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sashastephens

In her first game playing for the Red and Blue, freshman forward Sasha Stephens netted two of the team's three goals.

Credit: Khristian Monterroso , Khristian Monterroso

First, there's the prologue.

Before reaching Penn, every athlete has a story. The Ivy League is an enticing destination for athletes, a rare blend of first-rate academics and competitive Division I programs.

No athlete comes to Penn just for the athletics, they come for the same reasons any college student chooses their respective school.

“It’s all about the people. Everyone made me want to come here,” freshman forward Sasha Stephens said. “The atmosphere — I live in California so I’m all the way across the country — I want to go somewhere that I love if I’m going to go 3,000 miles away from home.”

And just like the rest of the student body, there isn’t one cookie-cutter that matches them all. Not everyone takes the direct route.

Stephens originally committed to Dartmouth, but after a coaching switch between the 2013 and 2014 seasons, Stephens reconsidered her recruiting options and landed on her feet with the Quakers.

For sophomore transfer Lauren Petite, who didn’t see any game action with TCU last season before coming to Penn, the path to the Red and Blue wasn’t direct either.

“I had heard from my club coach, who had a relationship with Nicole [Van Dyke], that she was going to try to come in and do something a little different with the program, play a more possession-oriented style. That was very important to me,” Petite said.

“The atmosphere of the team and the school in general was so welcoming, I knew this is where I wanted to be.”

From a new class of freshmen to a sophomore transfer and, of course, a new coach, it could have been easy for coach Nicole Van Dyke to get overwhelmed by all of the players waiting for her in Philadelphia.

“During the spring, we tried to see everyone we could,” coach Nicole Van Dyke said, describing her experiences meeting the new recruits during her own coaching transition.

“We didn’t get to see everyone, so at the first meal you’re kind of like ‘OK wait is that Sasha?’ because she’s in real clothes and I’ve never seen her there.”

The personal stories are just the beginning, though. The real plot begins at Penn.

There’s the first day, when players hit campus, get welcomed by their new teammates and start preparing for the season.

“The first few weeks were kind of hard. I didn’t get to practice with the team right away because I didn’t have some blood tests in,” Stephens said.

“Right when I got back on the field, it was great, I got out there running and playing with everyone. I fit right in. Everyone is so nice.”

Soon, it’s time to get down to business.

There’s the first practice, when everything seems new and the season sits on the horizon.

The transition to college athletics varies sport to sport, but in most cases there’s one main factor: athleticism.

“Usually everyone’s the same size as me when I played in high school; when I’m in college everyone is 22 years old and huge and they go like that and I fall over,” Stephens said, miming a slight push.

“I just need to get into the weight room I guess. Other than that everything is pretty much the same.”

In practice, the newcomers have a chance to start to get up to speed, but there’s no substitute for real game experience.

There’s the first game, when the team faces its first real challenge as a unit and the hard work of the past few weeks begins to show.

The narrative for the first game always differs.

For some teams, the freshmen aren’t expected to be huge contributors and upperclassmen dominate the starting lineup from opening day. But on most, there are openings. Not always a starting role, but often significant playing time.

“Role changes per kid, it’s so different. Each kid acclimates differently. A lot has to do with ‘Is there someone in their position?’ and ‘Are they coming in at a high fitness level?’” Van Dyke said.

“The one thing that happens is everyone gets an opportunity. It just depends how they run with that opportunity.”

For Penn, the first game narrative was simple: the newcomers came to play. No matter how you cut the statistics or the tape, it’s impossible to remove the imprint left by new faces.

Petite, Stephens and freshman Romie Boyd started the game. Fellow freshmen Cami Nwokedi, Allie Trzaska, Cameo Hazlewood and Maddie Dawkins all saw playing time off the bench.

All in all, the new players combined to score all three of the Quakers’ goals and took 10 of the team’s 11 shots on goal.

The first game is just the beginning of the story.

The rest of the story, you ask? That remains to be told.

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