M. Lax set to tangle with national champs

"We're scared to death." These are not exactly the words one would expect from the coach of the defending national champion, but Princeton men's lacrosse coach Bill Tierney is sincerely troubled by this afternoon's 4 p.m. game against Penn. The Tigers that will be visiting Franklin Field are not the same team that won the NCAA title in May. But the disparity between No. 5 Princeton (4-2, 1-0 Ivy League) and the Quakers is still immense. Though Princeton has lost 13 players to graduation, including four first-team all-Americans, Penn (4-4, 0-3) enters today's game as a severe underdog. The team looks at this game as an opportunity to improve -- both its play and its image in the eyes of the lacrosse world. "It's a great opportunity for us," Penn coach Terry Corcoran said. "We're going in pretty loose. We'll be excited to play." On the defensive end, Penn will have to stop Scott Conklin, who is currently Princeton's leading scorer with 12 goals and five assists. The attack is the Tigers' weak suit following the graduation of 1994 Ivy League Player of the Year Kevin Lowe, who scored at least one point in every game of his Tigers career. "We can't score goals," Tierney said. "We are very young offensively and haven't clicked yet. The key will be if we can stop Penn from scoring a lot of goals." Princeton goaltending does not appear to have lost anything, despite the graduation of Scott Bacigalupo, winner of the 1994 NCAA Player of the Year award, two Final Four MVP trophies and three national goaltending titles. His replacement, Pat Cairns, currently leads the Ivy League with an 8.65 goals-against average. Against Ivy opponents, he is only allowing six goals per game. Saturday the Quakers fell to the Cornell Big Red in Ithaca. The tying goal was scored by Cornell with 47 seconds left to play, and the game winner came with only three seconds remaining. Despite this heartbreaking loss, Penn has had little trouble regrouping. The Quakers are looking to the future and to Princeton. "Against Cornell, we played harder and better than we've played all year," Corcoran said. "We played with a lot of emotion. It was a full team effort. Now the key is to see if we can come back and do it again after we've been disappointed." Junior attacker Andy Crofton, Penn's leading scorer, excelled in the loss, contributing seven goals and three assists to earn Ivy League Player of the Week honors. Penn is hoping for another strong offensive showing, keyed by Crofton and his linemate, sophomore attacker Jon Cusson. Cusson is ranked third in the Ivy League in scoring, one spot below Crofton. "We've got to play hard and with some composure," Corcoran said. "We're going to get more physical on defense, talking and communicating." According to Tierney, today's game depends on "whose style prevails." "It is impossible to gauge the intensity, rivalry and history behind an Ivy League game," Tierney said. "Penn has scored a lot of goals, but other teams have been able to score on them. Penn would like a fast run-and-gun game. We want a low-scoring style, a more under-control game."