Penn women’s lacrosse relishes underdog role with defending champion Northwestern up next

The Penn women’s lacrosse team likes being the underdog.

The Quakers were underdogs back in March when they visited Maryland, then the top team in the country. But 14th-ranked Penn stunned the Terps on their own field, 13-9, handing them just their second loss of the season.

They were again underdogs a few weeks later, when the Quakers hosted fifth-ranked Loyola (Md.). Penn hadn’t beaten the Greyhounds in 35 years. But a 13-6 statement win ended a 17-game streak of Loyola dominance.

It’s experience Penn will draw upon when it meets Northwestern in the Elite Eight on Thursday (7:30 p.m., ESPNU), in its biggest underdog moment yet. The Wildcats are the defending national champions and unseated Maryland as the top seed entering the NCAA Tournament.

It’s a stage the Quakers haven’t seen since 2016. They will be in enemy territory in Evanston, Ill. They don’t mind at all.

» READ MORE: Penn defeats Richmond to advance in NCAA women’s lacrosse championships

“We love this underdog mentality,” said senior defender Izzy Rohr. “Our team loves that do-or-die format. I think we really thrive off that, and it’s kind of how this team excels: with their back against the wall.”

After a double-overtime loss to Yale in the Ivy League championship game, Penn received an at-large bid and No. 8 seed for the NCAA Tournament, which came with hosting rights for the first two rounds. And following that regular-season victory over Loyola in April, the teams met again in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

This time, the roles were flipped: as host, Penn was favored. But beating any team twice in a season, Rohr said, is a tough task. Penn led by one in the third quarter, when Rohr — a two-time Ivy League Defender of the Year who had never scored a collegiate goal before — saw a lane to the net.

“I was just going to clear the ball up the field and no one slid to me, and I just was like, ‘I’m just going to keep running.’ Still, no one slid to me, and I shot the ball,” she said. “It was just super exciting; that’s one of the juice goals. It really fuels the whole team.”

The entire Penn bench went nuts, and goalkeeper Kelly Van Hoesen even ran down the field to join in on the celebration for the captain. It marked a turning point in the game, as the Quakers ran away with a 12-9 victory to punch their ticket to Illinois.

“Usually if I’m going to shoot and I miss, I’m the one who has to run all the way back,” Rohr said. “So I don’t ever do it. This time, it just felt right.”

For Rohr, who hails from Malvern, it also was the perfect way to end to her Franklin Field career.

She arrived at Penn in the fall of 2019, following in the footsteps of her older brother Sam, who played for the men’s team. But after her first two years were derailed by COVID-19, Rohr suffered an ACL tear that kept her out for the entire 2022 season.

2023 was her comeback year. She started all 19 games, led the conference in caused turnovers, was unanimous first-team All-Ivy, and helped the Quakers to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. After they fell to second-seeded Boston College, Rohr didn’t think twice about returning to Penn for her final season.

» READ MORE: She graduated from Penn in 2023. Now, she’s the Quakers’ director of football operations.

“Last year, her first game was her sixth game of her career,” said coach Karin Corbett. “And to be Ivy League Defender of the Year with her first full season is really incredible. … She just plays with so much passion, so much emotion. And she fires up the team with how she plays. She is a catalyst.”

Rohr is a leader on one of the top defenses in the nation, which holds its opponents to an average of 8.58 goals per game. On Thursday, Penn will battle against one of the top offenses in the nation. Northwestern averages 17 goals per game, and boasts attacker Izzy Scane, who broke the NCAA’s Division I scoring record last week.

At the same time, Penn has some firepower of its own. Niki Miles and Anna Brandt average 4.0 and 3.1 points, respectively. And junior attacker Erika Chung has a knack for finding her teammates at just the right time — her 51 assists this season rank 13th in the nation.

Chung thinks that Penn’s offense is able to feed off the defense’s success, and vice versa.

“Since this team is so united, it just gets me so hype when they make a big stop or make a big play,” she said. “And then at our end, I think when we do something well, they get juice from it. So there’s just great energy flowing throughout our offense and defense.”