After finally hanging on to upset a ranked team, the men's lacrosse team finds itself somewhere it hasn't been in over a year: the top 20.
Thanks to their 12-10 win over then-No. 19 Harvard Saturday, the Quakers (4-2, 2-0 Ivy) have moved into the final spot in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse poll released yesterday.
Still, head coach Brian Voelker is reluctant to read too much into the poll.
"The parents are excited and the kids get to read that stuff in the paper," he said.
Penn has not been ranked since March 5 of last year, after it began the season 3-0. Consecutive losses to Bucknell and University of Maryland-Baltimore County, however, caused them to drop out.
Earlier this season, the Quakers received votes for the poll. However, due to their inability to finish upsets over Drexel and Denver, they were unable to crack the top 20 until this week.
Diaper Dandies. The men's basketball team isn't the only squad of Quakers who can boast a talented group of freshmen this year.
Midfielder Al Kohart and attack Corey Winkoff lead a group of 11 freshmen, six of whom have seen game action. They've each been honored twice as Ivy League Rookie of the Week through the first four weeks of the season.
Winkoff, who dished out six of the Quakers' seven assists against Harvard Saturday, credits his more experienced teammates for his success.
"I think the easiest part is the players that are surrounding me," he said. "There are juniors who are really unselfish and make it a lot easier for everyone else to get better."
On a team that starts only one senior, the freshman contribution has been essential to the team's success. Winkoff and Kohart are second and third, respectively, in points for the Red and Blue, trailing only junior captain Craig Andrzejewski.
Kohart is "a heck of a talented athlete, he's a big time scorer and he shoots the heck out of the ball," Voelker said. "[Winkoff] had a great game on Saturday and we're expecting those guys to continue to do those things for the rest of the season."
Winkoff and midfielder Terry Kennedy are the only two freshmen to have started every game. Kohart typically comes on primarily in offensive situations.
On top, but it's early. With wins over Yale and Harvard to start league play, the Quakers find themselves at the top of the league standings.
As the only team to play two games, though, this does not mean much. No. 6 Cornell and Brown are 1-0, while No. 16 Princeton has yet to begin its conference season. The standings will begin to take shape after this weekend, when the Big Red visits Franklin Field and the Tigers take on Yale.
