Men's lacrosse can't be happy enough to get out of New England.
A hopeful weekend turned sour after the Quakers were shut down Saturday at No. 16 Harvard, 11-4, then lost a 15-11 shootout at Bryant the next day.
After dropping an overtime heartbreaker to Yale over spring break, the Red and Blue (1-5, 0-2 Ivy) hit the road for Ivy League redemption in Cambridge, Mass.
The Crimson (4-1, 1-0) entered Saturday's contest without surrendering more than seven goals to an opponent all season, and they treated Penn no differently.
Harvard's defense limited the Quakers to just 18 shots, while the Crimson offense put up 40 of its own.
The Quakers had just one goal at halftime.
Oddly enough, it wasn't Harvard senior goalie Joe Pike causing Penn's offensive problems - he only had four saves.
"It's pretty incredible to even win a game when your goalie only has four saves," coach Brian Voelker said. "I don't think I've ever been a part of a game where we only generate 18 shots."
Dean Gibbons and Jason Duboe led the Crimson with three and four points, respectively, but five different players hit the back of the net for Harvard in the first quarter alone.
The Red and Blue found themselves in a very different situation against Bryant (6-4).
Both squads came out firing, scoring a combined 14 goals on 44 shots in the first half. The Quakers eclipsed their game total from Saturday with 24 shots before intermission Sunday.
But the Bulldogs were a step ahead the entire game, led by fifth-year senior Zack Greer.
The three-time All-American who transferred from Duke finished with two goals and two assists despite an admirable defensive effort by Penn's Tommy Dodge.
"We paid a lot of attention to him," Voelker said. "He's not a guy who's going to pick up the ball at the end line and kill you, but he does so many other things: he gets ground balls, he drives hard, and I thought he was a very good feeder. He made some big feeds today."
All the attention on Greer, the former NCAA scoring champion, opened the door for sophomore Matt Larson to pour in five goals of his own.
But it was Greer who came through at the critical time.
Down 12-8 at the end of the third quarter, the Quakers scored three goals in quick succession to cut the Bulldogs' lead to one.
Bryant's answer was the reigning national attackman of the year, as Greer scored just 14 seconds after Penn's eleventh goal.
"At the end, when we really needed to get a stop, he kind of put the dagger in our hearts," Voelker said.
Addressing whether fatigue was a factor after playing back-to-back days, senior captain Craig Andrzejewski dismissed the idea.
"We can't make excuses," he said. "You've still got to come out whether it's back-to-back games or you've got a week in between."
The Quakers have a week before their next game. And in between now and then, something has got to give.
"The bottom line is: We're .very disappointed in the year so far," Voelker said. "We've gotta figure out real quick how to get this thing moving in the right direction."
