Victory for Penn women's soccer keeps Ivy dream alive

Penn women’s soccer had another hard-fought, low- scoring affair and another shutout.

It sure seems like the Red and Blue have things down to a tee.

The Quakers (7-1-3, 2-1 Ivy) headed to Columbia and came away with their third straight victory, beating the Lions (6-4-2, 0-2-1), 1-0, thanks to an early own goal.

In the fifth minute of the game, senior captain Kerry Scalora lined up for a corner kick. The ball she hit bended towards the goal but received some help from a Columbia defender, giving the Quakers an early one-goal lead at Columbia.

“We all know Kerry can hit a clean ball on top of the goalkeeper with all that punch,” coach Darren Ambrose said. “The ball heading into the far post and the [Columbia defender] tried to head it out but the ball had already bent so far that she couldn’t really head it out.

“Had [the Columbia defender] not headed it in, the ball would have gone in the goal.”

The wind played a large factor in the game, including helping bend Scalora’s corner kick into the net. The wind was at the Quakers’ backs in the first half and was going against them in the second half, making the one-goal lead that much harder to defend in the second half. But Penn’s defense was on its game, allowing just seven shots — six in the second half — during the match, including just two shots on goal.

“We’ve said all along that good defense keeps you in games,” Ambrose said. “We make it a point that everyone has to defend and I think we showed a lot of guts and a lot of character. It was a very physical game.”

And when the Lions got shots to the net, sophomore goalkeeper Kalijah Terilli was there, making two simple saves to complete the Quakers’ eighth clean sheet of the year.

“The shots they had were from distance,” Ambrose said. “But Columbia put a lot of good services into the box — a lot of balls that were on top of [Terilli] — and she came off of the line well.

“We knew that she had great range and today she showed that range.”

The win over Columbia gave Penn its second win against Ancient Eight opponents, as the Quakers have not lost since a 2-1 defeat at Harvard on Sept. 27.

“It is a great statement about our team and our kids,” Ambrose said. “They are a resilient group. Losing up at Harvard was a tough way to open the league and we let ourselves down a little bit, but they are competitive kids.

“We want to be in the race the last week [of Ivy play] and I couldn’t have asked for a better response so far.”

Penn is now tied for third place in the Ivies, a game behind the first-place Crimson.

The Red and Blue will finish off their two-game road trip on Monday, facing Navy in Annapolis before resuming Ivy play next Sat- urday against Dartmouth at Rhodes Field.

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