Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Men's Lax Looks to Bounce Back Tuesday vs. Penn on Bison Vision
4/9/2012 8:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
April 9, 2012
Bucknell-Penn Webcast 
| GameTracker 
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bucknell men's lacrosse team saw its eight-game winning streak come to an end with a double-overtime loss to Army on Saturday, and now the Bison have a quick turnaround before hosting Penn on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium. The contest will air live on Bison Vision.
Despite the 6-5 setback to Army, the Bison (8-4) are still ranked in the top 20 nationally this week. They are listed No. 18 in both the USILA Coaches' Poll and the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll.
Tuesday's game against Penn is the final non-league game of the regular season. Bucknell then finishes up with two critical Patriot League contests against Lehigh (away) and Colgate (home). Bucknell, Lehigh and Colgate are all tied atop the league standings with 3-1 records.
The Quakers come in with a 1-7 record against the most difficult schedule in the nation, according to laxpower.com. Penn has already faced No. 5 Cornell, No. 7 Duke, No. 8 North Carolina, No. 11 Lehigh, No. 12 Villanova, No. 16 Princeton and No. 20 Yale, and the Quakers lone win was a 10-6 decision over UNC at Franklin Field on March 6. Penn is coming off back-to-back one-goal losses to Yale (10-9) and Brown (11-10), with the deciding goal coming in the final 12 seconds in each game.
Dan Savage (13-5-18), John Conneely (12-6-18) and Tim Schwalje (11-7-18) are tied for the team points lead. Starting goalie Brian Feeney has 58 saves with 77 goals against.
The Quakers are averaging 7.9 goals per game while allowing 10.5, although they have posted 30 goals in their last three games. Penn has won 42.6 percent of its faceoffs and converts at a 34.5 pecent clip with an extra man.
The Bison offense was slowed for the first time all year in the 6-5 loss to Army. After being held to a goal and an assist against the Black Knights, senior attackman Billy Eisenreich dropped from second to sixth in the national scoring race. He now has 54 points on 25 goals and 29 assists. Eisenreich still ranks third nationally in assists per game.
Todd Heritage scored two goals against Army, giving him a team-high 32 on the season. That is the eighth-highest total in Division I. Bucknell already has five 20-point scorers, including Eisenreich, Heritage (32-8-40), David Dickson (11-21-32), Chase Bailey (22-9-31), Nick Gantsoudes (18-6-24) and Peter Burke (16-7-23).
Bucknell's defense has been stout in recent weeks, thanks in large part to the stellar play of junior goalie Kyle Feeney. Against Army on Saturday Feeney made 13 more saves with only six goals against, including a handful of spectacular stops with the game on the line. Feeney ranks 11th nationally with a .577 save percentage and ninth with 11.3 saves per game.
Sophomore defenseman Jackson Place is coming off one of his best games of the season with six ground balls and four caused turnovers against Army.
Penn finished 8-6 in the regular season in 2011 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2006. One of Penn's 2011 wins was an 8-6 decision over Bucknell at Franklin Field. That was one of only two losses in the regular season and three total for the Bison. Bucknell led that game 5-3 in the third quarter, but the Quakers, who were ranked 14th at the time, scored five straight goals to take over the game.
Penn leads the all-time series 11-4. In the last meeting in Lewisburg in 2007, Bucknell raced out to a 9-0 lead into the third quarter before holding on for a 9-6 victory.
