The reeling Penn men's lacrosse team traveled to Cornell hoping to secure its first conference victory, only to return home with another disappointing defeat --its sixth in a row.
Penn scored the first three goals of the game against the No. 10 Big Red, but Cornell came back to take a 6-5 lead heading into halftime.
When coach Brian Voelker and the Quakers left the locker room to begin the second half, the team was confident that they could turn things around.
Indeed, Penn came out and won the first face-off, but soon after that, everything came crashing down. The Big Red outscored the Quakers 9-1 in the final 30 minutes, en route to a 15-6 victory.
For Penn (1-7, 0-3 Ivy), it was the same old story -- a combination of missed opportunities, unlucky breaks and another defeat.
"The reason we're 0-3 [in Ivy League play] is because we haven't played well," Voelker said. "We need to play well in every game."
Penn led 3-2 after the first quarter, but a poor Quakers pass allowed Cornell to score the equalizer.
"We caught a bad break off that pass," Voelker said. "That may have been our downfall."
Penn senior captain DJ Andrzejewski scored the go-ahead goal for Penn four minutes later, but that proved to be the last time the Quakers held a lead.
Cornell's Sean Greenhalgh scored consecutive goals less than 30 seconds apart to take a 5-4 edge.
Both teams would score again again before halftime, and Cornell simply dominated the second half. The Big Red tallied seven straight goals in the third quarter, while Penn was held scoreless for the entire 15-minute period.
Penn sophomore David Cornbrooks opened the fourth quarter by scoring one of his team-high three goals on a feed from Andrzejewski, but Cornell responded with two more goals of its own.
"We had chances, we just have not taken advantage of them," Voelker said. "We made some mistakes defensively and let them get a lead."
For a Penn team that is largely in rebuilding mode after losing two all-Americans from last year's roster, the 1-7 record is not that surprising to Voelker, especially given the Quakers' strength of schedule and lack of experience.
"The other coaches and I knew going into this season that we weren't going to be as talented," Voelker said. "We hoped that the work ethic and success would rub off on the guys though."
Voelker credited his team for its hard work. Against Cornell, though, a number of poor stretches led to another Quakers defeat.
"We've had good stretches," the third-year coach said. "But we need to play well for the entire game."
Indeed, when playing a team as good as Cornell is, there is little room for error.
"Cornell is a very good team," Voelker said. "We could not afford to give them the chances that we did in the second half.
