PHILADELPHIA – The Hawks battled back from an eight-goal deficit at halftime to outscore the Quakers by four goals in the second half as the Saint Joseph's women's lacrosse team dropped a hardfought contest to #16 Penn, 12-6, on Tuesday afternoon on Sweeney Field. Freshman midfielder Rebecca Lane scored three goals in her collegiate debut.

"We were really excited to compete against #16 Penn today," said head coach Alex Kahoe. "After the first 15 minutes, we really put it together, offensively, defensively, and in transition. I'm really proud of how our girls competed today."

Penn (4-1) scored the first eight goals of the game to jump out to an 8-0 lead with 15:45 remaining in the first half.

However, Lane scored her first collegiate goal on a free position opportunity (14:34) and scored again just 13 seconds later on a brilliant pass from senior midfielder Mallory Grey to close the Hawks' deficit to six goals, 8-2, heading into the final 14:21 of the first half.

Penn added two more goals (10:16, 2:38) before the end of the first 30:00 to take a 10-2 lead into the halftime break.

The Hawks strung together a trio of consecutive scores to open the second half as junior midfielder Maggie Egan found freshman midfielder Ally Beck (25:38) and junior attacker Sarah Smith (16:47) for a pair of tallies and Lane added her third goal of the day on a feed from junior attacker Nora McCallion with 13:32 remaining in regulation. The three-goal run brought the Hawks to within five, 10-5.

Penn's Lely DeSimone scored just 31 seconds later to put the Quakers back up by six, but Egan added to SJU's scoring with an unassisted goal at the 11:23 mark to pull SJU to within five, 11-6.

Neither team would score over the next 7:38, but Penn's Alex Condon put away her fourth goal of the game with 3:45 to play to bring the score to 12-6.

For the game, Penn held a 28-15 advantage in shots, although the second half was even 9-9. The Quakers also earned a 14-8 edge in ground balls and won 13 of the game's draw controls.

Senior goalkeeper Genevieve Giblin played a strong game between the pipes, making a season-high 11 saves in the full 60:00. Giblin added a single-game career high six ground balls and caused a game-high three turnovers on Penn's offensive unit.

Lane took a team-high four shots, while McCallion earned four draw controls.

Saint Joseph's returns to action at Temple this Saturday, March 12. Start time Geasey Field is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.