M. Lax hopes to declaw Tigers

The Quakers host No. 9 Princeton, looking for their first win over the Tigers since 1989. The stage is set for what may be the most exciting Penn-Princeton matchup in recent memory. But the drama won't unfold in the steamy and storied environs of the Palestra. This time, the Tigers-Quakers showdown will play itself out further south on 33rd Street in the crisp, early spring air of Franklin Field. When the players assemble for the start of tonight's match at 7 p.m., Princeton (2-3, 1-0 Ivy League) -- ranked No. 9 in the latest Face-Off Magazine poll -- will put its 20-game Ivy winning streak on the line. To up the dramatic ante, Penn (5-3, 1-2) will try to bounce back from two horribly frustrating one-goal Ivy defeats and even their league record at .500. "On paper this looks like the closest [Penn-Princeton] game in a couple of years," Princeton coach Bill Tierney said. "They have always been tough, but I think this might be the closest." Even if last year's 17-8 Princeton handling of Penn was closer than the score would indicate, there is little doubt that the Tigers have had a talent edge in the past decade. The Quakers last beat Princeton in 1989. Put bluntly, the Tigers have been in a class of their own. After winning their first-ever NCAA Championship in 1992, the young men from Old Nassau have sent nearly every opponent down in defeat en route to a staggering five national championships in seven years. This is not the same dominant Princeton squad, however, that won NCAAs last season. "This is not the same team, so it's not that it matters a lot to me that I beat Princeton before I graduate," Penn senior goalkeeper Matt Schroeder said. "I know that it would matter a lot to our season, though." The Quakers can use a win over Princeton to bounce back from a rough patch in their 1999 campaign. Penn was sitting pretty atop the Ivy League less than a week and a half ago. After a 7-2 destruction of Yale, the Quakers were 1-0 in the Ivies, 4-1 overall. Their then-No. 14 national ranking stemmed largely from a resounding upset over North Carolina, a national powerhouse. The Quakers have gone 0-2 since then. Their most recent disappointment came on Saturday, when they fell 10-9 in an otherwise even matchup with No. 18 Cornell. One week earlier, Penn had come up only one tally short of beating the Harvard Crimson. "Emotionally, those two losses are tough to handle," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. "On one hand, we would like to have more time to prepare for Princeton, but, on the other hand, it's good that we have a chance to turn it around so soon." If the Quakers hope to secure their first Ivy crown since 1988, they need a win tonight. No team has taken the league title with two losses since Brown did it in 1969 and no team has ever won with three losses. "They have those two losses behind them but I think they still have a chance to take the race if they are able to beat us," Tierney said. What scares Tierney most about tonight's duel is the matchup between the always-solid Penn defense and the neophytes on the Princeton attack. The Penn defense has outperformed the Princeton men in back against common foes. And the Quakers held No. 15 North Carolina to a scant seven goals in victory, while Princeton yielded 10 in a sudden-death loss. Yale also sent three more scores into the Tigers net than they managed against Schroeder. "They are a team that plays very tenacious team defense," Tierney said. "We'll need more consistent scoring if we want to put them away." In losing their first three games of the season, the Tigers could not help but feel the effects of the recent graduation of the most productive collegiate attack trio in recent memory. Jon Hess, Jesse Hubbard and Chris Massey are all gone, taking their 618 career points with them. Tierney starts two freshmen and a sophomore in their place. First-year attacker B.J. Prager, Ivy Rookie of the Week, has nine key points so far this season, but the Tigers have had to rely on perimeter and transition scoring from a more senior crew of middies. Princeton's very athletic midfield will force the Quakers to do a better job at clearing the ball after defensive stoppages than they have thus far. "Princeton's athletic dodgers in the midfield will put more pressure on us to clear the ball. We have shown an inability to do this as of late," Van Arsdale said. "We will need to focus to avoid losing in unsettled situations." If the Quakers manage to corral balls in their end and send them safely up the field, they have proven threats who can convert. Junior attacker Pete Janney was named this week's Ivy League Player of the Week after a stellar game where his seven points tied him for 10th on the all-time career Penn point list. Janney, sophomore attack Todd Minerley and senior middie Jeff Zuckerman fill the top three Ivy spots in overall scoring. With this proven firepower and a defense to be reckoned with, the Quakers appear poised to bounce back from recent adversity and best Princeton for the first time in a decade.