You can trust both Sean Lulley’s statistics and his coach to vouch for how strong a game he played Saturday against Duke. Unless you were in Charlotte, N.C., for Penn’s 14-11 defeat of the Blue Devils, you couldn’t trust your eyes.
The neutral-site game wasn’t televised or live-streamed, and considering how sloppy things got at times, it isn’t entirely a bad thing. But the junior attackman’s six-goal showing (on nine shots) was a major factor in the Quakers landing a valuable early victory.
“People couldn’t really see it, but it was a very, very good performance while being covered by one of the best defensemen out there in JT Giles-Harris,” Penn coach Mike Murphy said. “He just stepped up and played very, very well. He played within himself and wasn’t monopolizing the ball or taking a million shots. He was very effective within the offense.”
Few teams embrace a nonconference schedule as ambitious as Penn’s. The Quakers have already played perennial final four contenders Duke and Maryland, will play host to Penn State on Saturday and will also meet Villanova and Saint Joseph’s before beginning Ivy League play.
“It keeps us a little more attentive in the offseason, whether it’s October or January,” Murphy said. “I just think we get a little bit more done that way. The flip side is, we’re far from a finished product and not quite as far along as those teams are. We don’t have the choice of playing them in March or April because of conference schedules. The timing is what it is, but I wouldn’t change anything about our schedule.”
While Lulley was the star attraction, it was telling that Penn (1-1) found help in a number of places as it played for the first time this season without injured midfielder Sam Handley, who had three goals and two assists in an opening loss at Maryland.
Murphy said Handley was in good spirits and recovering, and that it was a “day-by-day” issue.
“I don’t expect him in the next few days, but I don’t think this is a long-term thing,” Murphy said.
Junior Ben Bedard moved into the lineup in Handley’s stead and scored two goals against Duke, and the Quakers got multi-point games from five players besides Lulley on Saturday.
“We’re fortunate to have the depth we have this year,” Murphy said. “Not that you can lose a guy like Sam Handley [without any impact], but we’re certainly equipped to step up and fill that void with some pretty talented guys.”
The week in numbers
17
North Carolina had its largest output against Johns Hopkins ever in the teams’ 49-game series in Saturday’s 17-10 victory. The Tar Heels have also won six games in a row at Homewood Field dating back to 2008.
18
Loyola faceoff man Bailey Savio set a Patriot League record with 18 ground balls in the Greyhounds’ 11-10 defeat of Rutgers. Savio was 23 of 24 at the X against the Scarlet Knights.
25
Georgetown routed Fairfield 25-12 on Saturday, its most goals in a game since a 31-7 drubbing of Canisius on April 5, 1992. The Hoyas, who improved to 4-0 on Tuesday with a 14-7 defeat of Mount St. Mary’s, have been led by attackmen Jake Carraway (17 goals, 9 assists) and Dylan Watson (18 goals).
18 and 28
Both Marquette (18-6 at Detroit) and Mercer (28-6 against Hampton) set program records for goals in a game on Saturday.
8
Andrew Pettit matched a school record with eight goals in Lehigh’s 14-11 defeat of VMI last week.
250
Senior attackman Jeff Teat had three goals and four assists in Cornell’s 21-11 defeat of High Point, becoming just the fourth player in school history to record 250 career points. Teat (255 points) trails only Rob Pannell (354), Mike French (296) and Eamon McEneaney (256) on the Big Red’s points list.