He shoots, he doesn't score

COLLEGE PARK, MD. - You can't score if you don't shoot. Or, in the case of the men's lacrosse team, you can't score even if you do shoot.

The Quakers followed up terrible shooting performances against Princeton and Brown with another one at Maryland. They lost all three games by a combined 31-14 score.

Yet even more startling was Penn's shooting percentage in each game. After shooting 13 percent in Princeton, the Quakers hovered around nine percent against the Bears and the Terps.

"It's unheard of to shoot nine percent, which we've done the past two games," coach Brian Voelker said after the Maryland game.

"We got 40-some shots and you have to get more goals if you want to win. I think by dumb luck you have to score more goals than that."

This problem is drastic and places Penn among the least efficient Division-I teams. Its 19.9 percent shooting is tied for fifth-worst in the nation, ahead of only teams from the America East, Lacrosse America and Patriot conferences, ones with lesser reputations than the Ivy League.

Even more startling, though, the Red and Blue are the only D-I team to average over 40 shots per game while shooting under 20 percent. Other teams shooting that often include Duke, Virginia, Syracuse and Notre Dame - all ranked in the top 20.

This high-frequency, low-efficiency shooting may be having some unintended consequences.

"The more shots you get, the more in rhythm you get," Maryland goalie Brian Phipps said. "If you go a quarter and you only get seven shots on goal and only make three saves, it's demoralizing and frustrating. The more shots you get, the more chances you have to get on fire and keep it going."

Voelker, however, only partially agrees with this statement. He knows that quality shots will get past even the best netminders, but that the Quakers have been shooting directly at the goalkeepers.

"The bottom line is we have good opportunities to take good shots, but we're not taking good shots," he said.

The biggest offenders for the Red and Blue haven't been their primary offensive weapons. Leading goal-scorers Craig Andrzejewski and Alex Weber are the only Quakers with more than 10 goals who are shooting above a 20 percent clip. Freshman Al Kohart, on the other hand, has struggled to find the net recently after his early-season success, shooting 18 percent on the year.

The Quakers are quick to point out their talented opposition in net. Phipps earned Atlantic Coast Conference Freshman of the Year honors last year. Prior to that game the Quakers shot at Brown's Jordan Burke, statistically the top goalie in the nation and Princeton's Alex Hewit, a 2007 second-team All-American.

For Penn, though, each of them bore a closer resemblance to a brick wall than a lacrosse goalie. With Towson, a weak team defensively, on tap for next weekend, the Quakers will look to regain some confidence. It's confidence they will need if they hope to compete offensively next year.

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