GREENVILLE, ILL. -- Tonight the Principia College women's basketball team faced the Lady Panthers of Greenville College in their first meeting of the season.  Off to a strong defensive start, the score went back and forth, with the two Panther squads trading buckets and turnovers back and forth.  Greenville hit a couple threes to widen the gap (they shot 56% from beyond the arc for the game) but Principia chipped away at the lead with solid defensive possessions and some strong finishes at the other end.  In particular, the Lady Panthers were led by junior captain Sarah Corbitt who was starting at the point guard position for the first time in her career.  Corbitt facilitated the offense well, helping to keep Principia in the game.  Principia was also aided by a perfect 4-4 from the free throw line (both senior captain Lindsay Sydness and freshman forward Torie DeNicholas hit their shots from the charity stripe).  When the halftime buzzer sounded, Principia was down just 8 points, 21-29.

Coming out in the 2nd half however, Principia was a bit slow on defense, allowing Greenville to widen the deficit to 18 before scoring their first 2nd half bucket.  Prin played relatively well throughout the 2nd half, but couldn't quite get all the pieces together to take the lead and come away with a victory.  Prin showed some improvement again in the turnovers category (for the 2nd time in 3 games they had less turnovers than their opponent) but the main discrepancy was in the boards column, with Greenville coming away with 29 to Prin's 18.  Greenville also shot 56% from the field compared to Principia's 35%.  Prin had some solid statistical contributions though, despite the loss.  Freshman forward Karina Olsen had 4 points and 5 rebounds (she had a game high 3 offensive boards) in her first collegiate start.  Sarah Corbitt had 9 points and an incredible 7 steals on the game.  Lindsay Sydness had 15 points, a game high 6 boards, 2 blocks and a game high 5 assists in her 40 minutes.  And due to a flurry of offensive activity in the final minutes, Torie DeNicholas had a career high 22 points along with her 5 rebounds.

Principia plays next on Tuesday, January 31st at home against MacMurray College.  Tip-off is scheduled for 6:00 pm.