Maryland men’s lacrosse vs. Penn preview

Maryland men’s lacrosse will look to continue its strong start as it heads up I-95 to Philadelphia to face Penn on Saturday.

The Terps have dominated Penn in all previous matchups, winning all 13 against the Quakers. In their most recent encounter last season, Maryland dispatched Penn 13-6 at Maryland Stadium in a game where Logan Wisnauskas scored five goals.

But Penn has changed a bit since the teams last met. The Quakers bring back a lot of the same players from last season, but enter this year with a new offensive coordinator in Mike Abbott. This is also Penn’s first game of the season, so it’s unclear what the new offense should will like and what Abbott plans on implementing from his time at Colgate.

“They’re bringing back a lot of the same players,” senior long-stick midfielder Nick Brozowski said this week. “They have a new offensive coordinator and they have a new kind [of] program going on right now, so you know you can watch the tape from last year, but at the same time, you gotta see what you see and try to understand them the best you can.”

The game is set to start at 1 p.m. ET and is available on ESPN+ ($).

Penn Quakers

2018 Record: 7-8, 3-3 Ivy League

Head coach Mike Murphy has experienced mixed success as he enters his 10th season at the helm for the Quakers. The last few seasons haven’t been as fortuitous as Penn would’ve hoped, hovering around the .500 mark for last four years and not appearing in the NCAA tournament since 2014.

Players to know

Senior attack Simon Mathias (No. 45) was mentioned specifically by head coach John Tillman as someone who can cause problems defensively. The senior has had a productive and oddly consistent career at Penn, scoring 28 goals in each of the last three seasons and serving as a steady scoring option.

Senior midfielder Tyler Dunn (No. 3) is another player Tillman identified as threat offensively, serving as Murphy’s primary midfielder last season and providing a scoring option outside the team’s starting attack. Dunn has improved in each year he’s been at Penn, finishing last season with a career-best 25 goals.

Junior attack Adam Goldner (No. 20) is the younger member of Penn’s upperclassmen-laden scoring group, but very well could end up out-scoring Mathias and Dunn this season. The Malvern Prep alum tied Mathias for the team-high in goals with 28 last season, doing so on 22 less shots than Mathias.

Strength

Faceoff specialists. The Quakers may be able to have an advantage at the faceoff X on Saturday should senior Richie Lenskold replicate the same success he had last season. Lenskold ended the year in the top 30 in the country in win percentage, finishing just two spots behind Justin Shockey. Given how much faceoffs can dictate the outcome of a game, the Terps will need Henningsen and Shockey to be at their best.

Weakness

Defense. For a team that emphasizes getting to 10 goals each game, Maryland shouldn’t have too much trouble doing so against Penn. The Quakers allowed an average of 10.5 goals per game last season, only holding opponents under 10 goals three times.

Three things to watch

1. Penn has a former Terp on their staff. Casey Ikeda is entering his fourth year now as a member of the Penn coaching staff and his third as the Quakers’ defensive coordinator. Ikeda was a team captain and cerebral player on defense for Tillman back in 2015, and some of that Tillman still sees through now into Ikeda’s coaching career.

“They have good personnel [defensively] they’re very organized, they’re disciplined, they’re athletic, and you know Casey by watching their defense there’s a lot of things that we do that coach Ikeda has brought with him there.”

2. Maryland will be looking for its third straight 3-0 start. February has always been a month that John Tillman excels in, starting 3-0 in each of the last two seasons with a 24-2 record overall in February. A win Saturday would make it three in a row and set the Terps up well heading into their final two games this month.

3. Can Penn pull off the upset? Although Maryland appears to be the better team on paper, Penn is far from a squad the Terps should take lightly. Penn is no stranger to upsets, as the Quakers pulled out a 10-9 win over then-No. 1 team in the country in Duke last February at home. This year, Maryland finds itself in that same position, and will need to show up and avoid having another second half like it did against Richmond to stay undefeated.