M. Lax opens its season this weekend at St. Joe's After losing to Towson 14-12 and Hobart 14-11 in exhibition games during the past two weeks, the Quakers are hoping to start the season off strong. The game marks the first meeting for the two teams at St. Joe's home field. In their first meeting last season, the Quakers disposed of the Hawks 20-11. The victory gave Penn's coach Marc Van Arsdale his first victory in his first game as coach of the Quakers. "We were very nervous going into the game," Van Arsdale said. "It started out kind of slowly. It ended up becoming a real good boost for us. We needed to feel good about ourselves, being a team that had been through a lot of losing." The team went on to further success, breaking their 17-game Ivy League losing streak against Cornell and finishing the year with a 6-6 record (3-3 Ivy League). This season the Quakers will be without the services of Jon Cusson, Ed Hanover, Pete McGill and Al Patton due to graduation. But Penn has many key players returning, including last year's Ivy League Rookie of the Year, Pete Janney, and last season's leading goal scorer and current co-captain John Ward. Last season Ward was selected honorable mention All-American and first team All-Ivy. Middie Joe Mauro and defender Joe Siedlecki are also returning as co-captains for this year's squad. The Hawks should provide more competition than last year. A relatively young program, the Quakers highlight St. Joe's rather dismal schedule. The Hawks are led by attackmen Bill Oaks and Drew Scott and goalie Ryan McQuade. "They are a scrappy enough team and have enough skill, so if we are not doing things the right way, they could make the day quite miserable for us," Van Arsdale said. "If they get the right people on the field and hold the game close for a while, they could make it quite difficult." Besides starting the year with different players, the Quakers will have to deal with quite a few changes. The first will be Saturday when they come into the game as a favorite. With the nation starting to take notice, the game is an important one for Penn to build on.
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