No. 19 Penn State defeats No. 11 Johns Hopkins Blue Jays in high-scoring affair

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- On a beautiful Thursday evening at Panzer Stadium The Penn State Nittany Lions closed out the regular season with a 16-13 win over No. 11 Johns Hopkins.

The John Hopkins Bluejays came into this game ready to fire the ball right off the bat and get the offense going early after suffering back-to-back losses in Big Ten play.

The Blue Jays jumped out to an early 7-3 commanding lead over the Nittany Lions, but the Nittany Lions went on a tremendous comeback run and scored eight straight goals to take an 8-7 lead into the half.

“I think we did well in the draw controls after going down big early on in the game and Kayla Abernathy stepped up for us at the moment when we needed her the most and she scored some big goals for us as well, she was all over the place out there”, head coach Missy Doherty said.

Gretchen Gilmore had another tremendous night for the Nittany Lions and got her 100th career college point.

Gilmore finished the game with three goals and three assists on seven shots after an unforgettable night for her.

“Johns Hopkins came out and was face-guarding O'Neill the whole night, but Gilmore stepped up in a big way for us tonight and it was really fun to watch what she can do out there on a nightly basis”, Doherty said.

Freshman goaltender Sydney Manning came up huge for the Nittany Lions down the stretch in this game after somewhat of a shaky start for her.

Manning had an incredible 12-save performance on the night and made two big saves on the free-position shot in the final minute of the game.

“Anybody coming in as a freshman in this environment has a little bit of a learning curve to go through, but Manning has handled it very well as she settled in during these big-time games to close out the year”, Doherty said.

Ellie Hollin played a very big role down the stretch defensively for the Nittany Lions and played very strong on her opponents while swarming anyone who touched the ball.

“We were kidding on the sidelines with Ellie Hollin 'cause we think she marked just about everyone who touched the ball down there to make sure the comeback didn't happen”, Doherty said.

Heading into the Big Ten the Penn State Lions look to clean up some of the mistakes that cost them a couple of games this season.

“We will work on some housekeeping stuff in the next week and practice, such as the turnovers on offense and we should be ready for anyone that we face moving forward”, Doherty said.

The Nittany Lions will be back in action at Panzer Field to host the Big Ten Quarterfinals on April 26.

Christian Holtzapple is a fourth-year student majoring in broadcast journalism, To contact him email cmh7064@psu.edu.