M. Lax draws Navy at NCAAs

This past Monday, the Penn men's lacrosse team found itself huddled in a locker room.

But the Quakers weren't preparing for a practice or a game. They were in the Palestra -- crowded into the men's basketball team's locker room to watch ESPNews' NCAA lacrosse tournament selection show.

The Red and Blue (7-6, 3-3 Ivy) were hoping for their first at-large bid to the postseason since 1989.

The team's wish was granted, as the Quakers were matched up against No. 2 Navy. The two teams will square off Sunday at noon in Annapolis, Md.

Penn has lost 12 straight times to the Midshipmen, including a 12-11 defeat to Navy in its last tournament appearance.

Before the selection show, Penn coach Brian Voelker said he felt fairly confident the Quakers would receive a playoff birth.

"I thought there was really no way we couldn't get in," he said.

Still, Voelker says that he, along with the players and assistant coaches, was ecstatic when their name was called.

"There were a lot of excited people," he said. "It's a great honor for our team."

While the Quakers, currently ranked No. 13 nationally, did not have the nation's best record, they were helped by their high strength of schedule.

Penn had the NCAA's eighth hardest schedule in 2004, taking on five teams currently ranked in the top 10. The Quakers defeated two top 10 programs on the year, defeating No. 7 Cornell and then-No. 10 Brown.

Voelker admits, however, that at the beginning of the season he wondered whether his team could handle such difficult opponents.

"I talked to a lot of people at the beginning of the year about our strength of schedule," he said. "I thought we might have done it a year too early.

"However, I knew that if we went .500, we're going to have a pretty legitimate chance at the playoffs. Our kids rose to the occasion."

Cornell is the only squad in the 16-team field which Penn has defeated, as the Quakers topped the Big Red, 10-8, on April 3 at Franklin Field.

Penn has fallen to four other tournament teams -- No. 1 Johns Hopkins, No. 3 Maryland, No. 6 Princeton and Army.

However, the Quakers did compete with some of these top flight teams. The Red and Blue lost to Hopkins, 10-9, in their Feb. 28 season opener.

Voelker feels that these close losses had nothing to do with the team's selection, as the NCAA concentrates solely on wins, strength of schedule and RPI.

Penn is ranked 10th in the nation in RPI.

While Penn is playing the second-ranked team in the nation, it does not mean that the Quakers are seeded 15th in the nation.

The NCAA selection committee ranks only the top eight squads in the country and then pairs these teams up with opponents according to location and skill level.

Six teams receive automatic bids to the tournament for winning their conference championships.

Cornell received the automatic bid for the Ivy League, although the Big Red tied Princeton for the regular season championship. The Big Red received the automatic bid as a result of defeating the Tigers head-to-head.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.