As most Quaker fans are preparing for Fling, the Penn men’s lacrosse team is setting out on its final Ivy road trip of the season, and the stakes are higher than ever.
This Saturday the Quakers (6-3, 2-2 Ivy) will venture up to Cambridge to face off against the Crimson (5-6, 1-2 Ivy).
“It’s going to be a close, one point game again. I would be surprised if this isn’t a tightly contested game,” coach Mike Murphy said. “They have a very talented team and are well coached.”
Harvard’s head coach is a familiar fellow. Chris Wojcik was an assistant coach at Penn for two seasons, one of those under Murphy.
“We are expecting a great game. Every time we play Harvard they are always a great team, very athletic,” junior Zack Losco said. “This year they have a lot of talent so we are expecting a great game from them.”
Losco leads the Red and Blue with 16 goals. He has racked up 11 goals in the last five games, including hat tricks against Villanova and Denver.
Harvard’s strength is concentrated in three strong offensive players: freshman Devin Dwyer, junior Peter Schwartz and senior Alex White.
“They have a couple guys at the offensive end that are very good,” Murphy said. “[And] they have a bunch of good guys that can shoot the ball hard and dodge.”
“We are really trying to stop those guys with all six players on defense and we are really focusing on that in film and just watching what they do, making sure we know what they are going to do,” Losco said. “We are really trying to use everyone, it’s a whole team effort when it comes to defense.”
Harvard is coming off two close losses to top-10 teams and a big win on Tuesday over Quinnipiac.
“They have lost to two top . . . teams by a goal or two. That probably gives them a simultaneous combination of urgency but also confidence knowing that they can play with these teams,” Murphy said. “I think they are going to be hungry and a little bit confident despite the losses.”
The Quakers are also hungry for victory. Last week the Red and Blue had a big win against Brown, relying on their defense to break a streak of two Ivy losses.
Penn is hoping for a similar showing in Cambridge this Saturday.
And as the season begins to come to a close, the Red and Blue are looking to finish out strong and use their acquired skills to prevail.
“Teams play us differently — the way Cornell and Yale played us at their defensive end is very different than how Villanova or other teams played us,” Murphy said. “We talked in the locker room about a number of weapons in our arsenal now that we have developed strategies to attack all those different types of defenses.”
With only two games left in Ivy play and the conference records of all the teams so close, every game counts.
“Every game is a playoff game from here on out. This is a must-win game. We want to match their intensity. They are going to be coming out flying,” Losco said. “They are coming off of two big [Ivy] losses so this is a big game for them. So we just have to match their intensity, make our plays and play our game.”
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