M. Lax falls to Harvard

Penn's Ivy League losing streak hits 17 games in the 14-11 defeat. The Ivy League sorrows of the Penn men's lacrosse team continue. After travelling Saturday to Ohiri Field in Cambridge, Mass., the Quakers (2-3, 0-1 Ivy League) came back empty-handed, losing to Harvard, 14-11. The loss kept Penn's Ancient Eight losing streak intact, now totalling 17. The Crimson (3-1, 1-0) dominated most of the game, building up several multi-goal leads against the Quakers. To Penn's credit, the Red and Blue never gave up, coming back to tie the game at six going into the half. With many opportunities to take the lead in the game, especially in the second quarter, the Quakers were unable to break through. "They had a few explosive spurts," Quakers freshman middie Billy Reidy said. "They worked the ball around pretty well. We kept our composure and came back with a few spurts of our own. It wasn't enough to come out with a win." The Crimson came out taking the lead in the second half, followed by another Quakers resurgence to tie it at nine after three quarters. In the fourth, Harvard put the game out of Penn's reach, outscoring the Quakers 5-2. Coming into the game, the Quakers knew they were going to have to play well on defense and do all of the little things to be successful against Harvard. The Quakers did do the little things, out performing Harvard in ground balls 49-40, shots 46-35, and faceoffs 19-8. Unfortunately for the Quakers, they could not stop Harvard's explosive defense. With the absence of sophomore defender Brett Bodner, due of his father's sickness, the Quakers defense was unable to successfully run its game plan. He was replaced by freshman Jared Tuller. "We were scrambling around a little bit trying to find ourselves defensively," Van Arsdale said. "I thought the one guy that defensively emerged was Jared Tuller. Jared played their best player, Mike Ferrucci, and did a pretty good job on him (two goals allowed)." The most significant contribution to Harvard's victory came from its goalie, Rob Lyng. Only allowing 25 percent of the Quakers' shots into the net, including 22 saves, Lyng helped the Crimson on many different levels. Van Arsdale was impressed with Lyng's performance but also felt that the Quakers did not take advantage of all of their shooting chances. "Complaining about your shooting or the other goalie in lacrosse sounds like a golfer complaining about their putting," Van Arsdale said. "We had numerous opportunities to score goals with people in good position. Their goalie either made the big save, or we did not shoot the ball particularly well. I think that it was a combination of the two." "There were a few miscommunications," Reidy said. The Quakers' scoring was again dominated by their starting three front-runners, including junior captain John Ward with five goals and one assist, senior captain Jon Cusson with one goal and three assists, and freshman Peter Janney with three goals. Junior middie Joe Mauro and sophomore middie Mark Kleinknecht each added one goal. Although Harvard came into the match ranked 17th in the nation, the Quakers felt disappointed with the loss. In their first Ivy league game of the season, Van Arsdale felt that the team learned a lot about itself. With the Ivy League season now officially underway, the Quakers success will depend if they know enough not to have to learn anything else in the future.