COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- It wasn't rankings, history or experience that decided the Penn men's lacrosse team's matchup with No. 4 Maryland.
And it wasn't talent either.
It was momentum.
Head coach Brian Voelker and the No. 10 Quakers discovered that reality the hard way on Saturday as the powerful Terrapins used an early scoring burst and clamp-down defense to secure their 12-4 Senior Day victory at Byrd Stadium.
Penn (10-3, 4-2 Ivy) was never able to change the direction of the game and suffered the first and only blemish on its nonconference record.
While they did end up making the field of 16 a few days later, the loss likely cost the Quakers a chance at hosting their first-round tournament game.
Penn went into the matchup knowing full well its importance, but the right game plan never materialized for Voelker and his players.
"They're bigger, stronger, faster than us," he said of the Maryland squad. "We talked to our kids all week about making good decisions and doing things the right way, controlling the ball, and we really didn't do a lot of those things."
And that lack of discipline and tenacity was the story from the very beginning as Maryland (10-4) scored on its first possession, getting off six shots against the Quakers defense before eventually finding the net. Meanwhile, on the ensuing possession, Penn quickly turned the ball over on a crease violation without taking a shot.
But though the visitors would take a total of 13 shots in the first quarter -- one less than Maryland -- the only offense Penn could generate was a single unassisted goal scored by freshman Craig Andrzejewski.
At the opening of the next quarter, the Terps came out cold and disjointed on offense. But when Maryland emerged from a timeout taken less than two minutes in, it again looked like the team that knocked off Johns Hopkins three weeks ago. And soon enough, some nifty passing allowed Maryland's Bill McGlone to fire a shot past Penn goalie Greg Klossner's ankles as the Terps quickly righted their ship.
Then the floodgates swung open, and the successive goals came in all shapes and sizes for the Terps. When the dust finally settled, Penn headed into the locker room on the wrong end of a 7-1 score.
All the while, the upset-minded Quakers struggled to finish their drives and to get clean looks at the net.
Voelker attributed his players' offensive struggles in part to Maryland's ability to keep the ball out of their own territory for much of the game.
"When [opponents] have the ball so much, then you start to press on the offensive end a little bit and do some things you don't want to do."
Penn finally managed to get on the board again when senior P.J. Gilbert fired a bullet into the top-left corner of the net, and Penn scored two more, making it 8-4. But Maryland's Joe Walters blew right past Penn's defense and scored for the fourth time with just a minute left in the period, killing any momentum the Red and Blue had built. That goal was the 150th of his career, a school record.
"We made a two-goal run, we had things going, and [then] we just gave them some easy opportunities and they scored," Voelker said.
"I thought [the team's play] got better in the second half, but when you give a team like that a six- or seven-goal cushion, you're not going to win," he added.
Maryland was by no means efficient, committing 17 turnovers -- two more than the Quakers. But when it had chances, the home team rarely failed to deliver.
The Terps outshot the Quakers by a 44-33 margin and also tallied seven assists from six different players. Penn had just one, from junior Alex Salihi.
Also notably absent from Penn's offense were D.J. Andrzejewski, David Cornbrooks and Alan Eberstein, all of whom were held without a point. The trio had combined for almost six points per game before Saturday.
