M. Lax can't keep up with Syracuse

The Penn men's lacrosse team could not match the high-powered offense of the fourth-ranked Orangemen. After this past Saturday's 16-7 defeat at the hands of No. 4 Syracuse, the Penn men's lacrosse team finds itself in the same boat as much of Penn's student body. Like innumerable other students, the Quakers have one last chance -- one final exam -- to make up for some of the rough spots in what has proven to be a topsy-turvy season. "I think we're lucky to still have Delaware on the schedule," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. "They're every bit as tough as Syracuse is offensively and it will give our guys to give one last good account of ourselves, to gain redemption." The loss in Syracuse drops the Quakers (6-7, 2-4 Ivy League) below .500 for the first time this season. If Penn manages to pull out a win against Delaware on May 8, it will mark only the second non-losing season this decade for the Quakers. The only other was in Van Arsdale's rookie season, a 6-6 1997 campaign. The loss was a difficult one to accept for Penn as the Orangemen blew the doors off what had been an evenly played contest by outscoring the Quakers 11-1 in the middle two periods. Penn midfielder Jeff Zuckerman's goal from junior attacker Pete Janney came only 4:58 into the third. The 'Cuse would score nine more before the Quakers would again find the back of the net. More devastating for the Quakers was the knowledge that it was their inability to do the little things that sowed the seeds of their demise. "It's a tough loss to take, coming in the way that it did," senior co-captain Matt Schroeder said. "It's just the overall feeling that we could have made it a lot closer if we had just done some little things better." The Orangemen's 17-goal barrage may, at first glance, point to gargantuan flaws with the Penn defense. But the fault really rested on the Quakers' failure to clear the ball out of their zone. "The problem with the defense is just that we played too much of it," Van Arsdale said. "They pressured the ball very well and they have the athletes to do that but we also made a bunch of unforced errors." The numbers back up Van Arsdale's claim, as Syracuse (7-3) outshot the Quakers 45-23 on the day. When the shooting advantage was a scant 8-6 in the first quarter, the scoring was even at one goal apiece. Once Penn stopped clearing the ball well, the ultra-physical Orangemen were able to open up the contest. Sophomore midfielder Bill Sofield and the rest of the Penn midfield also did a sub-par job of corralling faceoffs, as the Quakers managed to only win 11 of 27. Ground balls were also a Penn sore spot; the 'Cuse scooped 54, while the Red and Blue picked up 46. Penn's defense in straight 6-on-6 situations was solid on Saturday. Senior co-captain Ziggy Majumdar did did a fine job shadowing All-American Ryan Powell, holding the junior attacker to one goal. In the net, Schroeder "did a fine job of making the stops when he needed to," according to Van Arsdale. Still, both co-captains are as culpable as anyone else in their failure to clear the Penn zone. This failure created a domino effect -- Penn wanted to play a slow-paced game but this proved impossible once the 'Cuse built a sizeable lead. As the Quakers adjusted and started to speed things up, they played right into the hands of the bigger and faster Orangemen. "Syracuse was in your face right away everywhere on the field with people that are some of the best athletes in the game," Van Arsdale said. Granted, the Penn attack was handicapped by a minuscule number of chances to shine on Saturday. But even when it had the chance there were too many miscues to propel Penn past a national powerhouse. Zuckerman was the most valued Penn asset, netting three goals and adding an assist. Janney had a hand in three tallies, with one goal and two assists, while sophomore Todd Minerley and junior Chris Wolfe rounded out the list of Penn goal-scorers. The Carrier Dome, inhospitable as it may have been, provided the Quakers with the chance to experience a "big-time event," according to Van Arsdale. Syracuse takes its lacrosse as seriously as its snow removal and a crowd of 3,305 witnessed Penn's lackluster performance.