The high level of competition and balance within Ivy League lacrosse leaves a team little time to gloat over its victories.
Following one of the most impressive wins in the history of Penn lacrosse, a 10-8 decision over No. 9 Cornell, the Red and Blue (5-3, 2-1) must take on defending Ivy League champion Dartmouth -- in Hanover, N.H.
The road has been one of the few weak spots for the Quakers this season, as they have gone 0-3, including sub-par performances against Army and Yale.
"I switched a bunch of stuff up this week," Penn coach Brian Voelker said. "I think our guys are going to have different roommates and we are going to do different dinner and I told them that if we don't start winning on the road that we're going to be eating at McDonald's."
Penn's first road performance against Johns Hopkins surprised the lacrosse world, as the Red and Blue nearly beat the 42-time national champions. However, the last two road games have been both disappointing and frustrating in an otherwise spectacular season for the Quakers.
"I really think it's just a mental thing right now for us," senior defenseman Pat Connelly said. "We just have to travel well. Being on the road is always tough, there are so many things that you have to deal with -- something always goes wrong or something always happens.
"It's just really a lack of mental focus we got to change right now."
Despite their troubles on the road, the Quakers have been playing sound lacrosse at Franklin Field, especially toward the end of games. They have a plus-four goal differential in the fourth quarter of the last two contests and have amassed an overall record of 5-0 at home.
"I guess we really just get into the flow," said Connelly, who is normally assigned the task of covering the opponent's best player. "Sometimes it takes a little while to step up in the first quarter, which has been a problem, but by the fourth quarter we find a rhythm and go from there."
Although the Quakers experienced some rough times at the beginning of the season, the defense has suffocated opposing offenses recently. The superb play by the defenseman and midfielders has resulted in a 6.33 goals against average in the last three games -- lower than the season average of any Ivy League team.
"I think everybody finally realized that we just need to stay within ourselves," senior goalie Ryan Kelly said. "I think, early on, some guys were trying to do a little too much. So we just started playing within ourselves and we started coming together as a unit."
Dartmouth was one of the surprise teams in lacrosse last season, as the Big Green jumped from an 0-6 conference record and 6-7 overall record two years ago to 5-1 in the Ivies and 11-3 overall last season.
"I think the team last year kind of snuck up on people," Voelker said. "I think our kids last year thought it was the old Dartmouth, who they have beaten I don't know how many times in a row, and we did everything we could last year to explain to them that was not the case, that this was a pretty good team."
The Red and Blue's next two games against Dartmouth and Princeton will determine the success of their season. The Quakers have put themselves in position to get to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1988, but must go through the Big Green and the Tigers to do so. Going 1-1 against two of the nation's top teams would leave the Quakers in a good position to gain a spot in the tournament, but two losses would all but crush their hopes.
"We don't talk about playoffs, we just talk about winning one game," Voelker said. "We're on a little bit of a roll and the Cornell game definitely gave us some confidence. ... But if we don't win on Saturday, the Cornell win doesn't mean a whole lot."
