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No. 8 Penn Edges No. 19 Central Florida 7-5 in National Collegiate Club Championship Seventh Place Game
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Winnie Eastwood (Jr., Carlsbad, Calif.) notched a hat-trick and Elizabeth Lawrence (Sr., New York, N.Y.) made six saves to earn Co-Player of the Game honors and lead No. 8 University of Pennsylvania to a 7-5 victory over No. 19 University of Central Florida in the National Collegiate Club seventh place game at the University of Arizona's Student Recreation Center Pool.
The final finish marks Penn's fourth consecutive Top 10 finish at the National Collegiate Club Championship as the Quakers previously placed sixth (2007), fifth (2008) and fourth (2009) in the field.
Leading 5-1 at the end of the first half, Penn saw its lead begin to dwindle as Stephanie Beauchemin (Sr., Sanford, Fla.) dented the back of the cage with 5:49 left in the third period to pull the Lady Knights to within 5-2.
UCF continued to rally back in opening moments of the fourth period as Beauchemin buried a ball on an exclusion chance and ripped a five-meter penalty shot into the twine at 5:41 and 4:49, respectively, to move Central Florida to within a goal at 5-4.
Stefanie Clark (So., Altamonte Springs, Fla.) made the game interesting for the final four-minutes of regulation as she racked up her only marker of the contest at 4:09 to even the volleying at 5-5 and set-up a dramatic finish.
Needing a player to step-up and finish off UCF, Penn head coach Deidre Sandrock turned to Natasa Kordic (Sr., Sacramento, Calif.) and Eastwood who put home shots at 2:17 and 42 seconds, respectively, past Knights goalie Blaire Martin (Sr., Altamonte Springs, Fla.) to defeat the Lady Knights.
Martin finished the game with 12 saves as the game capped a dramatically improved tournament from last year's championship affair for Central Florida. Last year, Lady Knights finished 11th at the 2009 National Collegiate Club Championship at the University of California-Davis for a significant three place improvement in the team's national standing.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | -- | Final | |
| No. 8 University of Pennsylvania | 1 | 4 | 0 | 2 | -- | 7 |
| No. 19 University of Central Florida | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | -- | 5 |
UCF Goals: Stephanie Beauchemin (4); Stefanie Clark
Penn Goals: Winnie Eastwood (3); Natasa Kordic (2); Kathryn Nary (2)
Saves: UCF - Blaire Martin (12) ; Penn - Elizabeth Lawrence (6)
Exclusions: UCF - 7 ; Penn - 5
Advantage Opportunities: UCF - 3-for-5 ; Penn - 3-for-7
Sprints: UCF - 2-for-4 ; Penn - 2-for-4
