M. Lax to see Red on Long Island

Penn will face Cornell on Hofstra's campus this year and next. Tomorrow, the Penn men's lacrosse team will be facing it's third Ivy opponent in as many Saturdays. The Quakers, ranked No. 24 in the STX/USILA poll, will travel to the campus of Hofstra in Hempstead, N.Y., where they will meet No. 10 Cornell at 4:00 p.m. Cornell? On Long Island? What's the deal? The Quakers would normally have played the Big Red at Franklin Field this season, but in a mutual agreement, Penn and Cornell decided to face off at Hofstra for the next two seasons for a variety of reasons that both schools consider advantageous. "Both teams have a lot of alumni in the [New York] metropolitan area," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. "We'd like to get a game on Long Island and [Cornell] would as well, but so many of our weekends are locked in with traditional rivals that it's hard to get a game there. So, we decided to go neutral site the next two years." Van Arsdale considers the move beneficial not only because it will satisfy alumni, but he also believes that the game -- which will be televised on Long Island Cablevision -- will aid Penn's recruiting efforts in the Long Island area. Additionally, for a lot of Quakers, the game is a chance to go home for a weekend. "I think it's awesome, because me and a bunch of other guys are all from Long Island," Quakers co-captain and senior defenseman Bill Fowler said. "It's just like playing at Franklin Field -- there's nothing better than going home." Fowler expects the Quakers to be playing in front of a large contingent of friends and family members. He also said that the "very big turnout" would add even more pressure to an already very important matchup. "It puts pressure on us to come out and play a perfect game, like we're supposed to do," Fowler said. Playing a perfect game against Cornell isn't easy, as it involves stopping the Big Red's honorable mention All-American and All-Ivy first-teamer, senior attacker Sean Steinwald. Fowler will draw the unenviable task of shadowing Steinwald -- whom Van Arsdale compared to Penn star attacker Pete Janney -- for the entire afternoon. "Steinwald presents a challenge," Van Arsdale said. "He's a lot like Janney in that, if he gets a step free, he can score from long-range and very quickly. He's always a threat out there." Fowler, though, isn't intimidated by Steinwald's accolades or reputation. "I'm going to handle him the way I usually handle guys," Fowler said. "I'm going to try to prevent him from getting any big shots off. I'm going to be on his hands the whole time and just try to make it a long day for him." Van Arsdale and his senior captain agree that there is more to cracking the Big Red's code than merely solving the Steinwald equation. "I think the biggest challenge they present is that they really make you earn your goals," Van Arsdale said. "They play very good team defense. They have a solid goalie returning." That goalie is sophomore Justin Cynar, little brother of Harvard's senior goalie Keith Cynar, who held the Quakers to 12 goals just last weekend. However, even with Steinwald accounted for, Van Arsdale wasn't overly impressed with the sheer athleticisim of the Big Red. "I don't think individually there's anybody on that team that really stands out as being incredibly scary athletically or whatnot," Van Arsdale said. "I think it has more to do with the group. They're playing very well as a team, they're very well organized." "I think it's going to take a whole defensive stand on our part," Fowler said. "All six defensemen plus the goalie need to be working cohesively. It's not going to be a one-on-one match for each defenseman. It's going to have to be the whole team." The whole team playing the whole game is what Van Arsdale has been looking for in the Quakers' first two matchups of the Ivy season, losses to both Yale and Harvard. Because each team plays each other team only once, each Ancient Eight matchup is of the utmost importance. So, at 0-2 in the Ivy League, are the Quakers feeling the heat? "I think the pressure is just to beat a good team on a weekend," Van Arsdale said, in comparing the Saturday Ivy League losses with midweek drubbings of local teams like St. Joseph's and Lafayette. "I don't even know if it's Ivy versus the local teams," Van Arsdale said. "But it's the quality of opponent that we're going head to head with. In all honesty, we should beat Lafayette and St. Joe's?. Those are games we should win. "I think the Ivy games are different types of challenges, like Notre Dame or Bucknell, another good team that you feel good about going out and playing well against and getting a win." But in terms of the conference season, Fowler believes that the Quakers, with a loss to the Big Red, could soon be facing a desperate situation. "It's a crucial game," Fowler said. "If we win this, it helps keep us in the race. If we lose it, then we're really going to be struggling the rest of the seasonƒ Ivy-wise."

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