Whenever Penn suits up against Maryland, it seems like a lost cause. Over the past four years, the Terps have outscored the Quakers 60-25.
Still, Penn remains optimistic of its chances to upset the nation's No. 7 team when it travels to College Park, Md., for a showdown tomorrow at 1 p.m.
"We really haven't put together four quarters all season," junior midfielder Garvey Heiderman said. "I feel like if we can do that, we can beat anyone. We just have to play a complete game."
That's easier said then done for the Quakers (5-5, 4-3 Ivy), who have struggled to close out games all season. Last week, the Quakers concluded their Ivy campaign with a loss to No. 14 Brown, who broke open a second-half tie to earn an 8-5 win.
Only three weeks ago, however, Penn was ranked No. 20 in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse poll. Since then, the Quakers have disappointed, squeezing in an overtime victory over Dartmouth between devastating losses to No. 4 Cornell and No. 19 Princeton before dropping last week's contest.
The young squad may be meeting its parallel in Maryland. The Terps have also had an inconsistent season, highlighted by a week-long span in which they topped North Carolina and Virginia, then-ranked No. 5 and No. 1 respectively.
They followed that up, though, with back-to-back losses to in-state rivals Navy and Johns Hopkins, dropping them from No. 3 (and a first place vote) to No. 7.
Penn coach Brian Voelker, though, is unfazed by Maryland's perceived inconsistency or its recent trend downward.
"You got to go out there expecting [the team] that beat some of the best teams in the nation is going to show up.'
The root cause for both squads' up-and-down seasons may be youth and inexperience. Penn's roster consists of 25 underclassmen, while Maryland fields a team with 26, including 18 freshmen. On both sides, freshmen have taken on a prominent role offensively.
On Penn, attacker Corey Winkoff and midfielder Al Kohart are second and third in points. Their counterparts on Maryland are Ryan Young - the leader in points and assists - and fellow attacker Travis Reed, the leading goal-scorer.
Defensively, though, Maryland maintains a reputation as one of the biggest, most physical units in the nation, and the numbers support that. The top seven defensive players for the Terps average 6-foot-3 and 221 pounds. Contrast that with the Quakers, who have only one starter that height in Heiderman (who is only 205 pounds).
However, he thinks that the Red and Blue's size disadvantage will be anything but a problem come game-time.
"They're a big, physical team and we're kind of the antithesis of that," he said. "We've had a lot of people tell us how fast we are, and we think we can use that to our advantage."
Maryland will be looking to regain some momentum going into the ACC Tournament, where a decent showing will likely garner them an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Quakers, without a conference tournament, will need an incredible performance in their final three games just to stay on the tournament selection committee's radar.
That slight possibility of an at-large bid, according to Voelker, is why the Quakers continue to schedule the Terps as a late-season foe - even through recent history shows just how much of a mismatch it is.
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