TOWSON, Md. – After an extremely close first half, Penn State pulled away to defeat the Towson University women's lacrosse team on Tuesday afternoon, 15-6. The tight contest featured four ties and four lead changes.  

The Tigers ended a close first half down by just one score,5-4, before the Nittany Lions, who are currently receiving votes in the IWLCA/Inside Lacrosse poll, took over halfway through the third quarter to go on an eight-goal run and secure the 15-6 win.  

Freshman Halley Koras scored the first three goals for the Tigers for her second consecutive first quarter hat trick. Blair Pearre also added two goals while Kerri Thornton netted one. Lindsay Clarke was strong behind the cage, handing out two assists.  

Pearre, the former Under Armour All-American, has now scored at least two goals in 25 of 29 games at the collegiate level. She now has 87 career goals and is quickly approaching the program's top 20 scoring list.  

The Black & Gold won the draw control battle, 14-11. Milana Zizakovic grabbed six draw controls to tie her career high while Pearre recorded five. 

Pearre now sits eighth all-time with 118 career draw controls. She is just one behind Katie Leech in the seventh spot with 119.  

Records   

• Towson – 2-4 (0-0 CAA)   
• Penn State – 5-2 (0-0 NEC)   

How it Happened   

• Penn State scored the first two goals of the contest before Koras came in with three consecutive goals to earn the natural hat trick and put Towson up 3-2.  The Nittany Lions got on the board first in the second quarter to tie things back up, 3-all. Less than two minutes later, Clarke found Thornton in front of the cage for a score to give the Tigers back the 4-3 edge. Penn State followed up with two goals to take the 4-5 lead into halftime.  
• 12 seconds into the third quarter, Pearre found the back of the net to knot the score one last time, at 5-5. The Nittany Lions answered with two goals to take the ultimate lead, 7-5.  
• Pearre recorded one more goal for the Black & Gold off a feed from Julia Porter to put the game back within one goal, 7-6. That was the last offensive action Towson would see though, as Penn State scored eight unanswered goals to end the outing with the 15-6 win.  

Key Stats 

• Carly Merlo made three saves in 18:50 played.  
• Pearre paced the Tigers with four ground balls, three caused turnovers and three points. Koras also tallied three points for the fourth multi-point game of her career. 
• Sara Tyssowksi, Nicole Liucci and Olivia Malamphy added two ground balls each. 

Inside the Numbers    

• Koras secured her second consecutive first quarter hat trick on Tuesday. The freshman scored three goals at UMBC by the 8:43 mark of the first in addition to tallying three scores against Penn State by 6:31. She now has three hat tricks this slate.  
• Zizakovic matched her career best of six draw controls, set in the season opener against Mount St. Mary's (Feb. 12).  
• Pearre tied her career high of three caused turnovers which she got last season against High Point (Feb. 29). Tuesday's game was also the midfielder's second game in a row with four ground balls to match her season high.  
• Clarke has now earned two or more assists in the last three contests.  

Next Game   
 
Towson will return to Tiger Field to host Vanderbilt on March 23 at noon and Georgetown on March 26 at 1 p.m.