M. Lax set to host Lehigh at Franklin Field

For the defensive-minded Penn men's lacrosse team, the focus has abruptly shifted to the other end of the field.

First-year Penn coach Matt Hogan, who previously coached the nation's top-rated defense at Navy, has the Quakers (6-3) looking for more offensive output. He wants them to concentrate on improving themselves as a team before thinking about Lehigh, who the Quakers host tonight at 7 p.m.

"I watched hours of film, looked at it and said, 'Our schemes are okay. We're just not as fundamentally sound as we were three weeks ago.'"

Hogan's inward shift seems to be working. After anemic scoring in a 7-4 loss to Cornell and an 18-4 loss to Princeton, the Quakers tallied more than twice as many in their 10-7 victory over Dartmouth over the weekend.

Hogan plans to try and score even more today at Franklin Field.

"I think we're going to try to force the issue a little more in transition," Penn's first-year headman said. "We've fine-tuned some things... the biggest difference Saturday was that we shot the ball really well."

In Lehigh, the Red and Blue will be facing a team that is on a three-game winning streak. The Engineers (5-5) topped Mount St. Mary's, 11-6, in Bethlehem, Pa., on April 6 in their last contest. In those three games, the Engineers have averaged 13 goals per game, while allowing only 6.33 shots per game to get into the net.

Lehigh and Penn do share a common opponent. The Engineers topped Lafayette, 14-8, earlier this month, while the Quakers beat the Leopards 15-7 early in the season.

The Quakers aren't too worried about Lehigh's current hot streak or the two teams' shared opponent right now.

"We're not getting overly concerned with what our opponents are doing," Penn goaltender Ryan Kelly said. "If we play our game well, we're hoping to come out on top."

Kelly will play a pivotal role in the battle of the immovable force versus the irresistible object tonight. Lehigh's man-up offense is scoring at a rate of almost 60 percent, which is an astonishingly high percentage. Contrast that with the Red and Blue, however, who are tops in the nation in killing off man-up opportunities.

In the 33 times Penn has been a man-down this season, the Quakers' opponents have scored only four times -- good enough for a penalty-killing rate of 87.9 percent.

"Their man-up offense... is a good challenge for us," Kelly said. "If we do get a penalty, we just have to play the way we've been playing all year."

Additionally, Penn's junior goaltender is ninth in the nation with a goals against average of 7.72. The Quakers as a team allow only 7.56 shots into the net per contest.

In Penn's three-goal triumph over Dartmouth, Mike Iannacone and Scott Solow helped the Quakers' offense come alive, scoring three goals each.

Hogan, however, was most impressed with Alex Kopicki's contributions.

"Typically, a lot of the things he does you don't see in the paper... Three of the goals we scored, Alex didn't get the goal or the assist," he said, "but they happened because of what Alex did."

In tonight's contest, Kopicki is concerned with the opening few minutes in the game.

"If we come out flyin' in the first quarter, it'll set the tone for the rest of the game," he said. "We can build off the energy that we started with."

Daily Pennsylvanian Senior Sports Editor Amy Potter contributed to this report.

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