March 12, 2008

Complete Release in PDF Format

The Yale men's lacrosse team (1-2, 0-0 Ivy) opens the Ivy League season by hosting Penn (2-2, 0-0 Ivy) this Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Reese Stadium.

Series

Yale leads Penn 44-25 heading into the 70th meeting since 1919 but the Quakers have taken three of the last four. The Elis are 24-11 at home against Penn.

Last Meeting

Yale took a 3-0 record into Philadephia last year and came away with a double overtime, 10-9, loss. Garvey Heiderman scored with 31 seconds left in the second OT as Penn beat the Bulldogs (3-1) in the Ivy opener for both squads. The loss spoiled a career-best four-goal, two assist outing by midfielder Michael Karwoski. Attackman Brendan Gibson added three goals and an assist while Tyler Casertano pitched in two assists.

Bulldogs Can't Catch Retrievers

Terry Kimener had five goals and two assists as the University of Maryland-Baltimore Country (UMBC) hung on for an 11-9 win over Yale before 418 at UMBC Stadium last Saturday. The Retrievers had the edge in shots (36-26) and ground balls (33-16) and never trailed after jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first seven minutes. Tyler Casertano had three goals and four points while Brendan Gibson and Jonathan Koenig each had two goals for the Blue. Kyle Washabaugh and Francis Johnson had the other tallies. Gregory DuBoff won half the draws against UMBC and finished with five ground balls. George Carafides made nine stops compared to seven by UMBC's Jeremy Blevins.

Quakers

Penn is coming off a 12-11 OT loss to Denver on Sunday in the Pioneer Classic. Craig Andrzejewski had two goals and two assists and Chris Casey made 12 saves in a contest that had the host school with the advantage in shots (43-35) and ground balls (31-29). Anrzejewski had four goals and two assists in a 13-10 victory in the first game of the Classic against Air Force the day before.

Coaches

Fifth-year Yale head coach Andy Shay is 2-2 against the Quakers. Penn's Brian Voelker, also in his fifth season, is 27-31 overall for the Quakers.

Shay Says

" UMBC was a tough one to swallow, but we don't have time to dwell on that. We have an excellent Penn team coming to town, and we are excited to start league play."

Next Up For the Blue

Yale heads to Ithaca a week from Saturday to take on No. 9 Cornell in a 1 p.m. game.

Yale Opponents in the Polls

Maryland (6), Cornell (9), Princeton (13), Fairfield (16) and UMBC (20) are included in the latest USILA Coaches Top 20 rankings, while Albany, Harvard and UMass are also getting votes.

NCAA Championship in New England

The 2008 and 2009 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championships will be hosted by Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. This spring's Division I, II and III national semifinals and finals will take place May 24-26.

DuBoff Quick on the Draw

Gregory DuBoff has won 63.6 percent (35-of-55) of his faceoffs which is fourth best in Division I. He is eighth in ground balls with 6.0 per game.

Carafides Ranked 3rd

George Carafides ranks 16th among Division I goalies with a .614 save percentage while he is 18th with 7.36 GAA. The Bulldog senior has stopped 26 of 37 shots on target, including nine of 13 against Umass last week.

Two-Sport Guys

Yale players Michael Karwoski and Francis Johnson play on other Yale varsity teams as well as lacrosse. Karwoski is a junior forward with three goals and seven points for the hockey team. Johnson, a junior squash player playing the No. 4 spot, won the 2007 consolation championship of the Collegiate Squash Association's Potter Division and just finished his winter season. The hockey team won an opening round playoff series and now plays at Princeton this weekend in the quarterfinals. Karwoski, who has attended a few practices, played the second half of the UMass game and scored on his only shot.

Reese Stadium

The official game debut of the Field Turf at Reese Stadium was 3/24/07. Formerly known as Yale's Soccer-Lacrosse Stadium, Reese will have other improvements over the next few years thanks to the gift from former Yale players Jason and Jon Reese.