- Chris Jastrzembski
Previewing Penn's 2022 men's lacrosse schedule
The Penn Quakers are the 22nd team in our 2022 men’s college lacrosse schedule preview series and the third team from the Ivy League. Due to restrictions and challenges caused from the COVID-19 pandemic, Penn played one regular season game last season, a win over Division III Cabrini. The Quakers went 2-3 in 2020.
Here's their entire 2022 spring schedule:
WHO'S IN?
Georgetown Hoyas (2/19)
UAlbany Great Danes (4/30)
WHO'S OUT?
Maryland Terrapins (17-15 L in 2020)
Penn was supposed to play Vermont in nonconference play in April of 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic ended the season in March.
CIRCLE THESE DATES
2/26 vs. Duke (Location TBD): Would you look at this, another difficult nonconference schedule for Penn! Stunner. No matter how the games might go, the Quakers are always better from these types of competition. How will it go in 2022 after a lost season is unknown. But Penn did beat Duke in 2020 and have alternated between wins and losses in their last nine meetings dating back to 1971. If history repeats itself, Duke should win but guys like Sam Handley will try to make it two straight wins for the Quakers.
3/25 vs. Penn State (in Charlotte, NC): I'm all for neutral site games in college lacrosse, but I don't like a Pennsylvania state rivalry being played in North Carolina. Just seems weird. Anyway, The Crown Lacrosse Classic returns with a nice matchup with the Nittany Lions looking a bit different from the last time they played in Charlotte in 2020. No Grant Ament, Mac O'Keefe, Gerard Arceri, and Nick Cardile just to name a few. Guys like TJ Malone, Jack Kelly, and Aleric Fyock will have to take charge as Penn State enters a new era.
3/19 at Princeton, 3/26 vs. Cornell, 4/2 at Yale, 4/9 vs. Brown, 4/16 vs. Harvard, 4/23 at Dartmouth: That's a lot of dates for a bullet point. That's also Penn's entire Ivy League schedule. Sure you could pick out one of these dates to really look forward too, but every one of these teams (including Brown and Dartmouth who also played a game last year) is a huge question mark. We should start to have answers before Ivy League play begins in mid-March, but to predict who could be good or how the Ivy League unfolds unless you've seen every team in the fall is foolish. Penn should be a top four team in the conference along with Cornell and Yale, but anything can happen.
4/30 at UAlbany: Penn finishes the season with a short break from their Ancient Eight foes. They'll host Saint Joseph's in a midweek matchup before traveling to Albany to take on the Great Danes for the first time in program history. I like how Mike Murphy tries to add a nonconference opponent between the end of the conference schedule and the Ivy League Tournament. Penn played Vermont in 2019 and were supposed to do the same in 2020 before the pandemic halted the season.