Penn men's lacrosse blown out by No. 1 Yale in Ivy League Tournament, 21-6

By the time the Quakers got their first shot on goal, it was already too late.

Penn men’s lacrosse was thoroughly dominated by No. 1 Yale in the Ivy League Tournament semifinal, falling by the score of 21-6. With the loss, the Quakers' season is over, being eliminated by Yale in the Ivy semifinals for the third straight season.

Statistically speaking, the loss was the worst of the year for the Red and Blue by a large margin. The 21 goals given up by the Quakers (7-8, 3-3 Ivy) was the most they allowed all season. They also turned the ball over 19 times and allowed Yale (13-2, 6-0) to pick up 41 ground balls, both season highs.

Yale’s offense was electric all day long. Led by sophomore attackman Matt Gaudet, who scored a career-best seven goals, the Elis were relentless. They picked apart Penn’s zone, and once the Quakers switched over to man coverage, Yale continued to create space and find the open man. The Bulldogs finished the day with an astounding 37 shots on goal, their second-highest total of the season.

The first 10 minutes of the game, like most of the night, belonged entirely to Yale. The Bulldogs opened the game on a 5-0 run, and kept Penn from even recording a shot until the Quakers’ first goal with 3:27 left in the first quarter. The Quakers started extremely sloppy, committing turnovers on their first four possessions and getting beat to loose balls.

Penn settled in a little bit and started to gain some momentum. The next 10 minutes of play saw a mini 3-0 run from the Red and Blue, which also included fending off two man-advantages. The Quakers brought the score to 5-3 with about 10 minutes left to play in the second quarter, but that was the closest they would get.

The Bulldogs went on another 5-0 run, including a two-minute stretch where they scored three straight goals without surrendering control of the ball. The Quakers just had no response to Yale’s aggressiveness, and the goals kept adding up.

All told, Yale finished the half up 12-4, which marked the most first-half goals Penn had given up all season, and more than it had given up in all but four games in total. Yale’s dominance shows up in the stat sheet, but even that fails to capture just how much better it played than the Quakers.

The second half was just more of the same. Yale kept Penn off the board until very late in the fourth quarter when the game was all but over, and continued to keep pressing for more goals on the other end.

Despite a good resume, Penn now is no longer eligible for an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament, as the loss puts them under .500 for the season.

It’s a disappointing end to the season for the Red and Blue, but after being outed by Yale yet again, there’s plenty of motivation to work hard in the offseason and come back stronger.