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(04/28/99 9:00am)
The Penn Relays are the exception to the rule. Most track meets in this country have to deal with paltry attendance. Not so in West Philly. "I think it's the greatest track meet in America," said Michael Johnson, who anchored the Nike International squad to victory in the 4x200-meter relay on Saturday. "The fans are very knowledgeable and it's great to look up and see a lot of people." The 105th Penn Relay Carnival set an all-time three-day attendance record of 96,358. Granted, a number of the fans may have made their way to track's oldest and loudest theater to see deep-seeded collegiate rivalries play themselves out. However, the lion's share of fannies in Franklin Field's historic seats came for other reasons. Many came to watch the world's best Olympic-level athletes make rare stateside appearances and another large contingent wanted to witness regional high school powers square off against the best America, Mexico, Canada, Ireland and a host of Caribbean countries have to offer. The record Thursday and Friday crowds, as well as the fourth-largest Saturday crowd in history, witnessed high school and elite events teemed with high drama. The marquee event for both the elite men and elite women was undoubtedly the 4x200. In both fields, the team from Nike International brought the 44,639 onlookers to their feet with a group of four superstars. The women's quartet circumnavigated the Penn track twice in 1:30.23. Marion Jones, the world's most famous female sprinter, turned in a scorching anchor leg of 21.2 seconds. Exuding confidence, Jones whipped the crowd into a frenzy. "It's so wonderful to come to a meet and perform in front of such an enthusiastic and knowledgeable crowd," Jones said. "Last year we had a similar result, but this year seems more special." The swoosh-emblazoned men's 4x200 squad was similarly excellent. Michael Johnson's stretch run elicited Saturday's most deafening cheers. The team from Adidas played spoiler in the 4x400 meters, defeating its rivals in a Nike-sponsored event. "This is their meet, and so when we come here people say, 'Oh, those guys are here.' They expect us just to show up," said Antonio Pettigrew, who ran Adidas' second leg. "But we just go out and do our job, which is to win." Pettigrew's squad logged the first-ever sub-3:00 time at the Penn Relays, 2:58.52. Their anchor, Jerome Young, came around in just under 44 seconds. Jamaican high schools had to deal with slightly less success than they've become accustomed to at the Relays. The most exciting American victory, and the one that elicited the most chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" from the rafters on 33rd Street was Northwestern High School's stirring win in the 4x400. The team from Hyattsville, Md., won with the third-fastest time in the Carnival's history, 3:10.35. Anchoring the squad, James Graham made it around the track in a mere 45.9. His powerful kick down the final straightaway stuck a knife through the patriotic fervor of the Caribbean-laden, green-black-and-gold flag-waving north stands. Not only did Northwestern beat Jamaica College and St. Iago for the title, but the team from Chester High School in Chester, Pa., also beat the Jamaicans, logging a blistering 3:14.18. Teams from the island have taken the title 11 times since 1985. "I felt confident because my team was doing the best that they can," Graham said. "We deserved to win the medal. It will strengthen us a lot, so we deserve it." There was some more humble Golden Krust patty to be eaten on Saturday. The 4x100-meter relay team from Potomac, Va., waved the Stars and Stripes proudly as they made their victory lap after besting St. Iago by .29 seconds with a time of 41.26. This is only the third American victory in this event since 1979. The hometown distance medley team from Archbishop Prendergast High School won the girls championship on Thursday evening and they owe their medals to the swift feet of Sheila Klick, anchor and miler. Her 4:53.5 final leg catapulted her team all the way from sixth to first. Klick was named the most outstanding girl's high school athlete. That honor on the boy's side went to Ricky Harris of Centreville, Va. He won the 400 meter hurdles with a Relay record time of 50.63, the sixth-best performance all-time by a U.S. highschooler. More impressively, Harris has a year left in school and his time is the fastest ever by an American high school junior. There are, of course, hundreds of other outstanding stories that deserve telling. There's no time for an exhaustive treatment, however -- the unrivaled Penn Relays defy description.
(04/21/99 9:00am)
Last night's 7-5 loss at Villanova is different from the defeats that have befallen the Penn men's lacrosse team in five of its last six contests. It's not just that this loss was the first to a non-Ivy League opponent or that it came against a Philadelphia rival. It's different because it shouldn't have happened. "We just played really badly," Penn junior attacker Pete Janney said. "We didn't have what it takes to win." The Quakers lacked the drive and poise necessary to get their season back on track. While the Wildcats (6-6) were supposed to be a more manageable opponent than Penn's high-powered Ivy foes, the Red and Blue did not play up to the task. "It was? a lack of emotional investment in going out there and playing," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. As has been the case throughout much of this topsy-turvy season, the Quakers (6-6, 2-4 Ivy League) got off to a lethargic start. Villanova midfielder Christopher Lawson got the scoring underway early with a crisp shot past Penn senior keeper Matt Schroeder. Fellow midfielder Eric Dauer got 'Nova's second goal of the quarter. The way the play transpired gave early witness to the fact that fate would not be on the Quakers' side. "It was sort of a fluke goal," Schroeder said. "It bounced off? one of our sticks and just got back behind the goal. It wasn't a great goal but it wasn't a deciding factor in the game." Early offense has not been very easy to come by for Penn this season. The Quakers have a tendency to let the game heat up before they start to score goals and this pattern exhibited itself clearly last night. "We've just been struggling a lot offensively," Janney said. "That was a problem all throughout the game." There was a time earlier in the year that the Quakers showed signs of remarkable explosiveness. With 14 goals against a top-10 North Carolina team and 17 against a quality Lafayette club, Penn looked like it could score at will. But the Penn attack was meager yesterday due to both poor execution and the job done by the 'Nova defense. "We knew that they would have some guys who could move and would give us problems," Schroeder said. "That's no excuse, though." The Cats did an admirable job of keying in on the Penn shortsticks, managing to outshoot the Quakers 36-27. They also matched up well. In particular, sophomore defender Brian O'Hagan excelled at shutting down Penn's Todd Minerley. Minerley, the Penn sophomore attacker who is second in the Ivies in overall scoring with 39 points, managed to score once last night. Still, O'Hagan's tenacious defense kept Minerley from manufacturing offense. The Quakers were masterful on defense throughout the middle two periods, holding the Wildcats to a scant two tallies in 30 minutes. "Schroeder played well the whole night and we basically shut them down for a long while," Van Arsdale said. The fourth quarter was the nail in the Penn coffin. 'Nova junior midfielder John McTigue, who was the story of the game for the Cats by dishing out a career-high six assists, hit attacker Tom Hourican with 6:02 to make the score 7-4. This gave them the cushion they needed to put away the Quakers. "You got to have the thought that you're going to win at all times," Janney said. "We all had our heads down a little bit. In the end, we gave it to them by not capitalizing." No rest lies ahead for the battle-weary Quakers. They head to Syracuse to take on the No. 4 Orangemen on Saturday, and preparation needs to begin with tomorrow's practice. "Nobody better be thinking of giving up," Schroeder said.
(04/21/99 9:00am)
The 105th Running of the Penn Relay Carnival The magnetic appeal of the Penn Relay Carnival is almost inexplicable on paper. Elite competitors like Michael Johnson and Gail Devers will make their annual pilgrimage to the track and field mecca on 33rd Street without the incentive of lucrative appearance fees. Unlike countless other international and domestic meets that need to fork over big bucks to coax the world's best, the Penn Relays pay nothing. "We are very fortunate to be in the good graces of many of the elite athletes and some of the major shoe companies, so we don't pay appearance fees," Penn Relays Director Dave Johnson said. Perennial collegiate powerhouses also come to Philadelphia without any prospect of emerging as undisputed champion. When a large contingent of teams like Texas Christian, Arkansas and Stanford get together, it usually means that one squad will walk away the winner, walk away as a national or conference champion. Not so at the unscored Penn Relays. "It's one of the greatest things in our sport," Louisiana State head coach Pat Henry said. "I don't think track is a game like other games, other sports. There's a spectacle of track and field and [Penn Relays] is the epitome of that." With three days of non-stop competition, a raucous crowd that makes roomy Franklin Field sound like a high school gym and a singularly eclectic mix of scholastic, collegiate and world-class athletes, the Relays have an intangible draw all their own. In the words of Villanova coach Marcus O'Sullivan, "the Penn Relays is the highest experience. Competing at the Penn Relays is the ultimate." Saturday is undoubtedly the showcase of the Relays. This largely stems from the marquee appeal of the top-notch open and Olympic development competitors that take the track. Fans from the Delaware Valley and farther reaches of the globe will be treated to a stellar group as past Olympic champions and emerging phenoms will be on campus. "These top people love to compete on their own soil, so that automatically lures people," Dave Johnson said. "They also come for a very large, loud, responsive crowd." Two preeminent stars of the sport -- American sprinters Marion Jones and Michael Johnson -- will vie for victories in the 4x200-meter relays. The 4x200 meters has become a signature race in recent years. Carl Lewis and the Santa Monica Track Club broke the American record at Penn in 1992 and 1998 saw a Jones-anchored women's team from Nike become the first-ever to crack 1:30. The 105th Carnival will be the first held on Penn's newly resurfaced track. Although the fresh surface may have a minor effect on times, it will probably not affect the number of world records set. "It's just too early in the season for the types of people who can break records to do so," Dave Johnson said. Notable track names will abound at the Relays. Allen Johnson, a 1996 Olympian in the 110-meter high hurdles, will take part in a 4x100-meter relay. Jon Drummond, Maurice Greene and Tim Harden will join Michael Johnson on the loaded Nike 4x200-meter squad, and Scott Anderson will defend his mile win in 1998 against a top field that includes Rich Kenah, Matt Holthaus, Karl Paranya and Kevin Sullivan, a Canadian. Jones and Devers will headline the women's elite events and are expected to team up in two relays. Sheila Hudson, one of the event's most popular competitors, will return after a one-year absence. She set an American record here in 1996 and won the triple jump from 1995 to 1997. With the exception of the teams that opt to compete in the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa, essentially every NCAA Championship contender will be in Philadelphia. For these top programs, the Relays are about much more than winning. Recruiting sits near the top of every major coaches' agenda this weekend. It is, as Dave Johnson points out, a "see and be seen situation." "I would say that 30 to 50 percent of our time and energy is spent on being visible to the high schools," South Carolina coach Curtis Frye said. What makes the meet even more integral to recruiting is the presence of Jamaican high schools at Penn. Each year, 33rd Street becomes inundated with the food and culture of the Caribbean nation, as the Jamaican athletes dominate the sprints. "Other than going down to Jamaica, this is the best place for coaches and recruiters to see their best people," Dave Johnson said. TCU is the consensus favorite in the men's college 4x100 meters and 4x200 meters. Their 4x100-meter squad ran 38.64, the fastest time in the world this outdoor season, earlier this month at the Texas Relays. The Horned Frogs also have their sights set on their own 1998 collegiate record of 38.04 and their 1991 meet record of 38.80. TCU will field the exact same team in the 4x200 meters, where it has a chance to shatter the elusive 1:20 collegiate barrier. Along the way they will face stiff competition from teams like Arizona State and South Carolina. Arkansas may prove to be the class of the distance relays. The defending 4xMile champion Razorbacks have won the distance medley six times in this decade. On the women's side, the Texas Longhorns have an extremely solid opportunity to take all four sprint relays -- the 4x100, 4x200 and 4x400 meters and the sprint medley. At the Texas Relays, the home team was brilliant through-and-through. They ran 42.9 in the 4x100 meters, eclipsing the record for the fastest relay outside of the NCAA Championships. They shattered their own 4x200 meters collegiate record with a 1:30.93 at home just for good measure. "You don't come to Penn Relays if you're not ready to run," Texas coach Bev Kearney said. "It's going to be hard to win all four relays. That's our goal." As one can plainly see, however, goals at the Penn Relays extend much deeper than just victory.
(04/20/99 9:00am)
The Quakers face Villanova before closing the season against two top-10 teams. With three games left in a season marked by enough ups and downs to make Chuck Yeager queasy, the Penn men's lacrosse team has everything to gain and nothing to lose. The team reached an early season apex six games in after an 18-5 humiliation of Lafayette. The Quakers then boasted a 5-1 record and a No. 14 national ranking. Three straight one-goal Ivy losses, however, made quick work of Penn's jubilation. The Red and Blue currently stand at 6-5, 2-4 against Ivy foes. With matchups against Syracuse and Delaware -- both ranked in the top 10 -- looming in the distance, tonight's 7 p.m. showdown with regional rival Villanova is vital to Penn hopes. "We definitely want to win all three games," Penn senior tri-captain Ziggy Majumdar said. "If that happens, starting with Villanova, that would salvage everything." In light of this past weekend's gut-wrenching 10-6 loss at Brown, the Penn squad looks to tonight's encounter with the 6-5 Wildcats as a potential pain reliever. The Quakers want to take a step back, regroup and ready themselves for a grand finale. "I don't know if I'd go so far as to say that I want us to be loose against Villanova," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. "I'd like to see us come out poised and confident, ready to put the Brown game behind us. This team still has plenty do that hasn't been done in a long while." Van Arsdale is correct in saying that the 1999 Quakers have a chance to make some history. A win against 'Nova and another against either Syracuse or Delaware will sew up the first Penn season over .500 since 1989. A 7-7 finish in 1997, Van Arsdale's first season in West Philly, is the closest that the Quakers have come to clearing that hurdle. A trip to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since '89 is an unlikely, although not unreachable, goal for the Quakers this year. The loss at Brown relegated Penn to the bottom half of the Ivy League but victories against lacrosse juggernauts like Syracuse and Delaware would undoubtedly weigh heavily in the Quakers' favor. "The way we were thinking, we knew that a win at Brown followed by three more would give us a very good shot," Van Arsdale said. "But whenever you're playing two teams in the top 10, there's a chance. That is definitely not at all our primary focus." As Van Arsdale stressed to his team at the close of last night's practice, "Now it's Villanova for us." This team is still taking it one game at a time. The Wildcats are a solid, offensive-minded team that could drive the Quakers crazy if they're not careful. One need only look to 'Nova's last game -- a 21-11 trouncing of St. Joseph's -- to realize that this squad has plenty of firepower in tow. The Wildcats have a particular knack for converting man-advantage situations. Their .361 success rate is the 18th-highest in the country. This further proves that the Quakers will need to be on their toes from tonight's opening faceoff. "We definitely respect the fact that this team can score 21 goals," Majumdar said. "We don't look past them at all, and we know we have to have our good stuff out there from the start." The Penn defense continues to impress. Even after the Bears' 10-goal output on Saturday, the Quakers have yielded a paltry average of 7.45 goals per game, placing then in the nation's top 10. Senior keeper Matt Schroeder has let an average of fewer than seven goals past the line so far this season. The Penn back line can't make sure that the team is producing goals with the shortsticks, however. "I think that I've been playing pretty well lately, with the defense obviously being a major factor in that," Schroeder said. "What we need to do is to execute enough so that the defense is not the deciding factor." If the Quakers don't get to advance into the postseason, 180 minutes of game time are all that separate this year's senior class of nine from lacrosse extinction. "A month from now, all that I'm ever going to play is club lacrosse," senior midfielder Jeff Zuckerman said. "I just want to play the best that I possibly can. I think that winning the last three would be a great end for me and for all the other seniors." In order for a player to break into the ranks of Ivy League lacrosse, he needs to have spent much of his childhood learning to cradle and catch and much of his adolescence honing the skills necessary to compete against the best in America. "You see these guys getting to practice a little bit earlier and hanging around a bit later, because they're about to stop something that they've been doing for a long time," Van Arsdale said. Hopefully, the graduating Quakers can translate this emotion into a stellar end to a tumultuous season.
(04/14/99 9:00am)
The Quakers have controlled 64 percent of their faceoffs this year, second only to Duke. If you were to tell Marc Van Arsdale in the fall that his team would have the second-highest faceoff winning percentage in the nation come April, he might have called you crazy. And the Penn men's lacrosse coach would have good reason to. Junior middie Bill Reidy, the Quakers' faceoff specialist for the previous two seasons, went down in November with a torn ACL. Surgery went well but doctors ordered Reidy to sit out all of the 1999 campaign. It looked as if the Quakers, without Reidy, were going to have a rough time improving on their 1998 faceoff percentage of .465. Now, 10 games into the season, the Quakers are winning a startling 64 percent of their faceoffs, trailing only the Duke Blue Devils. "It's definitely something that we have worked very hard on improving," Van Arsdale said. "If you would have asked me in November if we were going to be second in the country, I would have said 'probably not.'" In Reidy's absence, sophomore middie Bill Sofield has been nothing short of outstanding. He has emerged victorious from 105 of the 157 faceoffs he has taken. This .669 success rate places him third in Division I. "You have to give Billy all the credit in the world," Van Arsdale said. Sofield's success has not come in a vacuum, however. A lacrosse team only wins faceoffs when the entire midfield is alert and aggressive. Penn is no exception, as the wing play of sophomore Barret Nixon and senior Mark Kleinknecht has been vital to Penn's ability to win the ball. "Mainly it's just our great wing play that has helped us," Sofield said. Both Sofield and Van Arsdale credit Penn assistant Brian Brecht for getting the reigning faceoff king prepared for games. "I'm the type of player that needs somebody to get his head into the game," Sofield said. "And coach Brecht really helps me do that by forcing me to get psyched." Van Arsdale aptly described Sofield as a "highly emotional, intense competitor" and as "one of the most enthusiastic guys out there." If the sophomore standout continues to be primed for competition day-in and day-out, Penn's faceoff statistics will continue to impress. · The Quakers are 6-4 on the season but they are 0-1 on natural grass. With five wins and only a single loss in the friendly confines of Franklin Field, much of their success has come on carpet. Penn's next game will be on Saturday at Brown. The Bears play their home games on the grass of Stevenson Field, so Van Arsdale and his staff are making sure that their squad gets reacclimated to natural turf. As a result, this week the team will move from its usual haunt and hold practice on the natural greenery of Rhodes Field. "Every player on this team played on grass until they got here, so it's not a huge adjustment," Van Arsdale said. "It's a bigger deal for a turf team to play on grass than vice versa, so that's why we moved practice." Although the shift to grass ought not worry the Quakers too much, it does change the game somewhat. Attackers and defenders alike find it tough to change directions on grass; ground balls become more difficult to scoop; and all players tend to get "heavy-legged" earlier, according to Van Arsdale. · Pete Janney continues to score goals with reckless abandon. He currently leads the Ivy League with 29 tallies. His career total has ballooned to 85, tying him with Vern Riggs for seventh on the all-time Penn list. With four games remaining and with a host of four and five-goal games under his belt, Janney even has a chance to eclipse John Shoemaker's mark of 44 goals in a season. "I don't think that that's something to aim for. I only do what I think the team needs me to do to win," the junior attacker said. "It would be great to hold that record, though." Janney continues to leave opposing mouths agape with his blistering and accurate shots from the perimeter. Still, most agree that it has been Janney's unquenchable work ethic that has most propelled his success. "Pete has attacked the weight room," Van Arsdale said. · Senior goalie Matt Schroeder has been the anchor of a Penn defense that has held opposing teams to the nation's third-lowest goal total. Trailing only Duke and Princeton, the Quakers have allowed just 7.2 goals per game, with Schroeder himself yielding an even more scant 6.81. The senior, who always seems to be on an even keel, leads by example and word. The team's young keepers -- sophomore Bill Kane and freshman John Carroll -- have learned much from Schroeder. "Whenever I come into the game, Matt is able to help me by pointing out the little tendencies in how the other team is playing," Kane said. Schroeder feels that both of his understudies will make "quality goalies." Neither may get the starting nod next year, however. Van Arsdale, although unable to name names, indicates that it is very likely that next year's recruiting class may include a high-profile keeper.
(04/12/99 9:00am)
Pete Janney paced the Quakers with five goals in a 12-3 win as Penn rebounded from a three-game Ivy losing streak. The Penn men's lacrosse team was ferocious yesterday. Like a guard dog left without food for a week, the Quakers, left irritable by three crushing one-goal Ivy League losses, pounced on the next unsuspecting visitor to Franklin Field. Too bad for Dartmouth(2-4, 0-1 Ivy League), which suffered a 12-3 defeat at the hands of the resurgent Quakers (6-4, 2-3). "I wasn't as pleased by the score as by the effort and energy that we mustered in the second half," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. In the first half, the Penn attack was, in Van Arsdale's words, "a step out of sync." The Quakers owned a precarious 2-1 margin at the break. The second half, however, was all Penn. The Quakers went on a rampage, outscoring Dartmouth 10-2. Junior attacker Pete Janney's shortstick galvanized Penn's goal production yesterday. He notched a season-high five tallies to up his season goal total to 29, head and shoulders above every other Ivy hopeful. In the words of first-year Dartmouth head coach Rick Sowell, "When he [Janney] gets his hands on the ball, it's lights out." It was not as if the Big Green were oblivious to the threat that the former Ivy Rookie of the Year posed to their defense. His two previous four-goal games this year -- against Lafayette and Cornell -- should have given them ample warning of his explosiveness. "That kid Janney, we were just trying to stop him and we couldn't," Dartmouth sophomore Alex Grishman said. After a lackluster offensive first half in which the Quakers capitalized on only two of their 19 shots on goal, the attack turned things around in the second. A mind-boggling 31 shots made it to the net guarded by Andrew Dance and 10 made it by him. "They had a freshman matched up on me so that was a little motivation for me," Janney said. "As far as their team defense, I think that we were going about it the right way. We found the holes and played it real well." But Janney was not the only story of the day for the Red and Blue offense. Senior midfielder Jeff Zuckerman had a five-point day. He dished out three assists, just as he did against Princeton earlier in the week. This lifts his season assist mark to 14, equalling his total from last year with four games still remaining. Penn's second-half offensive dominance stemmed from a balanced attack. While Janney was the only squad member to find the back of the Dartmouth net in the first, a host of Quakers chimed in later on. Sophomore attacker Todd Minerley, senior middie Bart Hacking, freshman middie Mike Iannacone, sophomore attacker Kevin Cadin and junior attacker Chris Wolfe all logged one goal apiece in the second half. Although senior co-captain Matt Schroeder has been solid in net through the Harvard-Cornell-Princeton dry spell, yesterday saw his re-emergence as a dominant presence. He was the linchpin of a murderously effective Penn defense with 17 saves on 25 shots. In limiting Dartmouth to only three goals, Schroeder's performance was very reminiscent of the job he did in the team's other Ivy win against Yale on March 20. The Quakers' 7-2 victory there left the Elis speechless. The Big Green had every reason to be just as dumbfounded after yesterday's game. Schroeder gives most of the credit to the longsticks in back. "Our defense was great," Schroeder said. "We had Ziggy [co-captain Ziggy Majumdar] back today and he was a great addition. Every guy that came in today played well." The Dartmouth scoring, rare as it was, came from three men. Erkki Mackey had one goal and one assist, while Conner Price and Georges Dyer also found the net once each. The Big Green found themselves on the short side of nearly every statistical category yesterday. They were outshot 50-25, lost 11-of-19 faceoffs and picked up 14 fewer ground balls. The Quakers victory is encouraging -- they pulled away from a quality Ivy league opponent and stopped their streak of one-goal losses at three. Still, they should put the euphoria on hold for a while. Last year's 15-7 trouncing of Dartmouth preceded a 13-9 loss to Brown. Penn fans should hope their team is confident as the Quakers make their way to Providence at the end of the week. They should also hope that their team is mindful of the difficult task awaiting them in the Brown Bears.
(04/12/99 9:00am)
The overmatched Quakers showed definite signs of life with six wins and several PRs. The rumors of the death of the Penn men's track and field team have been greatly exaggerated. After a hugely disappointing seventh-place finish at the Indoor Heptagonal Championships in February, the Quakers must have flirted with dire thoughts. Saturday's dual meet against rival Princeton taught two important lessons, however. One, Penn is not yet ready to beat the nationally stellar Tigers. Two, they are ready, willing and able to avenge their winter embarrassment and make waves in the east. "We haven't yet been able to hit on all cylinders," Penn coach Charlie Powell said. "Princeton is one of the best teams assembled and they beat us pretty good. There's still plenty that's very, very encouraging." The 105-58 Princeton victory in the meet that got underway on Saturday at 11:30 at Franklin Field only tells half of the story. "Half this team PRed and I think we're all pretty happy about that," Penn sophomore middle-distance runner Andy Girardin said. Girardin was impressive on Saturday. A December injury kept him from training much of the winter but he now appears better than ever. He set a personal best of 1:52 in a going-away victory over second-place Matt Notari from Princeton. Next weekend Girardin will have an excellent chance to qualify for IC4As if his time can improve to sub-1:52. Girardin's win was one of six for Penn on the day. Two of those came from the Red and Blue's array of sprinters. In the first event of the day, the 4x100-meter relay, the Quakers squeaked past the Tigers with a time of 41.7 seconds. The race was neck-and-neck until sophomore Darryl Olczak took the baton to run the third leg. A perfect exchange got Olczak into high gear as he sprinted ahead of Princeton freshman James Murphy. He made his way around the turn and gave the stick to junior standout Shawn Fernandes, who ran the winning anchor leg. "When you're up against a team as good as they are, you need to get up and prove right away that you're there and you're serious," Powell said. Fernandez later went on to win the 100-meter dash. His 10.8 bested Paul Elcock of Princeton and Gene Sun of Penn, who took second and third. Olczak was not done yet either. He would later post a personal best by nearly a full second with a 48.4 in the 400 meters. He was within striking distance of Princeton victor Charlie Phelps. The Penn jumping crew, headed by senior Stan Anderson and freshman Tuan Wreh, continued to solidify its role as an ace-in-the-hole for the Quakers. Anderson won the triple jump with a winning leap of 49'9". Wreh was a close second. Wreh got the best of his elder in the long jump, however. His second-place jump of 22'9.25" put him behind the Princeton winner but bested the third-place Anderson. Anderson tied for the lead in the high jump with a 6'11" clearance. This outdoor personal best puts him alone at fourth-place on the all-time Penn list. "I'm very pleased with the job that Tuan continues to do," Anderson said. "There were some things I would have liked to do differently but I think the meet was a success." "Stan continues to solidify himself as one of the most consistent forces in the region," Powell said. Junior Sean Macmillan showed signs of regaining the form that made him a cross country pacesetter earlier in the year. His second-place finish in the 3000-meter steeple with a time of 9:27.7 was not a very close second but shows that the Penn distance squad, which has been mired in injuries throughout this campaign, may still be a factor. The pole vault was a distinct bright spot for the Quakers. They swept the top three. Sophomore Aaron Prokopec took first with a clearance of 16'6"; junior Bob Reynolds took second after vaulting 15'6" and junior John Church jumped 15'. The throwers for the Quakers were unable to get the best of the Tigers on Saturday. Still, high-quality performances were turned in by Matt Pagliasotti and sophomore Kyle Turley -- who finished second and third in the hammer, respectively -- and by junior Brent Stiles, who finished third in the shot put. Princeton's final margin may have been significant but the Quakers are alive and kicking.
(04/08/99 9:00am)
The Tigers overcame a 7-3 Penn lead to extend their Ivy win streak to 21. It is now official -- the Penn men's lacrosse team is better than its record indicates. The Quakers' 9-8 loss to Princeton on Tuesday night brings their season mark to 5-4 and their Ivy record to 1-3. Numbers can lie, however, as Penn's three Ivy defeats have been hard-fought, one-goal league losses. More importantly, this record misleads because the Penn squad thwarted the No. 9 Tigers, the defending NCAA champions, for much of Tuesday's contest. "Early on, Penn outplayed, outhustled, outcoached, outshot and basically outperformed us everywhere," Princeton coach Bill Tierney said. Through much of the second and third quarters, Penn dominated play. After a batch of aggressive back-and-forth checking in the Penn end of the field, Quakers freshman middie Scott Solow sent a goal into the Princeton net with 5:31 left in the third to stretch Penn's lead to 7-3. "I don't think we were ever really far ahead of them," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. "The effort was there the whole time but we just seemed to get the better of them in the second and some of the third." With the Red and Blue ahead 7-3, the atmosphere at Franklin Field teemed with enthusiasm. The crowd of 600, spurred on by the tunes of the Penn band, was ready to witness an upset. The Quakers appeared set to sever Princeton's Ivy winning streak at 20. But the tide turned for good after Solow's score. The ensuing faceoff was well-contested, with neither team gathering the ball right away. Penn defenseman Barrett Nixon eventually scooped it up and did precisely what Van Arsdale has been stressing -- he sent it back to the keeper. "Barret made a great play on a ground ball," Van Arsdale said. "He did what we've been telling our guys to do against a team like Princeton, to settle the play by passing it to [Penn keeper] Matt [Schroeder]." Nixon's attempt to counter the hard-riding Princeton midfield backfired, however. His pass never got far enough off the ground to clear the waiting stick of Tigers All-American Lorne Smith, who intercepted the pass and flicked it slyly past an out-of-position Schroeder. "It was really not something that I did," the 6'3" Smith said. "He might not have realized how tall I am. It just came to me and I reacted." Smith's tally meant that the Tigers still trailed by three goals. The goal's freakish character, however, had lasting effects on the contest. "Smith's goal was very big for us," Tierney said. "One thing it did was to give us confidence that we could do more than what we were doing. I think it also deflated them a bit." Deflation is an apt term considering Smith's putaway kicked off a string of six unanswered Princeton scores that took the air right out of the Quakers. The boys from Old Nassau relied heavily on the shortsticks of junior middie Josh Sims and sophomore attacker Matt Striebel to gain a 9-7 advantage. Sims put points on the board with an unassisted tally at 12:11 of the third and with a sizzling shot that went top shelf past Schroeder with 7:53 left in the final period -- Princeton's ninth and final goal. Striebel was equally clutch. He closed the third with a short-range goal that evoked jeers from Penn fans who wanted him penalized for being in the crease. He also knotted the score at 7-7 less than a minute into the fourth. "We didn't shoot well in the first three quarters. That changed toward the end," Striebel said. "We also started to dodge much more that way. We were able to basically manufacture our own momentum." Penn sophomore attacker Todd Minerley narrowed the Tigers' 9-7 lead to one with 4:43 left in the game to cap a four-goal outing. He came around the Princeton net and after making contact with more than one Tigers defender, sent the ball to the right of sophomore keeper Trevor Tierney. Tierney, the son of the Tigers coach, had come in to replace starting goalie Corey Popham. But the Quakers would get no closer. After winning the next faceoff, the Tigers kept the ball safely in the Penn end. Although junior Chris Berrier had the only quality Princeton chance in the game's final stretch, this mattered little, as the Tigers' main concern was with taking time off the clock. Defenseman Brett Bodner then corralled the ball for the Quakers after some forceful Penn checking. Van Arsdale called a timeout with 1:35 left to play to set up the strategy for the game's end. The Quakers were unable to capitalize in the final 1:35. Still, Minerley did have two solid looks at the cage. His last attempt came in an unexpected breakaway with a mere 13 ticks on the clock. "I struggled to get my footing and took the shot off-balance," Minerley said. "We did fine at the end. It could have gone either way." Senior middie Mark Kleinknecht had two early goals for the Quakers. Junior attacker Pete Janney also added one on the day to broaden his lead in the Ivy League points race. Princeton's comeback ought not cloud the tremendous display put on by the Penn defense. The Red and Blue were at an inherent disadvantage on Tuesday as senior co-captain Ziggy Majumdar missed the game to attend his father's funeral. "I am very proud of the effort that this team put out there. Ziggy couldn't be there but a bunch of people stepped up," Van Arsdale said. "Matt's [Schroeder] play in goal was just terrific all night." Schroeder was stellar between the pipes. His 14 saves doubles the number posted by the two Princeton keepers together. The Tigers outshot the Quakers 38-26, so the pressure was on him throughout. The Red and Blue now have a few days to catch their collective breath before Dartmouth comes to Franklin Field at 1 p.m. on Sunday. A win then would up Penn's Ancient Eight record to 2-3, but that does not even begin to tell the story.
(04/06/99 9:00am)
The Quakers host No. 9 Princeton, looking for their first win over the Tigers since 1989. The stage is set for what may be the most exciting Penn-Princeton matchup in recent memory. But the drama won't unfold in the steamy and storied environs of the Palestra. This time, the Tigers-Quakers showdown will play itself out further south on 33rd Street in the crisp, early spring air of Franklin Field. When the players assemble for the start of tonight's match at 7 p.m., Princeton (2-3, 1-0 Ivy League) -- ranked No. 9 in the latest Face-Off Magazine poll -- will put its 20-game Ivy winning streak on the line. To up the dramatic ante, Penn (5-3, 1-2) will try to bounce back from two horribly frustrating one-goal Ivy defeats and even their league record at .500. "On paper this looks like the closest [Penn-Princeton] game in a couple of years," Princeton coach Bill Tierney said. "They have always been tough, but I think this might be the closest." Even if last year's 17-8 Princeton handling of Penn was closer than the score would indicate, there is little doubt that the Tigers have had a talent edge in the past decade. The Quakers last beat Princeton in 1989. Put bluntly, the Tigers have been in a class of their own. After winning their first-ever NCAA Championship in 1992, the young men from Old Nassau have sent nearly every opponent down in defeat en route to a staggering five national championships in seven years. This is not the same dominant Princeton squad, however, that won NCAAs last season. "This is not the same team, so it's not that it matters a lot to me that I beat Princeton before I graduate," Penn senior goalkeeper Matt Schroeder said. "I know that it would matter a lot to our season, though." The Quakers can use a win over Princeton to bounce back from a rough patch in their 1999 campaign. Penn was sitting pretty atop the Ivy League less than a week and a half ago. After a 7-2 destruction of Yale, the Quakers were 1-0 in the Ivies, 4-1 overall. Their then-No. 14 national ranking stemmed largely from a resounding upset over North Carolina, a national powerhouse. The Quakers have gone 0-2 since then. Their most recent disappointment came on Saturday, when they fell 10-9 in an otherwise even matchup with No. 18 Cornell. One week earlier, Penn had come up only one tally short of beating the Harvard Crimson. "Emotionally, those two losses are tough to handle," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. "On one hand, we would like to have more time to prepare for Princeton, but, on the other hand, it's good that we have a chance to turn it around so soon." If the Quakers hope to secure their first Ivy crown since 1988, they need a win tonight. No team has taken the league title with two losses since Brown did it in 1969 and no team has ever won with three losses. "They have those two losses behind them but I think they still have a chance to take the race if they are able to beat us," Tierney said. What scares Tierney most about tonight's duel is the matchup between the always-solid Penn defense and the neophytes on the Princeton attack. The Penn defense has outperformed the Princeton men in back against common foes. And the Quakers held No. 15 North Carolina to a scant seven goals in victory, while Princeton yielded 10 in a sudden-death loss. Yale also sent three more scores into the Tigers net than they managed against Schroeder. "They are a team that plays very tenacious team defense," Tierney said. "We'll need more consistent scoring if we want to put them away." In losing their first three games of the season, the Tigers could not help but feel the effects of the recent graduation of the most productive collegiate attack trio in recent memory. Jon Hess, Jesse Hubbard and Chris Massey are all gone, taking their 618 career points with them. Tierney starts two freshmen and a sophomore in their place. First-year attacker B.J. Prager, Ivy Rookie of the Week, has nine key points so far this season, but the Tigers have had to rely on perimeter and transition scoring from a more senior crew of middies. Princeton's very athletic midfield will force the Quakers to do a better job at clearing the ball after defensive stoppages than they have thus far. "Princeton's athletic dodgers in the midfield will put more pressure on us to clear the ball. We have shown an inability to do this as of late," Van Arsdale said. "We will need to focus to avoid losing in unsettled situations." If the Quakers manage to corral balls in their end and send them safely up the field, they have proven threats who can convert. Junior attacker Pete Janney was named this week's Ivy League Player of the Week after a stellar game where his seven points tied him for 10th on the all-time career Penn point list. Janney, sophomore attack Todd Minerley and senior middie Jeff Zuckerman fill the top three Ivy spots in overall scoring. With this proven firepower and a defense to be reckoned with, the Quakers appear poised to bounce back from recent adversity and best Princeton for the first time in a decade.
(04/05/99 9:00am)
Despite seven points from Pete Janney, the Quakers lost by one goal at Ivy foe Cornell Teams normally don't fret over two goals -- unless, of course, those two measly scores mean the difference between an unblemished 3-0 Ivy record and an average 1-2 mark. The No. 18 Penn men's lacrosse team (5-3, 1-2 Ivy League) has had to deal with a pair of such pesky goals the past two weekends. Saturday's 10-9 defeat at the hands of No. 20 Cornell (3-3, 1-1) came off the heals of a similarly crushing one-goal overtime loss at Harvard the previous Saturday. These ultra-close Ivy League road defeats may be tough to swallow, but the Quakers are light years away from despair. "Emotionally, it's hard to handle two losses like this," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. "I do not feel differently about this team right now. With all of the things that they have had to deal with, I'm still confident." The knockout blow came off the stick of Cornell sophomore attacker Andrew Schardt with 3:51 left in regulation. Considering the way the fourth quarter played out, the Quakers have every right to believe that somebody upstairs has got it in for them. At the start of the final period, the Big Red led 8-6. With only 4:11 gone, Cornell's All-Ivy middie Pat Dutton sent an unassisted score past Penn senior goalie Matt Schroeder to stretch his squad's lead to three. The Quakers appeared to be in dire straits. Cornell had scored four unanswered goals and just 10 minutes remained on the clock. Enter Pete Janney, stage left. With 8:09 elapsed, the junior attacker invigorated Penn hopes by scoring an unassisted goal with the Quakers a man down. Penn senior midfielder Bart Hacking logged the assist off of Janney's fourth goal with 4:53 left. Just 42 seconds later, Janney fed senior Jeff Zuckerman for the latter's second tally of the afternoon. This fast-break conversion knotted the score at nine and put the finishing touches on a masterful day for Janney. Not only were his seven points a season high, but he had a hand in each of the three goals that brought the Red and Blue back into the contest. "I feel that that was [Pete's] best performance since he has been here," Van Arsdale said. "It's great when you can see one of our guys step up like that." Any joy on the part of the visiting Quakers quickly dissipated, however, as the home Big Red responded for a crushing and bizarre game-winner. Dutton won the ensuing faceoff at the 4:11 mark. The senior middie was then able to find a hole in the Penn defense -- Schardt was left open right on top of the crease. As Dutton's pass left his stick, the Quakers reacted quickly. By the time the ball got to Schardt, Schroeder and defenseman Justin O'Connell were all over him. They checked him hard but not hard enough to prevent Schardt from getting the ball out of his pocket. As he fell to the turf of Schoellkopf Field, the ball hit off the post, then off the back of Schroeder and rolled over the line for the game-winner. "That was an absolutely horrible goal to lose on," Van Arsdale said. "But it wasn't as if we didn't have enough time to get it back. There were three minutes left." Three minutes proved too little time for the Quakers to once again even the score. Penn won the faceoff immediately after the goal but failed to send any high-quality shots at Justin Cynar, Cornell's freshman keeper. Saturday's heartbreaking finish ought not cloud the fact that the game was a veritable dead heat. "I think it was very evenly played," Van Arsdale said. "It was a game where they got the better of two quarters and we got the better of two quarters." The game was a statistical wash. Penn had 29 shots, while Cornell posted 28. The Quakers scooped up 26 ground balls and the Big Red managed to corral 25. The two squads each won 50 percent of the game's 22 faceoffs. Aside from the dearth of blue in the Big Red jerseys -- and Cornell's one-goal advantage -- the two Ivy rivals looked identical. Penn's scoring came from familiar sources on Saturday. Zuckerman's two goals and one assist may pale in comparison to Janney's seven-point day, but he was still integral. Junior Chris Wolfe, freshman Peter Scott and senior Mark Kleinknecht each added one goal to the Penn total of nine. The Penn-Cornell matchup pretty much went as expected. They are two teams that play tenacious team defense and boast a solid goalie, and the outcome of the showdown was pegged as a toss-up. "We saw it as a 50-50 game going in," Van Arsdale said. Although Tuesday's Penn contest against ninth-ranked national power Princeton may not be quite such a toss-up, the Quakers have every right to feel that they can win and even their Ivy record at .500.
(04/02/99 10:00am)
The Quakers head to Cornell hoping to pick up their second Ivy win. Mike Waldvogel, the coach of the Yale men's lacrosse team and the only head man to have a look at both No. 18 Penn and No. 20 Cornell this season, thinks that tomorrow's contest at Cornell's Schoellkopf Field between the two Ivy League rivals will be a dead heat. The Elis (2-3, 1-1 Ivy League) had drastically different results against the two teams. They may have fallen hard to the Quakers (5-2, 1-1) by five goals on March 20, but on the other hand, they bested the Big Red (2-3, 0-1) by one last Saturday. Still, Waldvogel believes Penn and Cornell will be neck-and-neck. "They're very even," Waldvogel said. "Coming out of both of those games, I felt that they were very similar. They're both very good defensive teams. If we had shot better against Penn we could have won. It's going to be a good game to watch." Despite Penn's ample advantage in the win column, similarities between these two squads abound. Both have relied upon expert play in net so far this season. Quakers senior goalie Matt Schroeder, armed with an exceptional goals against average of 6.65, has been the best in the Ancient Eight. His league GAA is even more minuscule -- giving up an average of only 4.88 goals against the other Ivies. A bright spot for the squad from Ithaca has been the play of freshman keeper Justin Cynar. Not to be confused with his older brother who plays between the pipes for Harvard, Cynar was voted Ivy League Rookie of the Week for the first two weeks of the season. His overall GAA of 7.96 places him third behind the keepers from Penn and Princeton. "The goalies are going to clearly play a large factor in the game," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. "In any situation where that's the case, we feel very strongly that Matt will be able to come through." The Quakers and the Big Red both sport offenses chock full of proven scorers. Penn attackers Pete Janney, a junior, and Todd Minerley, a sophomore, are head and shoulders above the rest of the Ivy League in point production. Janney's total of 30 points leads the league and Minerley's total of 28 puts him 11 ahead of any other Ivy scorer. Senior middie Jeff Zuckerman rounds out a Red and Blue triumvirate atop the list of Ancient Eight goal-scorers. "The way to play against a team that plays a good team defense like Cornell is to counter with good team offense," Van Arsdale said. "We know we have to move the ball around, and we know that we have enough weapons to do that." Senior Josh Morgan, who was Cornell's fourth-leading scorer last season, led the Big Red attack against Yale with three goals and an assist. In last year's 14-10 defeat of the Quakers, Cornell showed that any one of its players has the ability to explode offensively. Then-junior attacker Michael Voris scored a career-high six points on four goals and two assists, as the Big Red defeated the Quakers at Franklin Field -- upping their lead in the all-time Penn-Cornell series to 50-20-3. "Cornell can score, but what's really striking is their very athletic midfielders," Waldvogel said. Pat Dutton heads up the Cornell midfield. Van Arsdale described Dutton as "maybe the best athlete you'll find in Ivy lacrosse." The senior from upstate New York led the Big Red in scoring two seasons ago and was second last year en route to being named an honorable mention All-American. "We know that they have a tough midfield, so that's something we key in on," Penn senior co-captain Ziggy Majumdar said. "Basically, we do this for every other team, and we're not doing anything much differently." If the Penn defense doesn't do anything differently, the Quakers will be in good shape tomorrow. The Red and Blue long sticks have prevented many a solid chance this season. In a telling instance, the Penn defense, headed by Schroeder, held Yale to a mere two tallies in this season's Ivy-opener. The Quakers, in a flash of brilliance, restricted the Elis to zero goals for nearly three quarters after Yale opened the scoring. This came against the same squad that just past Saturday sprinted ahead of Cornell with a 6-0 run. In spite of its breakdown against Yale, the Cornell defense will undoubtedly prove pesky tomorrow. "We know that we will need to move the ball quickly to beat their defense," Janney said. In addition to laying down a gameplan to follow in Ithaca, Van Arsdale and his staff have worked their players to the bone. "When you have the opportunity to have a whole week to prepare for one game you're going to work harder than at any other time, and that's what we've done," Majumdar said. After a Wednesday practice that pushed the Quakers to the limits of fatigue, Minerley, whose brother graduated from Cornell last year, remarked on the importance of tomorrow's battle. "Right now, this is the most important game of the year."
(03/29/99 10:00am)
The Crimson erased a 6-3 Penn lead and stole the victory with a Roger Buttles goal in OT. When the Penn men's lacrosse team stepped onto Harvard's Ohiri Field on Saturday, it met a young Crimson squad brimming with enthusiasm. The scrappy team from Cambridge handed the No. 14 Quakers an 8-7 overtime loss and, in the process, put a stop to any Penn hopes for a perfect Ivy League campaign. The Red and Blue (5-2, 1-1 Ivy League) could have skipped this dose of reality if they had only closed the door on the inexperienced Crimson earlier. "The way to beat a young but talented team is to build a strong lead and keep it there until they give out," Penn senior middie Shane Lavery said. Midway through the third quarter, the Quakers led 6-3 and appeared to be in the driver's seat. On both ends of the field, however, Penn just did not have enough to hold the lead. "I was pleased with our effort level the whole game," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. "I think that the problem we had at the end was the same problem we had throughout the game -- we were just unable to finish plays. There were a number of times where we could have made the lead insurmountable but we just didn't get it done." A screamer from the stick of Harvard's Roger Buttles found its way past Schroeder roughly four minutes into sudden death to win the contest for Harvard (2-2, 1-0). Buttles, who scored a game-high five goals, had an open look before he let his winning shot go. This was the most hurtful lapse for Penn in a game where lapses were just too common. "We knew he was one of their big guys going in," junior Pete Janney said. "I guess we just lost sight of him and he capitalized on it." Penn's game plan heading into Saturday was simple. In their first three games, the fledgling Crimson played their best in unsettled situations, so the Quakers' plan was to maintain composure. "We knew that they got most of their goals coming off of broken plays and stuff like that," said Lavery, who notched one tally on Saturday. "We just wanted to play our game, to keep it six-on-six and to keep possession." The Quakers were relatively successful in executing their game plan. They managed to outshoot the Crimson, 28-25, but had trouble finishing. They failed to put away Harvard when it would have counted most. Penn led 4-2 at the half and looked confident early on in the third. Harvard midfielder Michael Baly trimmed the lead to one with 11:49 remaining in the third. The Quakers responded emphatically. Janney and senior middie Jeff Zuckerman scored back-to-back goals to give Penn the largest lead of the game, 6-3. Unfortunately for the Quakers, this flurry was not enough to seal the victory. Penn outshot Harvard by a staggering seven attempts in the third period. But an 11-4 shot advantage does not automatically translate into goals. The Quakers attack came up short, failing to send another one past Harvard's Keith Cynar in the quarter. "That's the one major part of the game where we didn't do a good job. I think we played solid defense overall, but we just couldn't put them away," freshman Mike Iannacone said. Buttles scored his third goal of the contest five minutes into the fourth to make it 6-5 Penn. Iannacone quickly countered, taking a nice dish from Todd Minerley and sending it past Cynar to stretch the Quakers' lead to two at 7-5. Penn would not score again. Harvard's Geoff Watson scored unassisted off of what Iannacone described as a "broken clear." Penn held onto a one-goal margin until Buttles -- this time off a feed from Dana Sprong -- knotted the score with 1:41 left in regulation, forcing overtime. Each goalie had recorded one save in sudden death before a wide-open Buttles sent his final goal of the game past Schroeder. Schroeder, last week's Ivy Player of the Week, stopped 13 Harvard shots, while Crimson netminder Cynar thwarted 15 Penn attempts in return. The Red and Blue fielded a balanced attack on Saturday as seven players had a hand in the scoring. Senior middie Bart Hacking had two in the first half, senior Mark Kleinknecht had one and Lavery notched another before intermission. Except for their inability to shadow the Crimson's explosive Buttles, Penn's defense did a fine job. Faceoff and clear numbers were neck-and-neck for the two squads and Penn had a 47 percent advantage in ground balls won. Harvard had no real statistical advantage, which points to a clear conclusion -- this win was based on intangibles. Harvard's win dashed the Quakers' hopes for an undefeated Ivy League season only two games in, but Penn has no reason to despair. "This league is still wide open," Iannacone said. "Coach Van Arsdale stresses that we're still the same team we were before the game. This loss is a heartbreaker, but we're still right in it." Despite Saturday's loss, this team has gotten off the best Penn for the Quakers in 14 years and has already matched its 1998 win total.
(03/24/99 10:00am)
The Penn men's lacrosse team ran away in the second half for win unmber five, surpassing last season's win total. Like a great prizefighter, the Penn men's lacrosse teams knows just how to break down its opponents in the later rounds. The bigger, deeper Quakers (5-1) wore down visiting Lafayette last night en route to an 18-5 victory. "They just had more people than we did," Lafayette coach Bill Lawson said. "We were able to play with them in the first half. I was proud of the job our keeper and defense did but they just had too many good athletes." The facts of the Penn victory back up Lawson's claim. The more-talented Quakers were unable to pull away from the Leopards in the first half. Lafayette sophomore goalie Duncan Woodward had 14 saves and kept the Leopards close despite the fact that Penn outshot Lafayette 33-15. "We just ran into a hot keeper in the first half but we knew that we would have to start capitalizing on our chances soon," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. The Red and Blue had a sizable, but not insurmountable, 8-3 lead heading into the locker room. Penn's first-half offense came mostly from the sticks of the Quakers' aces thus far this season. Junior Pete Janney, sophomore Todd Minerley and senior Jeff Zuckerman have been masterful with the short sticks in 1999 and the trio had a hand in all but one of Penn's eight first-half tallies. "Peter and Todd each shot the ball real well," Van Arsdale said. "They gave us goals when we needed it." Janney scored twice in the first half and finished the contest with four. He pushed his season goal mark to 18 and his season point total to 28, both of which are tops in the Ivy League. Minerley was not to be outdone. He had five points and trails only Janney in the season point total. Zuckerman had three points, all coming in a clutch first half. The third and fourth quarters saw Penn dominate play in all facets of the game. No longer was scoring concentrated at the top, as eight Quakers had goals and Penn outscored the smaller Leopards 10-2. "They were playing a zone, and the way to beat a zone is to keep the ball moving," said Penn junior attacker Chris Wolfe, who scored twice last night. "The play definitely opened up and a lot of different people had chances to score." For Wolfe, it was the second straight game in which he chimed in with at least one goal. He also added an assist to finish with three total points. Wolfe's success off the bench is a sign of Penn's ability to field a balanced attack. "Chris has had two good games in a row. Against a team like Lafayette, it's good to have players like him that can really push it on offense," Van Arsdale said. "It's a lot like basketball -- the way you beat a team that has a tightly-packed defense is to attack before they can set up." Wolfe was an integral component of a second-half scoring bonanza in which Peter Scott had two goals, Scott Solow and Sonny Sarker added one apiece and Kevin Cadin had the first of his career. While Penn's dizzying number of goals last night may be the game's top story, one should not lose sight of the job done by the Quakers defense. The men with the long sticks have held their opponents to a paltry seven goals in the past 120 minutes of game time. To put it another way, Quakers foes are sending the ball into the Penn net less than once every 17 minutes -- or less than once per period. "Compared to other seasons I am much more confident," Penn senior defenseman and co-captain Ziggy Majumdar said. "Every since I have been here, we've never had a defense that communicates so well. We don't have to play much man-to-man defense because we function so well as a unit." Lafayette was not hapless by any means and the Penn defense was challenged by its quick attackers. Highlighting these scampering scorers was sophomore Kevin Bromby, who had a hand in four of the five Leopards tallies. Every Penn keeper logged time last night. Ivy League Player of the Week Matt Schroeder played the first three quarters, saved 13 shots and shrunk his Ivy-leading goals-against average to 6.33. Freshman John Carroll gave up no goals and had two saves. Sophomore Bill Kane yielded one goal but looked comfortable with two quality stops. "I think we have some guys on offense that should be able to score against them but this is the best Penn team I have seen in a very long while," said Lawson, who has coached the Leopards for 28 seasons. At this point last season, the Quakers were a measly 2-4. Now, buoyed by their best start in well over a decade, they sit atop the Ivy League. Ranked 14th nationally, Penn hopes it can continue to wear down higher-profile opponents as the Ivy season gets into full swing. The Quakers' next matchup is this Saturday at Ivy rival Harvard.
(03/22/99 10:00am)
The 15th-ranked Quakers are off to their best start since 1985. Yale's Joe Pilch, the 1998 first-team All-Ivy goalie, may have been in the net at the other end of the field. But as time wound down on No. 15 Penn's 7-2 handling of the Elis at Franklin Field on Saturday afternoon, it was Quakers senior goalie Matt Schroeder who looked like the class of the league. "Matt came up huge," said Penn attacker Peter Janney, the Ivy League Player of the Week. "He definitely showed how he can play, and we have full confidence in him." The victory brings Penn's season mark to 4-1, the Quakers' best start since the 1985 season. Although Penn has gotten the best of its foes from New Haven in two of the last three seasons, Saturday was only the third time the Quakers have beaten the Elis (1-3, 0-1 Ivy League) this decade. The win also marked the first time that the Quakers have opened league play with a victory since their 1992 campaign. Schroeder had 15 saves on the day as Yale outshot Penn, 28-24. But Schroeder's importance to the Quakers' win cannot be defined by statistics alone. In a first half where the Penn attack looked jittery and managed to score only two goals, the pressure was on Schroeder to shine. "Early on, everything was just a little sloppy," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. "Our offense wasn't smooth and neither was our defense so the job Matt did was really important for us." With 2:23 left in the first half, Yale attacker Christopher McIntyre responded to a careless Penn turnover near Yale's net with a blistering shot on goal at the other end. Schroeder snagged it, preventing Yale from capitalizing on the last good chance of the half. The Quakers went into the locker room up 2-1. "I felt good since I didn't really play that well in our last big game," Schroeder said. "It was nice to get back on track." The early going for the Quakers depended greatly on Schroeder but he is obviously not the whole story. If it were not for the play of the team's top two scorers -- Janney and sophomore middie Todd Minerley, who now have 14 and 11 goals, respectively -- the Quakers might not have pulled away from the Elis. Janney and Minerley, who dominate possession time for the Quakers, accounted for the first three Penn tallies. Minerley accounted for both first-half goals, both on assists from Janney. Janney opened the scoring in the second half to give Penn a 3-1 lead, with Minerley assisting on the score. "We didn't keep possession of the ball for long enough stretches of time but those guys [Janney and Minerley] came up with some big shots that kept us ahead," Van Arsdale said. Yale is an unquestionably tough defensive team. Even though the Elis attack netted an anemic 33 goals last season in league play -- by far the lowest in the Ivies -- Yale was competitive because of its stellar team defense. True to form, Yale had most of Penn's offensive lanes plugged on Saturday. But the Quakers knew coming in that they would have to score on shots from well outside the crease and that strategy translated to seven scores. "We knew we would have to shoot well to win, so we worked a lot on that leading up to the game," Van Arsdale said. Besides accuracy from the outside, the Quakers did a number of little things right on Saturday. They won 9-of-13 faceoffs and picked up nine more ground balls than the visiting Elis. These advantages helped the Red and Blue open up the game somewhat in the second half. "We basically calmed ourselves at halftime and we looked a lot better in the second half," Janney said. The scoring opened up in the last two quarters as Penn kept the ball in the Yale end for a majority of the time. Junior Chris Wolfe came off the bench in the second half and notched Penn's first goal by someone other than Minerley or Janney with 7:07 left in the third. That was followed by goals from freshman Peter Scott and senior Jeff Zuckerman early on in the fourth to make the score 6-1 in favor of the Red and Blue. Tucker Foote of Yale finally ended the drought for the Elis with 6:27 left in the last period. Yale's offense never came together, however, as the Elis would not score again. Janney put the final nail in the Yale coffin by sending a shot past Pilch with 4:23 left in the game. This 40-foot fireball elicited some excitement from the 600 in attendance, as the Quakers sealed a low-scoring victory at Franklin Field. "I think you saw two good defensive teams out there with two big guys in goal," Yale coach Mike Waldvogel said. The 15th-ranked Quakers have every right to be encouraged by the play of their big man in goal as well as by their best start in 13 seasons.
(03/18/99 10:00am)
To say that the Princeton lacrosse team has been the best squad in the Ivy League in the 1990s is as much of an understatement as, say, calling Rome the best empire of the first century. Put bluntly, the Tigers have been in a class of their own. After winning their first-ever NCAA championship in 1992, the young men from Old Nassau have sent nearly every opponent down in defeat en route to a staggering five national championships in seven years. "For the last couple of years, it would take a major miracle for any team to take the league over Princeton," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. But a tempest may be brewing in the world of Ivy lacrosse. The No. 8 Tigers lost their first two games of the season and appear beatable. No. 15 Penn and No. 13 Cornell, both off to hot starts, are ready to blow the lid off the Princeton dynasty. Princeton The Tigers are not about to cede their kingdom without a fight. They are still the most talented team in the Ivies and know just how to win. "They're still a very, very strong team," Van Arsdale said. "They lost a big part of their offense but their defense is still dominant." The Tigers, however, cannot help but feel the effects of losing the most productive attacking trio in recent collegiate memory. Jon Hess, Jesse Hubbard and Chris Massey have all left, taking their 618 career points with them. During the three years that this triumvirate led the Tigers attack, the team went 43-2, garnered three undefeated Ivy crowns and three NCAA titles. The Princeton defense, on the other hand, returns all but one starter from last year's championship squad. They held Ivy opponents to a measly 40 goals last year while the squad scored 93 themselves against the rest of the Ivies. Anchoring Old Nassau will be Corey Popham, the 1998 Final Four Most Outstanding Player. His 7.86 goals against average placed him second in the nation. The Tigers' 0-2 start has shocked some, but it ought not encourage the rest of the league too much. Granted, it is a subpar start, but the losses came against national powers -- No. 4 Virginia and No. 5 Johns Hopkins -- by a combined margin of only three. Beatable, yes. In trouble, no. Cornell The Big Red's current No. 13 national ranking is the highest since their 1992 campaign and their fans have good reason for excitement. "I think Cornell is a much improved team that has a chance to take the league," Van Arsdale said. "They also have maybe the best athlete in Ivy League lacrosse in Pat Dutton." A senior middie, Dutton was an honorable mention All-American last year and is currently only 19 goals from cracking the all-time Cornell top 10. Sophomore Andrew Schardt has chipped in a team-high seven goals. With 6-of-10 starters returning to a team that went 4-2 in the league last year, Cornell is poised for a breakthrough season. Brown If one word can describe the 1999 Bears, it is "experience." "This is a senior-oriented team that has a good sense of what it takes to be successful," Van Arsdale said. The Bears come off a disappointing 2-4 1998 Ivy campaign in which their offense netted only three more goals than its opponents. Relying heavily on the leadership of senior two-time All-American Jed DeWick, who had 44 points in '98, Brown should be more explosive. Brown has a shot at winning, and their co-championship in 1995 was the last time Princeton did not win outright. Harvard The Crimson lost their opener to Fairfield, 13-5, marking the first time they failed to begin on a good foot since 1993. They lost 6-of-7 second-half faceoffs in their loss. Harvard's 5-1 1998 Ivy campaign will probably not be duplicated since they lost 73 percent of last year's scoring to graduation. The biggest departure is 1998 Ivy Player of the Year Mike Ferrucci. Yale Coach Mike Waldvogel's Elis squad looks to repeat its 1998 defeat of the Quakers on Saturday, but they will probably not contend for Ivy gold. Their defense is led by first-team All-Ivy keeper Joe Pilch, who was also the 1996 Rookie of the Year. Offense will be the Elis' biggest problem; they only managed an anemic 33 goals in league play last year. Dartmouth The Big Green have a new coach in Rick Sowell, but don't look for them to improve much over last year's 1-5 league record.
(03/17/99 10:00am)
The Penn men's lacrosse team held crosstown rival St. Joe's scoreless for 38 minutes last night at Franklin Field Piled snow flanked the turf at Franklin Field last night and the St. Joseph's men's lacrosse team seemed to be affected by their frozen surroundings. The Hawks went frigid -- they were scoreless for a daunting 38 minutes of game time and allowed Penn to pull away for an eventual 16-8 victory. The Quakers (3-1) looked skittish in the game's first five minutes as St. Joe's scored the first two goals of the contest. "Sure, I guess there were some jitters," Penn coach Marc Van Arsdale said. "We didn't panic though. I mean we got a couple of good shots in early on, but their guy [St. Joe's goalie Ryan McQuaid] just stopped them." Junior Corey Comen's streak toward the crease and brisk shot past Penn keeper Matt Schroeder with 10:12 left in the first period put the Hawks up 2-0. But St. Joe's would not strike again until less than two minutes remained in the third. "I think that our inability to score was a combination of two things," St. Joe's head coach Paul Perdue said. "One was the team defense from Penn. They were very aggressive. The other reason was that we just weren't taking care of the ball." Throughout the Hawks' 38-minute drought, Penn put a hurting on their attackers. Perhaps the game's most startling statistic is the fact that the Hawks could only muster one shot in the second period. Their nine first-half attempts were dwarfed by the 31 balls the Quakers sent on net in the same time span. "I think we found that Penn is bigger and stronger than we are," Purdue said. "Our top eight or nine guys can play with them but they just broke us down." By the time the Hawks scored again, Penn had built a lethal 11-2 lead. The Red and Blue offense sported a balanced attack last night as nine Quakers found the net en route to the team's highest goal production thus far this season. "We had a number of guys that made a major impact offensively," Van Arsdale said. The team's leading scorer on the night was sophomore attacker Todd Minerley, who ended the night with two goals and four assists. Minerley, who had a hand in over one-third of Penn's tallies, now has nine goals on the season, putting him just three notches behind team leader Peter Janney. "The ball was moving pretty quickly so I had a bunch of opportunities to score," Minerley said. "I think we looked pretty good for most of the game." Midfielders Jeff Zuckerman and Mark Kleinknecht each came up with hat tricks last night. Zuckerman demonstrated the explosiveness that secured him honorable mention All-Ivy honors last season, while Kleinknecht shot with pinpoint accuracy. "Mark Kleinknecht nailed a bunch of difficult shots," Van Arsdale said. Penn only outscored the Hawks 9-6 in the second half. St. Joe's mild surge stemmed from both its own determination and to a series of Penn substitutions. With less than five minutes to go in the third period, Van Arsdale yanked senior keeper Schroeder in favor of freshman John Carroll. The rationale for this was simple. "Everybody on this team practices real hard, so I think that, if we are in the position to do so, you have to give guys like John [Carroll] and Billy [sophomore goalie Bill Kane] a chance." To their credit, the Hawks never surrendered. Junior Drew Scott kept plugging away and eventually earned the third hat trick of the game. "Drew showed himself to be a tireless competitor," Perdue said. "It was great to see that he still had enough gas at the end." The Quakers could have done without the early jitters last night and they also might have liked to limit the Hawks' offense in the final period. Still, a win's a win, and the 15th-ranked Quakers appear poised to take on Ivy contender Yale on Saturday at Franklin Field.
(03/17/99 10:00am)
WEST POINT, N.Y. -- Coach Roger Reina may shun the label, but there is no way to discuss the Penn wrestling team's performance at the 1999 EIWA Championships without using the word "dynasty." "I wouldn't call it a dynasty. I'd just call it people who work hard day by day and make the right decisions about how they're working and how they're spending their time," Reina said. The Quakers' performance was nothing short of bestial. They pummeled the competition, outdistancing second-place Cornell 166.5-133.5 en route to the third-highest point total in EIWA history. Penn had five champions, six finalists and an astounding eight NCAA qualifiers in the 10 weight classes. The EIWA victory further polishes an already-glittering Penn season in which the Quakers posted an undefeated (10-0-2) dual-meet campaign. Fueled by their dominating performance, the Quakers jumped to an all-time-high No. 12 in the most recent National Wrestling Coaches Association poll. Consensus favorite and national No. 3 Andrei Rodzianko did more than handle his opponents -- he annihilated his competition at 197 lbs. and was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler while winnign his first EIWA title. "Rodzianko looks as if he has all he needs to beat anybody in the country," Harvard assistant coach and 1996 Olympic gold medalist Kendall Cross said. Penn's history-making win at West Point makes the term "dynasty" fit like a glove. The 1998-99 squad is the first team to sit atop the EIWA for four straight seasons since Navy did it from 1943-46. Amazingly, this year's senior class will graduate without an Easterns disappointment. As if this were not enough to please the Quaker faithful, only one of Penn's five champions is a senior, as all but Rodzianko will be raring to do it again next season. "Dynasty" fits, yet nothing came easy to Penn. Experts gave the pre-meet edge to both Lehigh and Cornell so the Quakers had their work cut out for them. "You don't get to talk about a word like that if you don't work as hard as we do," sophomore 157 lb. champion Yoshi Nakamura said. The Quakers came out swinging. Since both Lehigh and Cornell had slight edges in the seedings, Penn's first round needed to be flawless. And flawless it was. The Quakers sent all 10 starters into the championship bracket. The team was buoyed by pins from No. 3-seeded Rick Springman (165 lbs.) and Jason Nagle (133 lbs.). Nagle, the seventh seed, would eventually become the cinderella story of the weekend by claiming the title. A 22-7 tech fall from Nakamura yielded more needed bonus points -- the Quakers earned bonus points, awarded for major decisions, tech falls and pins, in six of their seven first round matches -- and put Penn in the driver's seat. Penn led Lehigh 15.5-14.4 after the first round. The quarterfinals were up-and-down for the Red and Blue. Seven of 10 wrestlers successfully made it into the semis but there was one hurtful quarterfinals upset. Navy's Don Waters got the best of No.3-seeded Penn tri-captain Mark Piotrowsky, 6-5. "I don't even know what happened. I just wasn't there," Piotrowsky said. "After that match, I just went off on my own for a while and I didn't want my last match to be at West Point." But a determined Pio battled back to win third-place honors and a wild card bid to the NCAAs. Further offsetting his quarterfinals loss for the Quakers was the surprise upset of Nagle over tournament favorite Juan Venturi of Princeton. Mike Gadsby (184 lbs.) and Ryan Slack (174 lbs.) both bowed out for Penn in the quarterfinals. The semifinals, just like in Penn's three previous EIWA wins, was the round in which the competition was put away by the Quakers' ferocity. "Our quarterfinal round was very tentative and they responded exceptionally well," Reina said. The crowd at Army couldn't hide its admiration for Penn in the semis, where the Quakers won each of their first six matches. This included another Nagle upset, an explosive 14-8 decision by 125-pounder Justin Bravo over Lehigh's Bruce Kelly and an 11-6 victory by Springman over Travis Doto to avenge his loss in the Lehigh-Penn dual meet. The lone damper in the semis came from heavyweight Bandele Adeniyi-Bada's loss but even that paled in comparison to what Reina called a "helluva round." Six Quakers paraded out on to the mats for the finals promptly at 7 p.m. as the regal presentation of the colors got things underway. It would only take two matches for the Quakers to clinch their victory but the Red and Blue onslaught never abated. Bravo got things started for Penn with a title in the opening weight class, posting a 3-1 victory over No. 1-seeded Jeremy Sluyter of East Strousberg, the defending champ. "It was a real tough match. His style makes it tough to score on him, so I had to keep working until things finally opened up," Bravo said. Nagle clinched the Quakers victory with a win at the next weight class, ousting his third top-three seed of the tournament, Livio DiRubbo, 10-6. At 149 lbs., Penn's Brett Matter became a three-time champion with a hard-fought 6-5 decision over Cornell's Shaun Bradley. Matter had the vocal support of his father Andy -- a three-time champ himself who was inducted into the EIWA Hall of Fame before the competition -- and his brother Clint, a former Penn star and two-time EIWA champ. The junior tri-captain looked confident and prepared for NCAAs, but, always the perfectionist, still found fault with his own performance. "I don't really think I wrestled especially well today," Matter said. "Bradley's a tough kid, but I don't really think I wrestled my match." Everything after Nagle's bout was just gravy but that failed to keep Penn from pouring it on thick. Nakamura exacted revenge by topping No. 1 seed Chris Ayers of Lehigh in the finals, 3-1, countering an overtime shot from the Engineer for the win. "I thought he would try for a double-leg [takedown]," Nakamura said. "I expected it, and sure enough he tried it. I slid right by him and took him down." Springman grudgingly accepted a loss to Harvard's Joey Killar next, but this Crimson victory was quickly obliterated by Rodzianko's textbook 18-4 major decision over Brad Soltis. The senior 197-pounder outclassed his opponents on his way to a share of the coveted Fletcher Award for career EIWA points. The careful technician, much like the rest of the Penn team, did more than make history at West Point -- he taught a lesson as well.
(03/03/99 10:00am)
The Penn basketball team and a smattering of lucky fans may have been away at Princeton last night, but the Palestra certainly felt just like home as its rafters echoed with the chant of "Ivy Champs." With less than two minutes to go in the game, the south stands of the Palestra were near capacity with 1,250 raucous members of the Quakers faithful. They cheered their hearts out as the 16' by 20' television screen showed the final images of Penn's stirring 73-48 slaying of the Tigers. "The atmosphere was electric," College senior Dave Futer said. "I can graduate a free man." Students roundly cheered the Athletic Department and the host of other University groups that organized last night's showing of the game on a closed-circuit feed from Princeton's Jadwin Gymnasium. "I think that the Athletic Department showed real class by putting this together," College senior Jake Wilson said. "They made the best of a tough situation where many people just couldn't get tickets." Students who expected a 27" screen and a big bowl of snacks were pleasantly surprised by the job done by the Athletic Department, the Office of Alumni Relations and others. "We brought state-of-the-art equipment in here," Director of Athletic Facilities and Operations Dave Bryan said. "That is an expensive screen, so there are obvious safety and security concerns, but if the students are enjoying it, then we've done our job." Safety and security were certainly top priorities for the event's organizers. The nets of the Palestra baskets were taken down before the game to ensure that there would be no mad rush to cut them down after a Red and Blue victory. Personnel on hand were also instructed to make sure that nobody rushed the court, according to a security guard at the event. The Palestra's public address announcer drove this point home. "Please do not go on to the playing floor," he constantly stressed. Granted, safety was a concern. Still, preserving the game-like atmosphere of the Palestra was what came through most clearly. "The spirit was all there," Engineering sophomore Nadav Besner said. The University did more than just go the extra mile in renting the crisp and clean screen. The scoreboards were kept on and the game ended with a solid, albeit low-key, version of "The Red and Blue." Another nice touch was the preservation of the Quakers tradition of throwing out T-shirts after every Penn three-pointer and slam dunk. "I think the fans reacted well," College senior Nathan Thompson said. "They were cheering as if the team could hear." The 1,250 in attendance demonstrated the spirit of Quakers fans. Their team might have been miles away, but they still cried for "Defense" and waved wildly while the Tigers took free throws. And they all celebrated when Princeton forward Gabe Lewullis sat on the bench with his head buried in his hands as the clock wound down on his college career. After a week where the Athletic Department received ample criticism for their Princeton ticket policy, they can now revel in at least one job well done.
(03/03/99 10:00am)
The Penn basketball team and a smattering of lucky fans may have been away at Princeton last night, but the Palestra certainly felt just like home as its rafters echoed with the chant of "Ivy Champs." With less than two minutes to go in the game, the south stands of the Palestra were near capacity with 1,250 raucous members of the Quakers faithful. They cheered their hearts out as the 16' by 20' television screen showed the final images of Penn's stirring 73-48 slaying of the Tigers. "The atmosphere was electric," College senior Dave Futer said. "I can graduate a free man." Students roundly cheered the Athletic Department and the host of other University groups that organized last night's showing of the game on a closed-circuit feed from Princeton's Jadwin Gymnasium. "I think that the Athletic Department showed real class by putting this together," College senior Jake Wilson said. "They made the best of a tough situation where many people just couldn't get tickets." Students who expected a 27" screen and a big bowl of snacks were pleasantly surprised by the job done by the Athletic Department, the Office of Alumni Relations and others. "We brought state-of-the-art equipment in here," Director of Athletic Facilities and Operations Dave Bryan said. "That is an expensive screen, so there are obvious safety and security concerns, but if the students are enjoying it, then we've done our job." Safety and security were certainly top priorities for the event's organizers. The nets of the Palestra baskets were taken down before the game to ensure that there would be no mad rush to cut them down after a Red and Blue victory. Personnel on hand were also instructed to make sure that nobody rushed the court, according to a security guard at the event. The Palestra's public address announcer drove this point home. "Please do not go on to the playing floor," he constantly stressed. Granted, safety was a concern. Still, preserving the game-like atmosphere of the Palestra was what came through most clearly. "The spirit was all there," Engineering sophomore Nadav Besner said. The University did more than just go the extra mile in renting the crisp and clean screen. The scoreboards were kept on and the game ended with a solid, albeit low-key, version of "The Red and Blue." Another nice touch was the preservation of the Quakers tradition of throwing out T-shirts after every Penn three-pointer and slam dunk. "I think the fans reacted well," College senior Nathan Thompson said. "They were cheering as if the team could hear." The 1,250 in attendance demonstrated the spirit of Quakers fans. Their team might have been miles away, but they still cried for "Defense" and waved wildly while the Tigers took free throws. And they all celebrated when Princeton forward Gabe Lewullis sat on the bench with his head buried in his hands as the clock wound down on his college career. After a week where the Athletic Department received ample criticism for their Princeton ticket policy, they can now revel in at least one job well done.
(03/03/99 10:00am)
The Penn basketball team and a smattering of lucky fans may have been away at Princeton last night, but the Palestra certainly felt just like home as its rafters echoed with the chant of "Ivy Champs." With less than two minutes to go in the game, the south stands of the Palestra were near capacity with 1,250 raucous members of the Quakers faithful. They cheered their hearts out as the 16' by 20' television screen showed the final images of Penn's stirring 73-48 slaying of the Tigers. "The atmosphere was electric," College senior Dave Futer said. "I can graduate a free man." Students roundly cheered the Athletic Department and the host of other University groups that organized last night's showing of the game on a closed-circuit feed from Princeton's Jadwin Gymnasium. "I think that the Athletic Department showed real class by putting this together," College senior Jake Wilson said. "They made the best of a tough situation where many people just couldn't get tickets." Students who expected a 27" screen and a big bowl of snacks were pleasantly surprised by the job done by the Athletic Department, the Office of Alumni Relations and others. "We brought state-of-the-art equipment in here," Director of Athletic Facilities and Operations Dave Bryan said. "That is an expensive screen, so there are obvious safety and security concerns, but if the students are enjoying it, then we've done our job." Safety and security were certainly top priorities for the event's organizers. The nets of the Palestra baskets were taken down before the game to ensure that there would be no mad rush to cut them down after a Red and Blue victory. Personnel on hand were also instructed to make sure that nobody rushed the court, according to a security guard at the event. The Palestra's public address announcer drove this point home. "Please do not go on to the playing floor," he constantly stressed. Granted, safety was a concern. Still, preserving the game-like atmosphere of the Palestra was what came through most clearly. "The spirit was all there," Engineering sophomore Nadav Besner said. The University did more than just go the extra mile in renting the crisp and clean screen. The scoreboards were kept on and the game ended with a solid, albeit low-key, version of "The Red and Blue." Another nice touch was the preservation of the Quakers tradition of throwing out T-shirts after every Penn three-pointer and slam dunk. "I think the fans reacted well," College senior Nathan Thompson said. "They were cheering as if the team could hear." The 1,250 in attendance demonstrated the spirit of Quakers fans. Their team might have been miles away, but they still cried for "Defense" and waved wildly while the Tigers took free throws. And they all celebrated when Princeton forward Gabe Lewullis sat on the bench with his head buried in his hands as the clock wound down on his college career. After a week where the Athletic Department received ample criticism for their Princeton ticket policy, they can now revel in at least one job well done.
