Penn men's lacrosse prepares for alumni day

Noise, poise and boys will occupy Franklin Field this Saturday.

The No. 15 Penn men’s lacrosse team will face off against Brown on Alumni Day this Saturday in its fourth Ivy contest.

But the day begins before the matchup with Brown with the annual Alumni Game in Penn Park on Adams Field at 10:30 a.m.

“It’s a pretty big deal for us,” senior defense Alex Blonsky said. “A lot of the alums that have built a tradition of the program come back, and it’s nice to see some of the older guys that, when we came in as freshmen, [we] looked up to, so it’s nice to have everybody back.”

And what the alumni also bring with them is some noise — a morale boost which can only help the Red and Blue (4-3, 1-2 Ivy) against Brown (6-3, 1-1).

“It’s Alumni Day, so there will be a lot of people here and some noise, so I think it will be a very good test,” coach Mike Murphy said.

The Bears currently hold third place in the Ivy League — one spot above Penn — and come in on a three-game winning streak that includes a win over Princeton. Brown finished 8-6 last year but failed to qualify for the Ivy League Tournament (which requires a top-four finish) after losing four conference games, including a 10-3 defeat at the hands of the Quakers.

A win this year over the Bears would help Penn move up in the standings and would be critical to better its overall Ivy performance relative to last season.

“They are very good offensively and have improved there from last year,” Murphy said. “I think we will have our hands full trying to stop them, and I think it will be a lot of energy.”

And while Brown has improved its defense, the Quakers are looking to get their offensive strength back.

“We were playing pretty good offense for a while there,” Murphy said. “We kind of lost that a little bit last week, but we got our defense back.

“The two things are not really related, and so I don’t know why for us it tends to be one or the other. So hopefully for the first time we play pretty well on offense and on defense, and we have some success in both areas.”

It was the Red and Blue’s defensive strength that allowed them to beat Yale last weekend and only allow five goals.

“I think a lot of it has come down to communication,” Blonsky said. “We are talking a lot more. Coach is making us play with short sticks so we have to move our feet more and [play] more of a team defense. Before, we were playing as individuals so more communication has really helped out.”

But as Murphy said, if the Quakers can keep their defense from last weekend but bring back the offense they played against Denver or Villanova, then a top finish in the Ancient Eight could be in store for the Red and Blue.

It just depends on which squad shows up Saturday.

“Obviously we feel better this week coming off of a win and a good performance than we did coming off of weeks prior coming off losses,” Murphy said. “But we really do look at process and quality.”

The Quakers hope the momentum from the win over Yale and the energy from returning alumni will help in their pursuit of a second win.

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