Penn State women's lacrosse upsets No. 1 Northwestern in overtime (2024)

Penn State returned home to Panzer Stadium on a chilly Friday night after a lengthy five-game road stint where it went 3-2.

To get to four wins in a row, the Nittany Lions looked to down the powerhouse that is No. 1 Northwestern.

In a David versus Goliath matchup, it was the underdog blue and white coming out on top in an upset of the top-ranked Wildcats, garnering a score of 14-13

“This game gives us an awesome opportunity to come out and show how good we are when we play a full 60 minutes,” O’Neill said. “It shows what we can do for the rest of this year. I’m really excited.”

Just a minute after the opening draw, O’Neill weaved through traffic to drop one in Northwestern’s goal to give the blue and white an early 1-0 lead.

Northwestern rebounded quickly, however, as the purple and white’s Dylan Amonte struck paydirt to even the game back up.

Picking up her eight goal of the season in the process, the Nittany Lions’ Kayla Abernathy pushed her squad back out in front after dropping in an unassisted dime past Northwestern’s Molly Laliberty.

It was all Penn State early on, which took a 3-1 lead after Payton Wainman hit paydirt with an unassisted goal to pick up her seventh of the season.

Despite this, however, the powerhouse Wildcats bounced back quickly, as Lindsey Frank called her shot to record her 15th goal of the season.

The Penn State faithful was silenced when Northwestern dropped another goal to tie the game up 3-3 at the hands of sixth-year veteran Izzy Scane.

The Wildcats drew first blood in the second frame thanks to Erin Coykendall, who tallied her 20th goal of the season. The goal gave Northwestern a 4-3 lead just five minutes into the second quarter.

Northwestern kept rolling, as sophom*ore Lucy Munro, Amonte and Scane scored consecutive goals to push the lead to 7-3.

O’Neill put an end to the six unanswered goals, scoring her second goal of the game to put the blue and white a bit closer. Erika Ho followed it up with her second goal of the season, and the Nittany Lions went into halftime trailing 7-5.

It was Penn State that scored first in the second half, as Gretchen Gilmore hit paydirt to reduce the deficit to 7-6.

Though the Nittany Lions seemed to have most of the momentum, it was the Wildcats that scored next thanks to Madison Taylor on a free position goal —her 36th of the season.

In rapid succession, the Nittany Lions knotted things back up. Meghan Murray and Kelly MacKinney both slotted in goals to make it 8-8.

After trading goals, Penn State jumped out in front for the first time since the first quarter after another goal from O’Neill gave the Nittany Lions a 10-9 lead.

The Nittany Lions could not hold onto the lead for a long time, however, as Scane scored another goal for the purple and white just 40 seconds later to tie the game up at 10-10 going into the fourth.

The first score of the final period went to Penn State’s Abernathy, as she picked up the hat trick and gave the blue and white an 11-10 lead just a minute into the final period of play.

Northwestern was tired of the magic act, with Scane one-upping Abernathy and scoring her fourth goal of the game to even the game up at 11-11 for the Wildcats.

With six minutes left to play in the game, it was O’Neill scoring again for the blue and white to give her squad the 12-11 lead.

The Wildcats struck back on a free-position goal, as Scane recorded her fifth of the night to even the game back yet again at 12-12.

O’Neill was feeling herself against the purple and white, as she recorded her fifth goal of the game to give the blue and white a 13-12 lead with three minutes to go.

It didn’t last long, however, as Coykendall scored again for Northwestern to send it into overtime at 13-13.

After having a monster game, O’Neill called game and sent Northwestern packing after scoring her sixth goal of the game on a shot that would have been fitting with a “Bang!” from Mike Breen.

Up Next

Penn State will travel to Columbus, Ohio to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes March 28th at 7PM looking to extend its win streak to five in a row.

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