Rebuilt lineup has an imbalance of power

After losing 45 percent of its offensive production, the Quakers' lineup will be completely rebuilt when the team takes the field at Villanova on Friday.

Attack. Penn has the least experience and depth here and coach Brian Voelker will start a trio of sophomores in Alex Weber, Casey O'Rourke and Craig Andrzejewski.

Andrzejewski, a natural midfielder, was moved to attack to give Penn another offensive threat. He is likely a better midfielder, but Voelker wants his best offensive player on the field as much as possible, which makes the move a logical choice.

"I played some attack in high school, so I kind of knew what it was like before this," Andrzejewski said. "But it's definitely been a change having a long pole on you the whole time."

Weber and O'Rourke saw extensive time last season, but neither produced much, combining for 12 points.

"The biggest challenge for all three of those guys is to step up and not just be role players," Voelker said. They need "to be the leaders on the offensive end."

Penn regularly used five or even six different attackmen in a single game last season, but Voelker only expects to play four during most games this year. Senior Alex Salihi will come off the bench in relief.

Midfield. Captain Dave Cornbrooks, who was named honorable mention All-Ivy last year, will lead at midfield.

"I think we have a ton of guys that can step in to fill the void that [D.J. Andrzejewski and James Riordan] left," Cornbrooks said. "I think that's what's good about our team this year, we don't have two or three guys shouldering the entire load."

Joining Cornbrooks on the Quakers' first middie line will be J.J. Lian and Drew Collins, who saw significant time on the first and second units, respectively, last season.

Defense. Penn's defense could be its strength throughout the season as the only positions with significant experience.

Junior Max Mauro, who started 13 of 14 games last season, will move back and lead the backfield at close defense. With Penn facing some of the top attackers in the country in Princeton, Denver and Maryland, a strong year from Mauro would help to solidify Penn's defense.

Matt Kelleher and Mark Haase, who saw playing time while Kelleher was hurt last year, round out the defense.

Goal. In Greg Klossner, the Quakers return the netminder who led them to a 10-4 season last year. Klossner had an 8.33 goals against average and saved 54 percent of shots, both good for fourth in the Ivy League.

Although Klossner is still the starter, freshman Chris Casey was challenging for playing time before he went down with a minor injury last week. Casey led No. 1 Georgetown Prep to an undefeated season as a high school senior.

Casey missed several practices last week, did not play in last weekend's scrimmages and will likely not see time against Villanova. But Voelker expects to play him this season.

"Part of the reason we were pretty good last year was [Klossner] had a good year," Voelker said. "We don't feel like it's anything that he's doing wrong, we just feel like some of the other guys, and Chris specifically, have just played very well."

Faceoffs. Penn lost one of its biggest weapons with the graduation of Alan Eberstein.

Penn will look to sophomore Ricky Choi and freshman Justin Lynch to gain possessions, but neither one has stood out so far.

"They are really different styles," Voelker said. "Ricky is really a technique, almost finesse kind of faceoff guy. Justin is more of a grind-it-out, win-the-ground-ball type of faceoff guy. So we can give teams different looks."

The Quakers will play sophomore Brian Weiss, who played in every game as a freshman, on the wing during faceoffs.

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