PHILADELPHIA – Coming off arguably the biggest regular-season win in program history a week ago, the University of Pennsylvania men's lacrosse team faces another stiff challenge on Saturday at Franklin Field. Penn State comes to town for a 1 p.m. faceoff with the Quakers.
 
Penn defeated No. 1 Duke last Saturday, 10-9, and the win pushed the Quakers up a few spots in the latest national coaches' poll to No. 13. Penn State were ranked 12th in the coaches' preseason poll, but at 2-2 the Nittany Lions are out of the poll this week.
 
Saturday's game will air worldwide on the subscription-based Ivy League Network (ILN), now available on Apple TV, Roku and the ILN app for Android and Apple devices.
 
The Series
The Quakers and the Nittany Lions are meeting for the 37th time, with Penn State holding a 23-13 lead in the series. These Keystone State programs had not met since 1977 when they renewed the series in 2015, the Lions gaining a 14-11 victory that year in State College. Penn avenged it with an 11-7 win at Franklin Field in 2016. Last year, Penn State won 14-13 in State College.
 
About Penn State
The Nittany Lions boast wins over Hobart and Stony Brook, with their losses coming to current USILA No. 7 Villanova (17-16 in OT) and Robert Morris (12-9 last Saturday). Kevin Hill leads PSU with 11 goals and 15 points, while Nick Spillane has a team-high six assists and 10 points. Ryan Keenan (12) Mac O'Keefe (11) also are in double digits in the point category. In goal, Colby Kneese has a .494 save percentage and a 10.73 GAA.
 
About Penn
*Senior Kevin McGeary led the Penn attack last Saturday against Duke, scoring three goals and adding an assist. He had two goals—including the game-winner—and assisted the tying goal in Penn's four-goal run to end the game.
 
*On Monday, McGeary was named the Ivy League Player of the Week; on Tuesday, he was named to the USILA's Division I Team of the Week.
 
*Junior Simon Mathias has nine points this season after going for a goal and three assists against the Blue Devils. That performance extended his point-scoring streak to 31 games (or every game of his collegiate career), tied for tenth-longest in the nation.
 
*Sophomore Adam Goldner had three goals last Saturday, giving him four for the season, and junior Tyler Dunn has scored in every game so far this season en route to his four.
 
*Penn has had two long poles score already this season, as All-America candidate Connor Keating scored against Michigan—amazingly, his 29th career goal—while Jack Ullrich tallied against Maryland. Last Saturday vs. Duke, Keating had two assists including a feed on the winner.
 
*The Quakers' other goal scorers so far this season are freshman Sean Lulley (2), senior Reilly Hupfeldt, and juniors Joe Licciardi and Alex Roesner.
 
*At the other end, junior Reed Junkin—the 2016 co-Ivy League Rookie of the Year with teammate Mathias—has a .469 save percentage and a 9.45 goals against average. He sat out the first quarter of the season opener with Michigan, but has played every second since then.
 
*The Quakers return their top 11 scorers from last season. Of the 147 goals scored by the Quakers a year ago, all but six were scored by players who return to this year's roster.
 
*Keating was a third-team USILA All-America selection last year after earning honorable mention recognition as a sophomore. He is the top-scoring LSM in the country, entering the season with 28 goals and six assists for 34 career points.
 
*Mathias—who led Penn in goals (28), assists (20) and points (48) last year—was a second-team All-Ivy selection last year after sharing Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors in 2016 with teammate Reed Junkin, the Quakers' goalie.
 
*McGeary (23-12—35 in 2017) and Dunn (18-4—22) received honorable mention All-Ivy recognition last year.
 
*Three other players had a double-digit goal total last year: senior Hupfeldt (18), Goldner (11), and Keating. Roesner nearly joined the list, with nine goals.
 
*Chris Santangelo was Penn's top face-off man last year, finishing with a .528 win percentage in 231 draws. Richie Lenskold had 73 faceoffs and had a .479 win percentage.