The Penn men's lacrosse team is not a top-10 team on paper.
True, the Quakers do hold their opponents to less than seven goals per game, good for third in the Ivy League.
And Penn does boast a 30.7 shooting percentage, and almost 11 goals per game, both behind only league-leading Cornell.
But for nearly every encouraging statistic, there is another one suggesting that the Red and Blue is living on thin ice.
Most glaring is the fact that the Quakers turn the ball over at an alarming rate, giving up the rock almost 14 times per game. No. 6 Princeton, by contrast, has committed only 12 turnovers in seven games.
Moreover, the Quakers win just 50 percent of their face-offs, and they would fare much worse were it not for a 21-for-26 performance in their season-opening pounding of Siena.
Statistics for an average team, to be sure. But certainly not for one that boasts a 7-1 record and a No. 9 national ranking.
In fact, a shooting percentage over 30 seems to be the only thing keeping Penn afloat as the Quakers barely take more shots per game than their opponents.
All of these imperfections, though, do not seem to have slowed the team down or to have kept it from beating some of the nation's best.
And new approaches on both ends of the field have helped.
For one, Penn relies on more players to shoulder the offensive load than it has in years past.
"We have a lot more weapons on the offensive end," senior captain D.J. Andrzejewski said.
"Everyone has a green light on our offense."
Indeed, Penn has five players who have already reached double figures in points, led by Andrzejewski and senior James Riordan's combined 36 goals.
Compare that to last year's performance, which featured no real scoring threat outside of Andrzejewski and just three players scoring 10 or more goals.
This year, even when Penn has made mistakes, it has not been forced to look to the same few players to make up that production.
That freedom has allowed the team to field a more complete offense.
"A lot of times when you're turning the ball over, it's because you're trying to make things happen," Penn coach Brian Voelker said.
And on the defensive end, Voelker's pressure scheme has slowed the game down and allowed the team to gamble.
"We're playing very good defense, which allows us to take some chances on the offensive end," he said.
Although opponents have committed 88 turnovers to Penn's 110, the Quakers have forced 36 of those turnovers, compared to just 19 by their opponents.
All of this means that Penn can still succeed, as long as its defense keeps opponents from forcing turnovers and scoring in transition.
It has done that so far, but some of that success has been intangible, as Penn has let few late mistakes come back to bite.
"When we turned it over [against Cornell], we didn't turn it over in real crucial moments," Voelker said.
He will also tell you, though, that the team will not always be so lucky. Penn still needs to control about half of the game's faceoffs to have a good chance of winning and cannot afford to give the ball up late in games.
And with matchups against ranked Princeton and Maryland on the horizon, the Quakers will have plenty of opportunities to improve.
Hopefully for them, they won't have to get lucky to win.
