M. Lax: Quakers let win slip away after early lead

Things looked very good for the Penn men's lacrosse team in the first three quarters of Sunday's game at Brown.

Forty-five minutes into the game, the Quakers led, 9-6, outshooting the Bears, 34-16.

Dominating the game, Penn looked like it was headed for its first Ivy win in five tries.

But the ensuing 18 minutes, 45 seconds were an entirely different story as Penn ended up losing its lead and eventually the game, 10-9, in overtime.

"For most of the game, we were beating them in all aspects of the game, all over the field," Penn junior Will Phillips said. "But at the end of the game, they had more intensity."

The fourth quarter saw Brown outshoot Penn, 8-4, as the Bears netted three goals in four minutes to tie the game at nine with just over four minutes to play.

But neither side could score in these remaining minutes and the game went to overtime.

In the extra session, Brown had the first shot at scoring the winning goal but failed, as senior Jon Thompson -- tied for second in the Ivy League's in scoring -- fired a shot into Penn goalie Mark Gannon's mask.

It was then the Quakers' turn to try to get the game-winner, as senior co-captain Alex Kopicki fired a shot at the Brown net. But the Bears' All-American goalie, junior Mike Levin, answered with a save of his own to keep his team alive.

As the overtime period came to a close, Gannon made another save on Thompson, but this time the ball bounced off the Penn goalie and landed in his own crease.

Brown junior Charles Towers was the first to get to the rebound, sweeping it into the net to give his team the 10-9 win, ending the Bears' five-game slide.

After the game, the Quakers still could not understand how they let this one get away.

"I'm still pretty shocked and confused," Penn coach Brian Voelker said. "We had control the whole time. I've got to give credit to the Brown players and coaches. They could have easily quit, but they never gave up."

The team agrees that it should have been able to put this game out of reach but failed to capitalize on several opportunities.

"We had several chances to put it away," Phillips said. "But [Brown] never gave up, and they came up with some huge stops."

One reason why the Quakers were unable to pull away at the end was their poor shooting percentage -- Penn lost despite outshooting its opponent, 41-27.

"We're not a great shooting team," Voelker said. "This is why we couldn't put the game out of reach."

Kopicki believes that Brown's soft grass field -- in contrast to Franklin Field's hard turf -- contributed to Penn's poor shooting percentage.

"The shots we took today were technically good," Kopicki said. "We had our hands free and good looks at the net. But we tried to bounce the ball, but on the grass, the balls weren't bouncing. They just died."

One bright spot on the day, however, was Phillips' continuing his points streak -- now at 15 games -- in dramatic style, scoring a career-high five goals.

"We've been counting on Will a lot this year," Voelker said. "He's out of his position -- [having moved from midfield to attack this year] -- but he plays hard, is a leader and is very consistent."

Kopicki had nothing but praise for his teammate.

"He's really stepped it up as a junior leader on the team," Kopicki said. "I am so happy for him that he had such a great game. Unfortunately, we couldn't give him a win today."

Phillips modestly credited his success to his teammates.

"Our offense is playing really well," he said. "They are setting me up well. Most of the goals I get are only because they are set up well by other guys."

Though his team lost, Voelker believed that the players gave it their all.

"Everyone gave a great effort," he said. "Our last few games we lost because we did not put in a good effort. But today was not that case."

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