesmen travel in Indianapolis, Ind. Friday to face #10 Marian, their first-ever opponent from last year, for a noon start (CST).

Posted by on Mar 4 2021. Filed under College Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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