Murphy's tenure has coincided with an upswing in the program's fortunes. Penn has made a pair of NCAA Championship appearances under Murphy, in 2011 and 2014, and hosted its 2014 first-round game with Drexel which was the Quakers' first NCAA home game since 1988. Penn was the fourth seed in the 2014 NCAA Championship, its highest seed since the 1988 semifinal team.

Penn also has made the postseason Ivy League Tournament five of the last seven years, winning the tourney title in 2014 with victories over Cornell and host Harvard. The Quakers' other appearances came in 2011, 2013, and 2017. In Ivy regular-season play, Penn has gone 4-2 three times (2011, 2014, 2016); prior to Murphy's arrival, the program went 4-2 in Ivy play just once from 1990-2010.

Under Murphy, Penn has had 10 first-team All-Ivy players in the last seven seasons, after just four during the entire decade of the 2000s (prior to Murphy's arrival). In 2016, two Quakers freshmen shared the Ivy League Rookie of the Year award -- attackman Simon Mathias and goalie Reed Junkin -- the first time a Penn player was so honored since 1997. In addition, Murphy has had four of his players drafted by Major League Lacrosse in the last three years -- Zack Losco (Charlotte Hounds) in 2014, Joe McCallion (Denver Outlaws) and Matt McMahon (Ohio Machine) in 2015, and Nick Doktor (Charlotte Hounds) in 2016.

A strong schedule has also been one of Murphy's points of emphasis at Penn. The Quakers boasted the nation's No. 1 overall Strength of Schedule (SOS) in 2012, the No. 2 overall SOS in 2013, and the No. 6 SOS in 2014 (behind four ACC schools and Johns Hopkins).