PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's lacrosse team was given a reprieve last weekend, the results falling the Quakers' way and giving them a spot in the Ivy League Tournament. It is up to Penn to extend the season from here, as the fourth-seeded Red and Blue make a trip to the Bronx to face top-seeded and No. 1 Yale in the first ILT semifinal on Friday at 6 p.m. A win there, and Penn moves on the championship game on Sunday against the winner of Friday's second semi, between second-seeded Cornell and third-seeded Brown.

For the first time since it started in 2010, the Ivy League Tournament will be played at a neutral site, as Columbia -- ironically, the only Ivy without a varsity men's lacrosse program -- hosts the entire event at its football stadium, Robert K. Kraft Field at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium.
 
All three Ivy League Tournament games this weekend will air on ESPNU. Anish Shroff will be on the call with Ryan Boyle as his analyst. Paul Carcaterra and Quint Kessenich will be on the sidelines.
 
The Penn-Yale Series
*The Bulldogs lead the series, 55-27, including a 12-6 win over the Red and Blue earlier this season in New Haven.
 
*The Quakers and the Bulldogs have had a spirited series in recent years, so it's perhaps a bit surprising to see that Yale has won six in a row, nine of the last ten, and 11 of the last 13 meetings.
 
*Why do we describe the series as spirited? Well, eight of the last 13 games between these two have been decided by a goal—five of them needing overtime—two others were decided by two goals, and still another was a three-goal affair.
 
*Penn has played Yale three times in the Ivy League Tournament, including one-goal semifinal affairs each of the last two years. Last year, of course, the teams engaged in a four-overtime classic in New Haven, the Bulldogs eventually pulling out the 13-12 win. The year before, Yale edged the Quakers, 7-6, in Providence. The first meeting, in 2013, saw Yale defeat Penn, 9-6, in Ithaca, N.Y.
 
Penn in the Ivy Tournament
*The Quakers are making their sixth appearance in the nine-year-old Ivy League Tournament, the others coming in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017.
 
*Penn won the 2014 ILT in Cambridge, Mass. The third-seeded Quakers defeated No. 2 Cornell in the semifinal, 11-10—overcoming a 10-7 deficit in the fourth quarter—then held host and No. 1 seed Harvard scoreless for an astounding 44:58 of game time en route to a 7-5 win in the championship game.
 
*Penn lost in the semifinal round the other four times. That includes last year's 4OT epic with Yale, the only other time the Quakers were a fourth seed in this event.
 
Penn Men's Lacrosse by the Numbers
1 • Penn has defeated the USILA's No. 1-ranked team just once in program history; it happened on February 24, when the Quakers downed then-No. 1 Duke, 10-9, at Franklin Field.
 
2 • Players on the preseason Tewaaraton Award Watch List, senior Connor Keating and junior Simon Mathias.
 
4 • Current Penn juniors who played for the gold medal-winning USA team at the 2016 FIL U19 World Championship held in British Columbia: Mathias, Tyler Dunn, Alex Roesner and Noah Lejman. Penn Associate Head Coach Pat Myers was an assistant coach on that team.

5 • Penn players who were named All-Ivy on Wednesday: Keating and sophomore defenseman Mark Evanchick were first-team All-Ivy (Keating becoming just the third player in program history to be a three-time first-team All-Ivy pick), while Mathias was a second-team pick on attack and Dunn and senior attackman Kevin McGeary received honorable mention recognition.
 
8 • Keating was the eighth pick overall in last month's Major League Lacrosse (MLL) Draft by the Denver Outlaws, the highest a Penn player has ever been selected. McGeary was a sixth-round pick (46th overall) by the Boston Cannons.
 
9 • Teams listed in this week's USILA national Top 20 who were on Penn's 14-game regular-season schedule. That includes the current No. 1 (Yale), No. 2 (Maryland) and No. 4 (Duke).
 
11 • Penn's spot in the NCAA's Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) entering the week.
 
16 • Penn has had 16 different goal scorers this season, including four with more than 20 goals (McGeary 27, Mathias 26, Goldner 26, Dunn 24).
 
19 • Consecutive games in which Mathias has scored a goal, dating back to last season. That is the fifth-longest streak nationally among NCAA Division 1 players.
 
20 • Saves made by junior goalkeeper Reed Junkin in a 14-7 win at Princeton on March 17. Amazingly, his .741 save percentage from that day is not a career high; he had an .806 percentage his freshman year at Dartmouth (when he shared Ivy League Rookie of the Year honors with teammate Mathias).
 
31 • Career goals scored by Keating, a long pole middie. In an informal survey of the other SIDs, he leads all long poles nationally in career goals (31) and points (40). This season, Keating has three goals and four assists for seven points.
 
42 • Consecutive games in which Mathias has scored a point. (Also the number of games that Mathias has played at Penn.) The point-scoring streak is seventh longest nationally among Division 1 players.
 
133 • Career points scored by Mathias, still only a junior. That is 12th on Penn's all-time scoring list. He needs three to surpass Corey Winkoff (2008-11) for 11th, and nine to pass Craig Andrzejewski (2006-09) for 10th. The all-time scoring leader is Andy Crofton, who had 195 points from 1993-96.
 
SENIOR CLASS AWARD: Vote For Connor!
Senior Connor Keating was recently named one of 10 finalists for the 2018 Senior CLASS Award. Fans can vote for Connor once a day every day through May 14 by going to www.seniorclassaward.com/vote/lacrosse_2018/.