M. Lax hopes to stick it to Cornell

When Penn and Cornell met last season, the teams were very similar. Neither had an Ivy win and both were desperate to get out of the league cellar. After two overtime periods, the Quakers emerged victorious. That game was at Franklin Field. Attacker Andy Crofton tied the game with five seconds remaining in regulation. Captain Andrew Greenberg, who had already scored two fourth-quarter goals, nailed the game-winner 1 minute, 15 seconds into the second extra period, giving the Quakers their only Ivy victory of the season. One year later, two equally well- matched lacrosse teams will be facing each other in Ithaca, N.Y., tomorrow (1 p.m.) Penn (4-3, 0-2 Ivy League) hopes to duplicate its winning ways tomorrow. Both the Quakers and Cornell are again winless in the Ivy League and battling to get out of the Ancient Eight's basement. The Big Red (2-3, 0-2) also would like nothing more than to give up that spot. "The Ivy League is probably year in and year out the toughest league to play in," senior defender Kelleigh Faldi said. "We're going to have to come to play in every Ivy game. Every team's well-coached and all the kids are smart players. Right now we're just taking it one game at a time." The desire and intensity that has marked Penn's practices all season was evident Wednesday night in a 19-6 win over Lafayette. The Quakers executed their plays well, distributing the ball when they had possession and staying with the plays when they did not. "We're getting a lot more people in the offense," Penn coach Terry Corcoran said. "We're getting the ball moving and we're starting to move off the ball better than we did at the beginning of the season. We're getting a lot of shots and scoring a lot of goals. We're getting on top of the cage." Lafayette is not up to the caliber of the Ivy League, but the victory is a good starting point for the Quakers. Penn is hoping to come into tomorrow's game with positive momentum. "The team's a lot thinner this year than it has been in the past," Faldi said. "It makes us play a lot harder. We're trying to play with a lot more intensity. We're going to be in a lot more games this year through hustle, hard work and intensity." Cornell also won Wednesday. The Big Red came from behind to post a 16-14 win over Delaware. Three attackmen are responsible for three-quarters of Cornell's goals this season. Shutting down seniors Anthony Pavone and Chris Danler and freshman Matt Wise will be the focus of Penn's defensive effort tomorrow. The Quakers are also determined to win more of the faceoffs and ground balls. Penn has put five different players on the faceoff with minimal success. The Quakers want to have another high-scoring offensive game tomorrow. Led by Crofton's four goals and five assists, 12 Penn players contributed to the scoring Wednesday. Sophomore attacker Jon Cusson added five goals and three assists as Penn built a 13-goal lead by halftime. Sophomore Travis Heinrichs excelled in goal, stopping 28 Leopards shots. "We've got an explosive group," Corcoran said. "We're scoring a lot of goals, but we have opportunities to score more. We have the potential to score a lot of goals. We've got to finish them." Some things never change.

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