Dartmouth hammers W. Soccer

Well, it wasn't coaching strategy. Regardless of what look the Penn's women soccer team threw at Dartmouth Sunday, the Big Green successfully adapted for a convincing 4-0 win over the Quakers at Franklin Field. The Quakers (0-2 Ivy League, 0-3-1 overall) used very different strategies in the two halves against Dartmouth (1-0, 2-1) . However, despite Penn's well-thought plans, Dartmouth still blitzed the Quakers with the same number of goals (2) in each half. In the first half, the Quakers employed an unorthodox 5-4-1 alignment (5 defenders, 4 midfielders, 1 forward) in order to frustrate the Big Green's unrelenting attack. "[We used this strategy to] keep the score down," Penn coach Suzette Wolf said. "We knew what they had. We wanted to be able to play with them the second half." Perhaps Wolf was thinking about Penn's last two meetings with Dartmouth where the Quakers were overplayed by a combined score of 11-0. Whatever the reason, the first-half strategy seemed to have backfired when Dartmouth scored a goal early in the game against what looked like an endless supply of Quaker defenders. In fact, almost the entire first half was played in the Quakers' end of the field. However, after the early goal, the Quakers looked like they were going to escape into halftime with just a 1-0 deficit thanks in large part to the solid goaltending of senior captain and goalkeeper Debbie Goldklang (21 saves). But Dartmouth, beginning to look frustrated by Penn's strategy, refused to settle for the narrow lead and tacked on another goal as the half was ending. Yet, despite the score, the Quakers appeared to be happy with the effectiveness of the first-half strategy. " [In the] first half we packed it in," Goldklang said. "[We] played as a team." Even though the Quakers instituted a defensive strategy for the first half, they did not give up all hope of scoring. Penn was aiming to score on a break-away given the Big Green's drawn in defense. Sophomore forward Amaryllis Seabrooks, who did not play due to injury, defined the game plan for the first half as "keep on defense, wait for a break." The plan for the second half was for the well-rested Quakers to turn Dartmouth frustration into surprise as Penn went with the conventional 4-3-3 alignment. The alignment did rejuvenate the Quaker offense and led to an occasional scoring opportunity. Penn's best scoring opportunity was engineered by the quick feet of freshman forward Yuka Morita. Morita, who seemed to have a fan club among the surprisingly pro-Dartmouth crowd, raced passed her defender and subsequently made a move past the goalkeeper. However, from a tough angle, she missed an open net by pounding the ball against the post. On the rebound, sophomore forward Christy Mach also had a chance, but she too missed, kicking the ball over the net. "Yuka's a tough kid," Wolf said. "[She has] quick feet – Lots of fire." Fire was definitely needed if the Quakers had any chance of upsetting the very talented Dartmouth team. A team that features the heavily recruited Melissa McBean and last week's Ivy League Rookie of the Week in the form of Jenna Kurowski. Kurowski got a good start for this week's honor as she scored the third goal against the Quakers. Despite the loss, Wolf felt her squad "played very well" and feels she instituted the right plan. The best laid plans...sometimes go awry.