No. 6 UVA Heads to No. 17 Penn on Saturday

Feb. 23, 2017

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. ÃÆ’¢Ãƒ¢’¬” Virginia (3-0) returns to the road for its first-ever visit to historic Franklin Field on Saturday, facing the Penn Quakers (1-0). Faceoff is set for 1 p.m. Virginia is ranked No. 6 along with Syracuse in this week’s USILA coaches poll and No. 7 in the Inside Lacrosse/Maverik media poll. Penn is ranked No. 17 in the coaches poll and No. 20 in the media poll.

Live stats will be available at VirginiaSports.com. The game will be broadcast on ESPN3, which can be viewed on the WatchESPN app, or by logging onto ESPN3.com. There will be a simulcast on the Ivy League Network. VirginiaSports.com will provide a free audio webcast of the action with Luke Neer on the call.

Saturday marks the ninth all-time meeting between the Cavaliers and Quakers, and the first get-together in Philadelphia. UVA owns a 6-2 advantage in a series that dates back to 1929, but is being contested for the seventh time since 1997 and the fifth time since 2011. UVA dropped the first two meetings in the series in 1929 and 1931, before winning the past six. Of the eight previous meetings, six have been played in Charlottesville and two at neutral sites. The 2012 meeting took place at Sports Authority Field in Denver, while the 2015 meeting was played at Talen Energy Stadium in Chester, Pa.

The Cavaliers are led by Zed Williams and his team highs in points (17) and assists (10). Mike D’Amario owns the team lead in goals with 10, while Michael Kraus rounds out the top UVA point scorers with 12, recording six goals and six assists. Williams also leads UVA with 17 ground balls, while Jared Conners is second with 16 ground balls. Goalie Will Railey is saving 45.9 percent of shots between the pipes and allowing 13.63 goals per game.

Penn head coach Mike Murphy is in his eighth season as the head coach of the Quakers and he returns 28 letterwinners and three starters off a 2016 team that went 8-7. Murphy was an assistant coach at UVA from 1993-97. Murphy and UVA head coach Lars Tiffany faced each other the last seven seasons while Tiffany was the head coach at Ivy League-foe Brown. Tiffany holds the head-to-head matchup over Murphy, 4-3. Penn has played one game in 2017, defeating Saint Joseph’s in its season opener last Saturday, 10-5. Alex Roesner led all scorers with three goals. Tyler Dunn and Reilly Hupfeldt each added two goals in the winning effort. Reed Junkin made 15 saves in goal for the Quakers, while allowing five scores.

Virginia returns to KlÃÆ’¶ckner Stadium on Wed., March 1 when High Point comes for a mid-week tilt. The game is set to start at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra.