Men's Lacrosse Hosts No. 4 Cornell on Saturday

PHILADELPHIA - The Penn men's lacrosse team is looking for its first Ivy League win after losing its conference opener last weekend at Princeton. The task is another tall one this weekend, as No. 4 Cornell comes to Franklin Field. The Quakers and Big Red will face off Saturday at noon.

GAME 6
PENN (1-4, 0-1) vs. #4 CORNELL (5-1, 1-0)
Saturday, March 24, 2012 * Noon
Philadelphia (Franklin Field)

The Series with Cornell
The Big Red lead the series, 59-23, with three ties included. Cornell has won five in a row over Penn, but needed overtime to defeat the Quakers in Ithaca last year, 13-12. Penn won here at Franklin Field in 2004 and 2006, but Cornell won here in 2008 and 2010.

About Cornell
The fourth-ranked Big Red will be playing their fourth game without Rob Pannell, last year's National Attackman of the Year; he is out with an injury. Cornell is 2-1 in the other game, all of them one-goal affairs (9-8 loss to No. 1 Virginia; 8-7 win over Yale; 9-8 overtime win against Denver). Steve Mock leads the Big Red with 18 points, while Max Van Bourgondien has 14 and Connor English and Matt Donovan have 13 apiece. Andrew West has a 7.12 goals-against average and a .581 save percentage in six appearances.

Around the Ivy League
At the same time that Penn and Cornell face off Saturday, so will Princeton (1-0) and Yale (0-1) in New Haven, Conn. The third Ivy game will be Dartmouth's Ancient Eight opener and it will bring them to Harvard (1-0), starting at 2 p.m. Brown (0-1) has the bye this weekend, and is at Vermont Saturday at 1 p.m.

Penn in the Mile High Classic
The Penn men's lacrosse team will participate in the Whitman's Sampler Mile High Classic presented by Inside Lacrosse on Friday, April 27 in Denver, Colo. The Quakers are slated to meet defending NCAA champion Virginia in the first half of a doubleheader at Sports Authority Field (home of the NFL's Denver Broncos); 2011 NCAA semifinalists Duke and Denver will play in the other game.

About Penn
*Saturday's game will be the second of four Ivy League games in a row that the Quakers will play over the next four Saturdays.

*Three different players have scored seven goals so far this season for Penn: seniors Dan Savage and John Conneely, and junior Ryan Parietti.

*Conneely also has five assists and is tied for the team lead in points (12) with junior Tim Schwalje (6g, 6a).

*Conneely and Schwalje are the only Penn players to score a point in every game so far this season.

*Conneely was named the Ivy League Player of the Week last Monday for his efforts against UNC and Villanova.

*Schwalje has three points in each of Penn's last three games; after going for two goals and an assist vs. North Carolina and Villanova, he had a goal and two assists last Saturday at Princeton.

*Parietti has also scored twice in each of the last three games, and has nine points in 2012 (7g, 2a).

*Junior Rob Fitzpatrick, who tied for fourth in scoring a year ago, had his first two points of the season against Villanova with a goal and an assist.

*Sophomore Maxx Meyer returned to action last Saturday at Princeton after missing two games to injury.

*Junior Anthony Santomo leads Penn with seven caused turnovers, while senior Will Koshansky and sophomore Zack Losco have six each. Meyer has five.

*Freshman Joe McCallion and sophomore Danny Feeney have basically split time on faceoffs this season; McCallion has a .429 win percentage, while Feeney is at .268.

*Sophomore goalie Brian Feeney -- Danny's twin brother -- has a .453 save percentage and a 9.40 goals-against average so far this season.

*Penn finished the 2011 regular season at 8-6, its best overall record since 2006 (10-4), and advanced to the NCAAs for the first time since that 2006 season.

*In Ivy League play, Penn's 4-2 record last year was its best since, you guessed it, 2006. However, the Quakers took second in the Ivy standings, behind Cornell. The last time Penn finished second in the Ivies? Try 1989.