ALBANY, NY- The 12th-ranked University of Pennsylvania men’s lacrosse team had no trouble minding its own business on Saturday, beating the University of Albany 19-11.

The day got even better a few hours later when the Quakers entered the four-team Ivy League tournament next weekend thanks to Yale’s 17-16 overtime victory over Harvard in New Haven.

Penn ends the regular season at 8-4, while host Great Danes are down to 5-9.

Quaker Notemeal

*For the third straight freshman game Ben Smith set a season/career high with four goals. After scoring two goals in total in Penn’s first nine games, he scored two at Dartmouth, three against Saint Joseph’s and four on Saturday.

*Senior Ben Bedard came into Saturday’s game with four goals this season, but scored four on Saturday, which was a season/career high.

*jack schultz hadn’t scored since April 2 at Yale, with a season-high two goals, but he scored his first collegiate hat-trick on Saturday with an assist.

*Three other players scored twice on Saturday: Dylan Gergar, Sam Handley and Tynan Walsh. Gergar also had three assists, while Handley and Walsh had one each.

* Fresh off of a five-point game Tuesday against Saint Joseph’s, Gabe Furey registered a goal and two assists at UAlbany on Saturday.

* Penn had eight different scorers and ten different players had assists on Saturday; in all, the Quakers assisted 13 of their 19 goals.

*At the other end, Patrick Burkinsshaw made 12 saves.

How did it happen

After sweating a 13-12 overtime win Tuesday against Saint Joseph’s, Penn left little to chance. The Quakers scored the first three goals and took a 5-1 lead before the game lasted 11 minutes. The Great Danes scored within a goal midway through the second quarter, but Penn scored the final two goals of the half, then netted four of the first five in the third quarter to pull away.

James Shipley, whose goal ended Tuesday’s victory, kicked things off just 41 seconds into the game, followed by Smith who scored back-to-back goals 2:04 apart. UAlbany recovered one, but Walsh then Schultz scored 32 seconds apart and Penn led 5-1 with four minutes left in the first. The Danes scored twice, however, making it 5-3 after one.

Furey and Walsh scored 12 seconds apart in the opening two minutes of the second to make it 7-3, then 1:05 after UAlbany’s fourth goal Gergar scored his first for an 8-0 lead. 4 on Penn. However, the Danes netted a trio of goals just 2:01 apart and it was 8-7 with 6:55 left in the second. Bedard scored the only two goals before halftime, the first with 4:47 to go and the second with just four seconds before the buzzer to make it 10-7 at the break.

Handley opened the scoring in the third quarter with a pair of goals 54 seconds apart, then Gergar came back on the board posting his second of the day to put Penn ahead 13-7 with 10:45 left in the period. UAlbany picked one up, only for Schultz to pick it up two minutes later.

The Danes made it 14-9, but Bedard completed his hat trick to close out the third quarter. Penn then scored three times in 2:13 at the start of the fourth, and Schultz capped a five-goal streak that put the Rouge et Bleu ahead 19-9 midway through the period. UAlbany scored a pair of goals in the final two minutes of the game, the second in the final second of the game, to close things out.

Following

Penn will be the fourth seed in the Ivy League tournament next weekend and will face seed and host Brown in Friday’s second semi-final at 8:30 p.m., with Yale and Cornell meeting in the another semi-final at 6 p.m. Sunday’s final will take place at noon in Providence. All three games will be broadcast on ESPNU.

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