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Quakers midfielder Kaitlin Farmer (5) cuts off Colgate's Molly Carroll. Rachel Manson scored three goals to lead Penn into the NCAA tournament quarterfinals.
AKIRA SUWA / Inquirer Staff Photographer
Quakers midfielder Kaitlin Farmer (5) cuts off Colgate's Molly Carroll. Rachel Manson scored three goals to lead Penn into the NCAA tournament quarterfinals.
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Penn overwhelms Colgate to advance in tournament

Rachel Manson wasted little time scoring yesterday, firing a shot past Colgate goaltender Sara Drexler to hand the Penn Quakers the lead 30 seconds into their NCAA lacrosse tournament game.

That was merely the beginning of an offensive onslaught by Manson and the Quakers.

The senior attacker collected three goals and two assists to lead the Quakers (15-1) to a 16-7 victory in a first-round game at Franklin Field. The Quakers will face Boston University (18-2) Saturday in the quarterfinals.

Midfielders Ali Deluca and Melissa Lehman joined Manson in recording hat tricks as the Quakers posted their highest score this season.

"Rachel's been leading the attack all year," Penn coach Karin Brower said. "She's done a great job. She's really the quarterback of that attack. [She] calms them down and steps things up and finishes when she needs to finish."

The three goals tied Manson with Karen McFadden for second all-time at Penn with 111. Manson also moved past Chrissy Muller to become Penn's third-highest point leader all-time, with 152.

"I had no idea that that was even happening," Manson said.

"People talk about our season last year as a Cinderella story," Manson said of Penn's unexpected run to the 2007 Final Four. "It just happened so fast. Penn had never had that kind of season [before] last year.

"This year, we came out with the goal of being national champions. We're not surprised that we're in the quarterfinals right now. We're not surprised that we're hopefully going to make it to the Final Four or the national championship game."

But first, the Quakers had to get by the Raiders (11-10). They did so quickly.

The Quakers scored four goals within the game's first five minutes to take a 4-1 lead. By halftime they led, 10-4.

Colgate coach Heather Bliss said the Quakers' passing ability overwhelmed the Raiders.

"They assist on almost every goal," Bliss said. "They have a couple feeders who just have really good looks into their attackers. That's really hard to defend, and it's really hard to make saves off of that."

After the first 71/2 minutes of the second half went scoreless, the Quakers again exploded, scoring four goals in four minutes to seal the game, 14-4.