All season, No. 22 USC lacrosse has been a first-half team, leading its opponents by a combined 29 goals across 15 opening frames this year. However, after the first 30 minutes of play during Sunday’s matchup with Penn State at Panzer Stadium — the first ever between the two teams — the Trojans were tied with the unranked Nittany Lions 6-6.

Going into the game, USC (9-6, 2-5 Big Ten) had struggled comparatively in the fourth quarter, losing by a combined score of 42-37. This was only exacerbated on Sunday as Penn State (7-7, 5-2) thumped the Trojans 10-2 in the second half — punctuated by a 5-goal advantage in the fourth en route to a dominant 16-8 victory.

“Penn State’s a great team, they came out with a lot of energy,” said Head Coach Lindsey Munday in a postgame interview with the Daily Trojan. “At the end of the day, we had some good moments, but you can’t beat a great Big Ten opponent not playing a full 60 minutes.”

The loss continues USC’s struggles in Big Ten play, with the Trojans’ only conference victories coming against Ohio State (8-6, 1-6) and Rutgers (8-7, 2-4) — two teams that have only earned wins against each other and bottom-feeding Oregon (6-9, 0-7).

Despite senior defender Catherine Lord’s six- draw control effort, the draw continued to be a problem for the Trojans on Sunday as the Nittany Lions won 20 of 28, including 11 of 13 in the first half — stalling USC’s early momentum. In their previous two losses to No. 3 Northwestern (12-2, 6-0) and No. 9 Maryland (10-4, 5-1), the Trojans lost a combined 40 of 56 on their way to blowout losses of 9 and 8, respectively.

“That gave them a ton of momentum and put us on our heels from the beginning, and we couldn’t stop their runs,” Munday said. “We need to obviously continue to work on our draw takers, but we also have to battle when the ball goes on the ground. I think there were probably 10 opportunities with the ball on the ground that we just couldn’t come up with.” 

Coming off four straight Big Ten wins after a rough time in nonconference play, Penn State was looking to build on its impressive momentum as of late. After a contested draw to kick off the game, Nittany Lion star junior attacker Erika Ho earned the first of her 14 draw controls — double USC’s team total — and took the ball into the Trojan half. 

But it was USC who struck first after senior defender Alexis Niblock stole the ball and got it to star senior attacker Maddie Dora, who launched a goal between two defenders for an early Trojan lead.

Less than three minutes later, following a goal from Penn State sophomore attacker Kelly MacKinney, Ho — surrounded by five Trojan defenders — stepped up and launched a rocket into the back of the net to give the Nittany Lions a 2-1 lead, their first of the game. 

“We tried to make some adjustments on [Ho], but she’s a great player and she stepped up big for them today,” Munday said.

The rest of the first quarter continued its back-and-forth nature after the teams tied at both two and three. The period was dominated by contributions from both Dora and Ho — who have the second and sixth most goals in the Big Ten, respectively, with 55 and 40. Both star players contributed hat tricks on Sunday.

“[Dora] is a go-to player for us,” Munday said. “She did a good job and took her opportunities when she had them, and we need to help her out with the supporting cast, being able to step up and do the same.”

To start the second quarter, however, it was redshirt senior attacker Isabelle Vitale and sophomore attacker Emma Bunting who went back-to-back in the opening three minutes of the period to give the Trojans their largest lead of the game, 5-3. 

A goal from freshman midfielder Kaylee Fravert around halfway through the second quarter brought USC’s advantage back to two at 6-4, but there was little to celebrate for the Trojans after that. Fravert’s finish was followed by a 12-2 Penn State onslaught to close out USC in devastating fashion.

The Nittany Lions scored two timely goals right before halftime — including one of their four free-position scores — to tie the score at 6, but that was just the beginning.

Just over three minutes into the second half, Penn State had scored three times. While Dora’s third goal — which broke up a string of 12 Nittany Lion scores — gave USC hope, a series of missed opportunities prevented the Trojans from clawing their way back into the game.

USC had six free position opportunities — including two in the fourth quarter — while only converting one compared to Penn State’s 4 of 7. The Nittany Lions’ second-half goalie, sophomore Sydney Manning, helped hold off any hope for a comeback by saving six of eight shots.

“When you are fortunate and get eight meters, you’ve got to step up on the line and put them away,” Munday said. “[Manning] made some good saves, but we need to be more disciplined overall and keep people off the eight-meter.”

Next up for the Trojans is a bout with Oregon on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Dignity Health Sports Park.