Penn surges above .500 mark in Ivies

For the first time in five years the Quakers have a winning record (2-1) in the Ivy League this late in the year. In a game it led from start to finish, the Penn men's lacrosse team defeated Dartmouth Saturday, proving to the rest of the Ivy League that they have gone in one year from being bystanders to contenders. Faced with a similar situation as in last year's game, the Quakers (5-3, 2-1 Ivy League) instead showed their relentless desire to win by spoiling the Big Green's (1-4, 0-1) hopes of a comeback. The 15-12 victory gave Penn its first winning record in the Ivy League since April 1, 1992, when the team lost to Yale after opening with a win against Harvard. Coming into the game first-year Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale knew it was going to be a shootout. The Quakers had the better of what offense there was early on and took a 3-1. In the second period that changed as a total of 12 goals were scored, sending the teams into halftime with Penn still leading 10-6. "In the second quarter, it was just trouble communicating with the defense," Quakers defenseman Ziggy Majumdar said. "It was kind of shaky in the beginning. We needed to talk through that. We have a better mental game this year because we have an attitude to win. Our coach is a big part of that." Midway through the third period, as expected, Dartmouth went on a 4-1 run that lasted until 6:59 remained in the game. Led by three goals in that stretch from Dartmouth senior attackman Brian Merritt, a 1995 second team All-Ivy player and All-American honorable mention, the Big Green dwindled the Quakers lead to one, 12-11. The Quakers failed to move over and pick up Merritt when he got past the defender on him. "They weren't sliding," Merritt said. "If they don't slide, it makes it a lot easier on us. One of us would beat our guy and there would be no help. All of my games with these guys during my career have been close. You just try to tie it up, but we couldn't get that equalizer? It is good to see Penn back up again, because they have been down for a few years." With the high expectations instilled by Van Arsdale, Penn answered the gut check. Set up by senior leaders, middie Pete McGill dished the ball to attackman Jon Cusson, who was cutting in front of the net for the score. The move silenced the large Dartmouth crowd and changed the momentum for the last time, leaving it on the side of the Quakers. "It was key," McGill said. "It shows that we know how to win. Last year they would make a run like that, and we would not be able to put it down. We didn't know how to win. I think we are going to get a lot more respect and teams like Brown and Princeton are not going to overlook us." Dartmouth's defense failed to stop the Quakers solid attack led by freshman Pete Janney (4 goals, 3 assists). The tri-captains also made major contributions including junior John Ward (3 goals, 3 assists ), senior Jon Cusson (two goals, 3 assists), and senior Ed Hanover (2 goals, 1 assist). "Our offense seem to have our way when we had the ball," Van Arsdale said. "Our attackmen played fairly patiently. Ward and Cusson getting shut off all day made the right plays each scoring on backdoor cuts." We need to be better in the last couple minutes of the game, and we expect to win that kind of game. It is one to savor and be happy about. With the competition we have coming up, we need to be better, and we can be better." Although not able to contain Merritt, who finished with five goals, the Quakers' defense shut down senior stand out Scott Hapgood who only recorded one assist. Replacing the scoring of Hapgood was sophomore Brandon Henry who had three goals and one assist. Dartmouth's total of 12 goals was far below their score of 21 last year. "We graduated 10 seniors last year," Dartmouth coach Tim Nelson said. "The difference this year compared to last year was that we had more depth last year and they have more depth this year." Besides the score, the rest of the statistics were basically a wash. Penn had the slim advantage in ground balls (36-35) and shots (46-44). Both sophomore goalies had similar success with Dartmouth's Andrew Dance outsaving Penn's Matt Schroeder (15-14). With their first win against Dartmouth in four years, the Quakers have given the school something it has not seen in the past half decade, a winning men's lacrosse team. Led by one of the better attacks in the country and an emerging defense, Penn hopes more surprises are still to come.

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