2024 NCAA Lacrosse Preview: No. 15 Penn (Women)

The 2024 Division I women's college lacrosse season starts Feb. 9. As is our annual tradition, we’re featuring every team ranked in theUSA Lacrosse Preseason Top 20 in the lead up to opening night. Check back toUSALaxMagazine.com each weekday this month for new previews, scouting reports and rival analysis

NO. 15 PENN

2023 record: 14-5 (7-0 Ivy) 
Final ranking (2023): No. 12 
Head coach: Karin Corbett 
Assistants: Kerri Whitaker, Nicole Spencer, Caroline Curnal

After a frustrating down year in 2022, the Quakers were picked to finish fifth in the Ivy League. Corbett said Penn started from scratch last year. They rebuilt their winning culture and after a 5-4 start ripped off nine straight wins and were within a goal of tying Boston College late in the NCAA tournament.

“We had something to prove,” Corbett said. “I was proud of how they came together as a team. It was a really fun team and they worked really hard.”

With all but one significant contributor back from last year’s team, expectations are high inside the program, and Penn still feels like it has a lot to prove those on the outside. Corbett expects the Ivy League to be improved this year. Penn was the only Ivy team to play in last year’s NCAA tournament, something that still irks the Ivies.

“Yale was good,” Corbett said. “The Ivies had no All-Americans for the first time ever. I think our kids are good. They’re going on to play other places (as graduate transfers) so I know they’re good.”

Penn can largely pick up where it left off last year and push forward. That means a faster start, winning the Ivy League again and advancing further in the NCAA tournament.

“We feel like we have a lot of the pieces in place,” Corbett said. “It’s about us getting better every day and putting high expectations on this team, and living with the target on your back with the Ivies but also wanting to reach new heights that we haven’t done in a while. They feel that they want to put Penn back on map higher than 15.”

TOP RETURNERS

Niki Miles, A, Sr. (63G, 15A) 
Anna Brandt, M, Jr. (54G, 62DC) 
Izzy Rohr, D, Sr. (25CT, 35GB)

Izzy Rohr tore her ACL in high school, then again in 2022, the year after the Ivy League didn’t hold a season due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns. Rohr made a triumphant return last year, and in her first full season was the Ivy League Defender of the Year as a critical piece of Penn’s defense that rotated several different zone looks.

“She has so much game sense. She can play in any kind of system,” Corbett said. “Any kind of zone, she’s one of the key people. She has really great game sense of when to slide on defense, when to go for the ball, when to try to cause turnovers. She has tremendous instincts.”

KEY ADDITIONS

Carli Fleisher, A, So. (2G, 4A at Northwestern) 
Catherine Berkery, A, Fr. (112G, 116A in 2 years at Bronxville, N.Y.) 
Morgan Smith, D, Sr. (22GB, 9CT in 13 games in 2022

Smith missed last year due to injury, but returns to deepen a defense that returns everyone. At the other end newcomers have a better chance to impact. Northwestern transfer Fleisher, the former high school USA Lacrosse National Player of the Year, and Berkery are expected to aid the attack.

“They have very good hands,” Corbett said. “They can finish quick on the inside. They also can feed. They have added a lot of punch to our attack down low.”

Penn got great feeding last year, but not so much scoring from its low attack. The offense will be further boosted if 2022 honorable mention All-Ivy attacker Keeley Block is cleared to return from injury.

NOTABLE DEPARTURES

Graduations: Kennon Moon, A 
Transfers: none

X-FACTOR

Kelly Van Hoesen, G, Sr. (41.9 save percentage, 9.97 GAA)

Though the Quakers ranked 66th nationally in save percentage, Van Hoesen’s return gives their 27th-ranked scoring defense a jolt of confidence. Van Hoesen’s best games came against some of Penn’s toughest opponents like Maryland, Florida and Boston College, and the bar is raised for her second full season as starter.

“She’s a great presence in the net,” Corbett said. “She’s great in the clear. It’s another person on the clear that we can utilize. In the past sometimes our goalie can’t be a part of that clear. She can. She’s very athletic. She’s what you want in a goalie.”

THE NARRATIVE

With so much returning, no one is going to take Penn lightly. Not at the Ivy League level. But the Quakers want to strike fear beyond the Ivies.

“People think that we have the nod in the Ivies,” Corbett said. “The Ivies will be more competitive this year. Nationally, I don’t know how much anybody thinks about the Ivies right now. That’s something we have to prove.”

Penn is still locked in on defending its Ivy crown. Its schedule also allows the Quakers to prove themselves in the non-conference against the likes of Drexel, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Michigan, Maryland and Loyola.

“They feel there’s unfinished business, that they can go farther than what people will think they can,” Corbett said.

Last year felt like Penn was proving itself at the conference level first and foremost. With their leaders and conference players of the year at every level back, the Quakers would like to build that national-level respect beyond the Ivies to what it was pre-pandemic. Penn’s only top-20 wins last year came against Johns Hopkins and Yale.

“We didn’t beat Maryland. We didn’t beat Florida. We didn’t beat BC. We didn’t beat Loyola,” Corbett said. “So these kids have something to prove nationally. It’s not just about winning the Ivies. They want to go further.”

BEYOND THE BASICS 
POWERED BY LACROSSE REFERENCE

   Penn’s offense is primed for a standout season, with 92% of its offensive production returning, including playmakers like Erika Chung and Niki Miles. This continuity, coupled with Patricia Columbia-Walsh’s potential to step up as a key facilitator, has Quaker fans hoping that they can improve on their 89th-percentile opponent-adjusted offensive efficiency from a year ago.

Lacrosse Reference Glossary