Out of Ivy title contention, Penn men's lacrosse falls in ACC-Penn Classic

Done.

After staging a miraculous late-season rebound to put itself in position to potentially qualify for postseason play, Penn men’s lacrosse was eliminated from contention for the Ivy League Tournament on Saturday before taking itself out of playoff consideration with a loss to No. 8 Virginia in the ACC-Penn Classic later that night.

In the first edition of the Quakers’ matchup with the fifth-place team in the hyper-competitive Atlantic Coast Conference, Penn found itself in a rough position early on and could not rebound against the Cavaliers, eventually falling, 12-6.

“To beat a team like that we needed to play well in all places,” coach Mike Murphy said. “And I don’t think we played well enough.”

One year after clinching the Ivy League championship with two wins in the conference tournament, the Red and Blue (6-7) endured a midseason slump in which they dropped four consecutive contests, including a triple-overtime loss against then-No. 7 Cornell. Penn managed to kickstart the end of its season with an enormous win over Brown on April 4, and the Quakers emerged victorious in their final three Ivy contests.

However, after Brown defeated Dartmouth earlier in the day on Saturday, the Quakers were relegated to finishing tied for fourth in the Ancient Eight with Yale. However, the Elis managed to secure the bid in the Ivy League Tournament by virtue of their head-to-head 15-7 win over Penn on March 28.

With the chance of defending their Ivy title gone by the time the game against Virginia (10-4) started, the only hope the Quakers had of making the postseason was tied to securing a win over the Cavaliers.

And early on, it seemed like the squad might have had a chance.

Penn started the game off strong with the contest’s first goal three minutes in as freshman Kevin McGeary scored off an assist from junior Nick Doktor.

That’s when Virginia stole the show. The Cavaliers — who finished fifth out of the five teams in the ACC — scored nine goals stretching from the first to fourth quarters before Penn was able to get on the board again.

“I give credit to Virginia, their defense played very well,” Murphy said. “They’ve got some very good athletes. [But] our boys played pretty well.

“We won quite a few faceoffs early on [and] then lost momentum in the second quarter. We rode well but didn’t clear great.”

With under 15 minutes to play, midfielder Austin Kreinz gave the Quakers some momentum with his successful shot. At that point, Virginia and Penn traded goals for several minutes until the Quakers captured the final two to solidify the outcome.

“At the end of the day, we were 6-7 and that’s what we are,” Murphy said. “We played the toughest schedule. We worked as hard as we could to get to that point.

“I feel good about the year. I don’t feel good about the record but we worked extremely hard as a team.”

On the other end of the field, junior Jimmy Sestilio and senior John Lopes split the time in goal, with each playing 30 minutes apiece. It was a fitting end to a season in which the Red and Blue split between the two goalkeepers nearly every game.

“I feel like by the end of the year we were playing well, we made some adjustments and started playing better defense really after the Yale game,” Murphy said.

This will be the first time in three years that the Quakers don’t continue their season into May. However, Murphy is still proud of his squad.

“I’m very proud of our team and the effort,” Murphy said. “We had a great senior class and they really did handle themselves very well throughout the year, and throughout their four years.”

When this senior class came to Penn, the program was in a very different place. An Ivy championship seemed way out of reach for the Quakers, let alone a home game in the NCAA Tournament. But it all happened.

“Where this program is relative to 2011 when the seniors arrived is really night and day,” Murphy said. “The seniors should have a lot to feel good about.”

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