M. Lax bid to spoil Princeton's streak foiled by late rally

The Tigers overcame a 7-3 Penn lead to extend their Ivy win streak to 21. It is now official -- the Penn men's lacrosse team is better than its record indicates. The Quakers' 9-8 loss to Princeton on Tuesday night brings their season mark to 5-4 and their Ivy record to 1-3. Numbers can lie, however, as Penn's three Ivy defeats have been hard-fought, one-goal league losses. More importantly, this record misleads because the Penn squad thwarted the No. 9 Tigers, the defending NCAA champions, for much of Tuesday's contest. "Early on, Penn outplayed, outhustled, outcoached, outshot and basically outperformed us everywhere," Princeton coach Bill Tierney said. Through much of the second and third quarters, Penn dominated play. After a batch of aggressive back-and-forth checking in the Penn end of the field, Quakers freshman middie Scott Solow sent a goal into the Princeton net with 5:31 left in the third to stretch Penn's lead to 7-3. "I don't think we were ever really far ahead of them," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. "The effort was there the whole time but we just seemed to get the better of them in the second and some of the third." With the Red and Blue ahead 7-3, the atmosphere at Franklin Field teemed with enthusiasm. The crowd of 600, spurred on by the tunes of the Penn band, was ready to witness an upset. The Quakers appeared set to sever Princeton's Ivy winning streak at 20. But the tide turned for good after Solow's score. The ensuing faceoff was well-contested, with neither team gathering the ball right away. Penn defenseman Barrett Nixon eventually scooped it up and did precisely what Van Arsdale has been stressing -- he sent it back to the keeper. "Barret made a great play on a ground ball," Van Arsdale said. "He did what we've been telling our guys to do against a team like Princeton, to settle the play by passing it to [Penn keeper] Matt [Schroeder]." Nixon's attempt to counter the hard-riding Princeton midfield backfired, however. His pass never got far enough off the ground to clear the waiting stick of Tigers All-American Lorne Smith, who intercepted the pass and flicked it slyly past an out-of-position Schroeder. "It was really not something that I did," the 6'3" Smith said. "He might not have realized how tall I am. It just came to me and I reacted." Smith's tally meant that the Tigers still trailed by three goals. The goal's freakish character, however, had lasting effects on the contest. "Smith's goal was very big for us," Tierney said. "One thing it did was to give us confidence that we could do more than what we were doing. I think it also deflated them a bit." Deflation is an apt term considering Smith's putaway kicked off a string of six unanswered Princeton scores that took the air right out of the Quakers. The boys from Old Nassau relied heavily on the shortsticks of junior middie Josh Sims and sophomore attacker Matt Striebel to gain a 9-7 advantage. Sims put points on the board with an unassisted tally at 12:11 of the third and with a sizzling shot that went top shelf past Schroeder with 7:53 left in the final period -- Princeton's ninth and final goal. Striebel was equally clutch. He closed the third with a short-range goal that evoked jeers from Penn fans who wanted him penalized for being in the crease. He also knotted the score at 7-7 less than a minute into the fourth. "We didn't shoot well in the first three quarters. That changed toward the end," Striebel said. "We also started to dodge much more that way. We were able to basically manufacture our own momentum." Penn sophomore attacker Todd Minerley narrowed the Tigers' 9-7 lead to one with 4:43 left in the game to cap a four-goal outing. He came around the Princeton net and after making contact with more than one Tigers defender, sent the ball to the right of sophomore keeper Trevor Tierney. Tierney, the son of the Tigers coach, had come in to replace starting goalie Corey Popham. But the Quakers would get no closer. After winning the next faceoff, the Tigers kept the ball safely in the Penn end. Although junior Chris Berrier had the only quality Princeton chance in the game's final stretch, this mattered little, as the Tigers' main concern was with taking time off the clock. Defenseman Brett Bodner then corralled the ball for the Quakers after some forceful Penn checking. Van Arsdale called a timeout with 1:35 left to play to set up the strategy for the game's end. The Quakers were unable to capitalize in the final 1:35. Still, Minerley did have two solid looks at the cage. His last attempt came in an unexpected breakaway with a mere 13 ticks on the clock. "I struggled to get my footing and took the shot off-balance," Minerley said. "We did fine at the end. It could have gone either way." Senior middie Mark Kleinknecht had two early goals for the Quakers. Junior attacker Pete Janney also added one on the day to broaden his lead in the Ivy League points race. Princeton's comeback ought not cloud the tremendous display put on by the Penn defense. The Red and Blue were at an inherent disadvantage on Tuesday as senior co-captain Ziggy Majumdar missed the game to attend his father's funeral. "I am very proud of the effort that this team put out there. Ziggy couldn't be there but a bunch of people stepped up," Van Arsdale said. "Matt's [Schroeder] play in goal was just terrific all night." Schroeder was stellar between the pipes. His 14 saves doubles the number posted by the two Princeton keepers together. The Tigers outshot the Quakers 38-26, so the pressure was on him throughout. The Red and Blue now have a few days to catch their collective breath before Dartmouth comes to Franklin Field at 1 p.m. on Sunday. A win then would up Penn's Ancient Eight record to 2-3, but that does not even begin to tell the story.

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