Porous 'D' dooms M. Lax

When a team is struggling, a matchup against the fourth-best team in the nation generally is not the cure.

The men's lacrosse team showed that Saturday, continuing its season-long defensive struggles in a 21-11 loss to No. 4 Cornell.

"Going against the [No. 4] team in the country, even if we would've played great, we would've had to get some breaks," coach Brian Voelker said. "And against a team like Cornell, when you make mistakes, they make you pay for it and they did that today."

The Big Red jumped out to an early lead, notching three tallies before Penn (1-6, 0-3 Ivy) could get on the board.

However, the Quakers came storming back, controlling the end of the first quarter. Thanks to three goals by senior attack Craig Andrzejewski, Penn tied the game at five before the 11-minute mark of the second quarter.

That point would mark the end of the Quakers' momentum. Cornell (6-1, 2-0) launched a 7-0 run to blow by the Red and Blue. And though junior midfield Justin Lynch -- Penn's face-off specialist - scored his first career goal with just over a minute before halftime, the Big Red went into the break having doubled up the Quakers.

"Lacrosse is a game of runs," senior midfield J.J. Lian said. "They got hot and we couldn't answer back."

Cornell kept up the heat after the break, scoring three times in the first five minutes. That deficit proved insurmountable.

The 21 goals let in by the Quakers are tied for the most in Voelker's six-year tenure. They last allowed that many scores in a season-ending loss to Maryland at Lincoln Financial Field in 2005.

The result, however, is only the lowlight in what has been a tough year for the Penn defense. The unit is eighth-worst in the country in scoring defense.

"The bottom line is the way we're playing defense, we're not going to win," Voelker said. "We made mistakes, we didn't play smart on the defensive end and if we keep giving teams opportunities to score on us, they're going to do it."

Ryan Hurley, tied for second in the country in scoring before the game, led the way for Cornell with five goals. In the end, 12 different Big Red players put the ball past the two Penn goalies. After freshman Joe Hegener allowed 12 goals, he was pulled at halftime for senior Greg Murray, who began the season as the starter.

Perhaps the only bright spot for the Quakers was Lynch's play. In addition to notching his first goal, the midfielder won 18 of the 31 faceoffs he took.

So with its third straight Ivy loss - sixth straight overall - in the books, Penn is throwing out preseason goals to focus on getting back on the winning track - especially on the defensive end.

"We're not going to win playing defense like we're playing right now, and we've got to really do something quick to fix it," Voelker said.

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