Penn State's Ridiculous Run In Every Sport Has Now Led To An Insane Comeback To Go To The College Lacrosse Final Four
Icon Sportswire. Getty Images.THE Pennsylvania State University is currently on an insane heater right now. Honestly, it goes back to last summer when Stephen Nedoroscik won bronze on the pommel horse at the 2024 Summer Olympics. Not that he's a current Penn State student, but that was just a sign of things to come for the following school year.
The women's soccer team made it to the 2024 NCAA Quarterfinals, where they lost to the eventual National Champions in UNC. The football team made it to the 2024-25 CFB semifinals, where they lost to Notre Dame. The women's volleyball team won the National Championship. The men's wrestling team won their 4th straight National Championship. The men's hockey team advanced to the Frozen Four for the first time in program history. So far this year they have 2 National Championships and 2 Final Four appearances.
We can now add another to the list after the lacrosse team got their revenge on Notre Dame in one of the most incredible comebacks in college lacrosse history.
It was 8-3 Notre Dame at halftime. It looked like the 2x defending champs were going on cruise control to their 3rd straight Final Four appearance. In the 3rd quarter, Notre Dame was up 12-6. They had everything going for them, and it looked like they were going to score every time they touched the ball. That's when Penn State decided they needed to make an adjustment. The defense jumped in and out of a zone to throw off Notre Dame's offense. And that's when the Penn State offense decided to come alive.
Matt Traynor put the team on his back and scored 6 goals on the day. 3 of those goals came during the comeback with Penn State's backs up against the wall. Kyle Lehman had 2 goals in the comeback. And Ethan Long had this behind-the-back finish that just showed how hard the Nittany Lions were feeling it at the moment.
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It's like the went full Space Jam and just zapped the powers straight from Notre Dame's offense. The ball was snapping around, Notre Dame's defense was spinning all over the place, and Penn State just kept putting the ball in the back of the net. Down 12-6 with just under 6 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter, and Penn State went on to score the final 8 goals of the game.
I genuinely feel bad for anyone who doesn't care about or watch college lacrosse. This quarterfinal weekend was easily one of the best we've ever seen. The last game of the weekend was a bit of a snooze with Maryland taking down Georgetown in a game that never seemed to have any juice from the get go. But both games on Saturday were insane.
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Cornell was able to hold off the peskiest Richmond team on Earth to keep their season alive with a 13-12 win. Back and forth game all day with multiple lead changes, but at the end of the day Cornell just has 2 of the best players in the country who they could count on to get the job done. 10 combined points out of CJ Kirst and Ryan Goldstein has Cornell back into the Final Four for the first time since Kirst's freshman year.
And then in the 2nd game of the day, Joey Spallina had the signature performance of his career so far leading Syracuse back to the Final Four for the first time since 2013.
Nobody in college lacrosse receives more scrutiny than Joey Spallina. That comes with the territory when you're wearing #22 for Syracuse. But Spallina delivered with 4 goals and 8 points on the day to carry Cuse to a 19-18 win. He's having the best offensive season in Syracuse since Mikey Powell in 2004, and he's letting the doubters know about it.
Penn State vs Cornell. Syracuse vs Maryland. What an unreal Final Four we have on deck for us over Memorial Day Weekend. The lacrosse gods are some real ones for this.