US Lacrosse Magazine released the Nike/US Lacrosse Division I Men’s Preseason Top 20 on Dec. 17. Team-by-team previews will be unveiled on uslaxmagazine.com through the end of the month and will also appear as part of the magazine’s NCAA preview edition in February.

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No. 10 Penn

2019 Record: 12-4 (6-0, Ivy League)
Coach: Mike Murphy (11th year)
Assistants: Mike Abbott, Casey Ikeda, Dave Page

All-Time Record: 517-624-9
NCAA Appearances: 13
Final Fours: 1
Championships: 0

2020 Schedule

* = neutral site

Save the Date
March 28

These two Ivy heavyweights staged a trilogy to remember last year. Penn earned one-goal wins in the regular season and in the Ivy title game. That set the stage for Yale’s NCAA tournament answer — a riveting 19-18 quarterfinal win and one of the top postseason battles ever.

New Leaders Tabbed to Keep Quakers in Attack Mode

As Penn’s winning streak stretched toward 12 last year and it became apparent this high-scoring bunch was on its way to doing special things, the senior class stood out in obvious ways.

It went beyond the scoring numbers of Simon Mathias and the goaltending of Reed Junkin and the midfield production of Tyler Dunn. Clearly, this 10-man senior class had mastered the duties of maintaining the day-to-day tone winning teams possess — in the locker, weightlifting and meeting rooms, on the practice field, on game day.

In coach Mike Murphy’s mind, one of the more pressing objectives for the Quakers in 2020 will be recapturing the senior leadership that propelled Penn to one of its best seasons ever.

“In terms of the leadership and the other chemistry things you need, that senior class was as good as any I’ve ever been around. Replacing them will be a huge challenge,” said Murphy, who was named the USILA Division I Coach of the Year. “I hope we keep things objective and realize that winning is not going to happen again by itself, just because we have so many good players back.”

The Quakers also said goodbye to a lot of important contributors. Besides the aforementioned starters, the graduates included starting defenseman Noah Lejman, second-line midfielders Alex Roesner and Joe Licciardi, defensive midfielder Jared Warner (now at Villanova) and fourth defenseman Mike Mulqueen.

Murphy said he decided late in the regular season in 2019 to start chatting one-on-one with the junior class about how to build on the huge progress the Quakers were making. They analyzed the leadership styles of the current seniors, and planted the seeds for what the new leaders would need to do.

Handling the success of 2019 will be a task. The Quakers tied the program record with 12 wins, earned their first perfect Ivy season since 1984 and ended the year ranked No. 5 nationally

“We had to take a long-lens view of this team [last year] and ask them how good of a leader is this [senior] or that guy? Start envisioning yourselves in that role,” Murphy recalled. “Carry your confidence into this season, but have that sense of urgency and be completely invested in pushing teammates toward their goals. Bring the energy and charisma.”

Attackman Adam Goldner and defenseman Kyle Thornton were chosen as co-captains.

“Just because they’re wearing a Penn jersey, it doesn’t mean anything is just going to happen,” Murphy said. “We’re not defending anything. We’re only attacking the 2020 season.”

Projected Starters

A – Adam Goldner – Sr. – 56 G, 7 A
A – Sean Lulley – Jr. – 19 G, 17 A
A – Dylan Gergar – So. – 17 G, 5 A
M – Sam Handley – So. – 35 G, 26 A
M – Mitch Bartolo – Jr. – 17 G, 7 A
M – Gabe Furey – Fr. – 13 G, 4A (high school)
FO – Kyle Gallagher – Sr. – 62.5 FO%, 169 GB
LSM – B.J. Farrare – Soph. – 18 CT, 37 GB
SSDM – Matt McILwrick – Sr. – 10 CT, 18 GB
D – Kyle Thornton – Sr. – 12 CT, 24 GB
D – Mark Evanchick – Sr. – 3 CT, 13 GB
D – Peter Blake – Fr.
G – Alex deMarco – Sr. – 4 SV, 16 mins

Tewaaraton Watch
Sam Handley, M, Sr.

Goldner, who is a co-captain, is expected to be a goal-scoring machine again. But the 6-foot-5, 215-pound Handley is the multi-talented heart of the Penn offense, which absorbed several key hits to graduation and will need Handley’s steady and creative hand to sustain its momentum.

X Factor
Kyle Gallagher, FO, Sr.

The Hofstra transfer, who suffered a fractured neck shortly before his college career began, was a great story while establishing himself as a solid FOGO for two years on Long Island. Gallagher showed remarkable improvement as Penn’s offensive igniter. The Quakers need an encore.

National Rankings

7

One-goal games in 2019. Three of Penn’s four losses — to Maryland and Penn State in the regular season and to Yale in late May — were by a single score. Four Ivy victories were by a goal. “Our year could have gone differently, in either direction,” Murphy said.

Enemy Lines

“A lot of firepower returns from a team that was an OT goal away from going to final four weekend. The big question will be who replaces Reed Junkin, who was a four-year starting goalie.”