Penn men's lacrosse to face Virginia in ACC clash

Before the start of Penn men’s lacrosse’s Saturday night game, the team will know whether it has secured the final spot in the Ivy League Tournament.

Regardless, the Quakers will approach their matchup with No. 8 Virginia with the same win-or-go-home attitude they have had the past three weeks.

“We’re going into this knowing all along that we’ve had two avenues to the NCAA Tournament,” coach Mike Murphy said. “One of them is an at-large bid, and one of them is through the Ivy League.”

“I said to the team yesterday, ‘We could have four days together or we could have four weeks together,’ and we’re going to go about it like both are possible.”

While Penn (6-6, 3-3 Ivy) doesn’t have any control over its berth in the ILT, a victory over the Cavaliers (9-4) in the ACC-Penn Classic would give the Quakers a second top-10 victory on the season and a chance at an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament.

For Penn to make the ILT, Dartmouth needs to defeat Brown ­— then it gets complicated. At that point, there are two scenarios that would allow the Quakers to qualify for the postseason: they advance directly if Cornell beats Princeton or — if Princeton beats Cornell — have to root for Harvard to beat Yale.

While the mid-day Ivy League games take place, the Quakers will be busy with the Young Quakers program, which helps support lacrosse teams for inner-city kids.

“Our guys will just be relaxing. I’m sure they’ll be checking the scores a bit, but there’s nothing we really need to see,” Murphy said. “Other than just morbid curiosity of looking at something you have no control over that has some influence over our future.”

This is the first edition of the ACC-Penn Classic, which was created in 2015following the departure of Maryland from the ACC. With only five teams and a four-team tournament, the conference agreed to have its fifth-place team face off with the Quakers to end the regular season.

“We’re talking about doing it again next year, [the ACC] just doesn’t know where their tournament going to be, so that part’s up in the air,” Murphy said.

Virginia suffered its only losses of the season in conference play, finishing winless in the ACC, which has been the most dominant conference in NCAA men’s lacrosse all season. The conference has four other teams in the nation’s top 10 — No. 1 Notre Dame, No. 2 North Carolina, No. 4 Syracuse and No. 6 Duke.

The Cavaliers boast one of the best goalkeepers in the country in All-ACC sophomore Matt Barrett. In his second season between the pipes, Barrett ranks fourth in the nation in saves per game with 13.23, while posting a 56.0 save percentage.

“They know that we have to get good shots and shoot them well. It’s a significant issue, good goalie play does have significant impact the way a face-off guy does,” Murphy said.

“We just need to keep playing good offense and not worry too much about him.”

In Penn’s game, it topped Dartmouth, 15-12, for the team’s third straight Ivy League win. During the streak, the offense has been rolling for the Red and Blue, averaging 13.0 goals per game.

“The last couple weeks ... we’ve started to play a little bit faster and a bit sharper on the offensive end, except maybe the first half against Harvard,” Murphy said. “Hopefully, we can get back on track defensively too.

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