If the men's lacrosse team was feeling any pressure from being undefeated four games into the season, it didn't show on Saturday.
Instead, Penn used a 6-0 run between the first and second quarters to grab its fifth straight win, beating Yale in New Haven by a score of 11-7. It is the program's first 5-0 start in over 20 years.
"We came out strong, got a couple-goal lead and played real well in the first quarter," Penn coach Brian Voelker said.
No. 20 Penn (5-0, 1-0 Ivy) jumped out to a 7-1 lead -- on goals scored by six different players -- and took a four-goal advantage into halftime. The Elis (2-3, 0-1) crept back and cut the deficit to three with under two minutes to play, but that was as close as they ever got.
"I thought the game was a little closer" than the score indicated, Voelker said.
Nonetheless, the Quakers kept Yale from mounting a serious charge, and when senior D.J. Andrzejewski tallied his second score of the game to make it 11-7 with under two minutes left, Penn was clearly in command.
Senior James Riordan also added four goals and junior David Cornbrooks had two on the day for Penn.
The Quakers took just 34 shots on the day to Yale's 44, but junior goalkeeper Gregory Klossner recorded a season-high 17 saves to help preserve the victory.
"The last few years we haven't handled Yale's pressure very well," Voelker said. They run "kind of a pressure defense, and we handled it pretty well on Saturday.
"We just controlled the ball. ... When we got the good shots, we buried them."
Penn also won 11 of 21 face-offs, a slight improvement from an 11-for-26 performance in last week's overtime win against UMBC.
The Quakers will not have much time to celebrate, though, as they hit the road to take on Bucknell Tuesday.
The Bison are fresh off of a double-overtime upset of No. 1-ranked Maryland, but didn't receive any votes themselves in the last national coaches' poll.
Bucknell did, though, beat Penn 8-7 last year at Franklin Field.
"We have a big job ahead of us on Tuesday," Voelker said.
But he added that he is still pleased with his team's performance thus far.
Yale had beaten Penn in its Ivy League opener each of the past two seasons.
PENN 6 1 3 1 -- 11
Yale 1 2 2 2 -- 7
