Penn WLAX Headed To 10th Straight NCAA Tournament

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The University of Pennsylvania women's lacrosse team is headed to the NCAA Tournament. Again.

This marks the 10th consecutive year that the Quakers have qualified for the tourney, which they will open on Friday when they take on Wagner in Towson, Maryland.

Penn is 13-4 on the season. They advanced to the Ivy League Tournament championship game where they lost to Cornell, 11-10.

Despite that disappointment, the Quakers earned the #7 overall seed in the tournament - a testament to the respect the program has earned with its consistent success and quality of play this season.

"We're really, really excited," Penn head coach Karin Corbett tells KYW Newsradio. "We have a great group that we've been working with all year. Our seniors are tremendous leaders. A lot of people, I think, counted us out this year with what we lost at graduation. But our senior class has really stepped up and our underclassmen filling some big holes from graduation and I think we turned some heads this year, which was fun."

Listen to the entire interview with Penn's Karin Corbett:

Corbett, the Ivy League Coach of the Year, breaks down one of the biggest keys to Penn's success this season.

"I think it's really been our attack," Corbett says. "I think our attack this year, they've jelled very well. We have one of the best facilitators in the country in Nina Corcoran who just keeps on putting up points and making our attackers look great. She sees an open kid really well and she is really that catalyst for our team."

Corcoran, a senior, has put up staggering numbers this year, 23 goals and 52 assists. The 52 assists represent the top total in the nation. She was named Ivy League Attacker of the Year.

Wagner brings a 10-8 record into the tournament. The Seahawks are the champions of the Northeast Conference.

"I know their coach very well," Corbett says. "Katie Rowan was a fantastic player, actually somebody that I recruited and hoped would come to Penn. But she went to Syracuse. She is a great mind for the game. She is a tremendous attacker, still plays. I think that she will have her team prepared. We've got to go into this game and play our best. It's tournament time. It doesn't matter who we play, we've got to come focused on our game plan and what we need to do."

The winner of this game gets the winner of Towson and Old Dominion in the second round on Sunday.

Penn and Wagner will play at 3:00pm on Friday.