For M. Lax, third time's a charm

The Penn men's lacrosse team seeks its first Ivy victory this season when it faces off against Dartmouth. This weekend the Penn men's lacrosse team travels to New Hampshire in search of its first Ivy League victory of the season. After two failed attempts against Cornell and Harvard the past two weekends at home, Penn (2-5, 0-2 Ivy League) will have to put it together on the road against Dartmouth (3-2, 0-0) in its Ivy opener. A year ago the Quakers entered this same weekend after winning their first Ivy League game in 18 tries. With little pressure on them they defeated the Big Green 15-12 at home. In returning most of last year's starters, the Quakers had high expectations in the beginning of the season. With the losses to the Crimson and the Big Red, Penn has felt the pressure for the first time in a while of trying to be competitive in the Ivy League. "We have to go out and put everything together," Penn co-captain Joe Mauro said. "You can't walk out onto the field saying we know that we can beat these guys. It is not just going to happen. The balls are not just going to go in the back of the net." The Quakers have worked hard this season trying to prove that last season was not a fluke. Their sporadic play has left them with more losses than expected up to this point. "I think Penn has struggled a little bit," Dartmouth coach Tim Nelson said. "They lost some games they thought they would win coming into the season." After their disappointing loss to Bucknell, the Quakers were able to correct their problems of getting off to a slow start. In the past two Ivy League games, Penn's nemesis was the third quarter. "The third quarter has been our downfall," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. "It is a matter of us standing around on offense in the second half. It goes slow for us, and we don't score for a while. We hit the panic button and that is definitely one thing we have to resist this weekend." The Quakers' attack is aware of their second-half blues. Trying to change their mindset, Penn must avoid the position of having to come back late in the fourth quarter. "It seems that we have been finally waking up in the fourth quarter," Janney said. "We have been trying to pull ourselves out of a hole that we have dug in the first three quarters. We are just running out of time at the end. The key to this weekend is to come out and jump on them right away." Coming into the game, Penn's offense has been led by attackmen Pete Janney (14 goals, 13 assists), John Ward (10 gls., 13 asts.) and Ivy League Rookie of the Week Todd Minerley (12 gls., 7 asts.). Middies Jeff Zuckerman (13 gls., 7 asts) and Mauro (15 gls., 8 asts.) have also added to the offensive punch. In preparing for Saturday's game, the Quakers adjusted this week's schedule, allowing them use of the grass fields behind Hollenback. Accustomed to the artificial turf of Franklin Field, the Quakers needed to touch up, playing on real sod. "It is a lot slower surface," Janney said. "Picking up ground balls is twice as hard. We play most of our games on turf, so it is a little bit of transition to go to grass." Dartmouth enters the game after a frustrating 18-8 loss to Stony Brook. At the end of their 11-day spring break trip which also featured a game against No. 12 North Carolina, the Big Green showed little emotion while losing big. "We are still trying to figure out what type of a team we do have," Nelson said. "Everything was going well up to the Stony Brook game. We kind of fell apart there." With the departure of attackmen Scott Hapgood and Brian Merritt who scored five goals in last year's game, the Big Green has looked to the defensive end for its leadership. Co-captains midfielder John Whelen and defenseman Dan Gansalong with junior goalie Andrew Dance have allowed 11.6 goals per game. "The key to the game is definitely going to be how well our defense plays," Nelson said. "Penn's attack with John Ward and Pete Janney is excellent. They have a lot of dangerous middies, especially with Mauro and Zuckerman. We have to control Penn's offense." Almost at the halfway point, the Quakers seem to be making a positive change, devoting themselves to proving the ability of this year's team instead of worrying about validating last year's success.

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