F. Hockey shuts out No. 19 Lafayette

Deep into the second half of the Penn field hockey game last night against 19th-ranked Lafayette at Franklin Field, it looked like the Quakers might fail to capitalize on a multitude of offensive opportunities for the second game in a row. They would end up holding a 28-7 advantage in shots and a 5-1 advantage in penalty corners, but as yet had not been able to put the ball in the cage. With exactly six minutes remaining in the second half, however, Penn (3-1) broke the scoreless draw. For the fifth time in the game, junior midfielder Amy Pine took a long shot into the circle from the right side. And for the fifth time, it looked like it would go for naught. However, sophomore forward Kara Philbin got her stick on the ball and deflected it over Lafayette goalie Jackie D'Angelo's head into the top half of the cage. That goal, Philbin's fourth this season, would be the only scoring the Quakers would need as they held on for the 1-0 victory, their second this season over ranked teams. Despite the impressive victory, the lack of scoring despite the offensive domination was somewhat disturbing for Penn. "It starts to get frustrating after a while because you keep crossing it into the center and we're not able to score," Pine said. "It could be that they're making a cut that I'm not picking up. It depends on our eye contact. If I see where she's cutting then I can get the ball where she wants to go. I could mishit it or she might not get to it. A lot of factors go into [scoring a goal]. Fortunately that one went in." Penn coach Anne Sage was pleased with her team's effort, as one would expect considering that the offense mounted 28 shots, while her defense allowed only seven. "We came back from [the loss to] William & Mary," Sage said. "I'm pleased. I thought we were sharper, moving to the ball better. We should be jumping on those [opportunities], though. You've got 28 opportunities to get one goal out of it. We've just got to keep working and developing." What wasn't working, however, were Penn's penalty corners. Five times the Quakers were unable to capitalize on corners. "Our corners are usually pretty good," senior co-captain Franny Maguire said. "We can usually rely on them, but tonight they weren't really working. We're not going to give up on them. They're part of our attack." Pine, who takes the majority of shots on the corners, isn't bothered by the lack of success, either. "We've been having a little trouble lately because we're trying to concentrate on other aspects of our game," Pine said. "We don't want to have to rely on penalty corners to score. It's too chancy. It's a lot more beneficial for us to get the goals when we're in the field. It's a lot more nerveracking to score on corners." It wasn't a factor, however, because of a defense that refused to allow the Leopards (4-2-1) opportunities even during sustained periods in the Penn zone. Complicating matters for the defense and making junior goalie Suzy Pures' second shutout all the more impressive was the fact that the whole team was entrenched in the offensive zone, resulting in a Lafayette breakaway opportunity whenever the ball came out. "It's difficult because our whole team pushes up," senior defender and co-captain Missy Hecht said. "When the ball comes out there's only one or two of us back there." Although for most of the game, Hecht or one of the other defenders were able to defuse these breakaways. It was a situation such as this early in the second half that almost let Lafayette open the scoring. The Leopards' Andrea Dagostino slipped past the Quaker defense and had a clean shot at the goal only to be stopped by Pures, who came far out of the net to challenge her. It was Lafayette's only serious scoring chance. As far as scoring goes, Maguire had a personal streak broken – she wasn't able to score on high school teammate D'Angelo for the fourth year in a row. She was philosophical about it, however. "I'm not disappointed," Maguire said. "Jackie's a really good goalie and I'm just glad that we won. I don't care that I didn't score just as long as we beat Lafayette." And because of the victory, the Quakers seem to be fairly confident heading into Sunday's game against Dartmouth. "I think the defense is playing tougher," Hecht said. "We're marking up better. Overall, it wasn't one of our prettier games, but we're kind of glad to get some of these not so put-together games out of our system before the Ivy season." Hecht also felt that the pre-Ivy season will be beneficial heading into the bulk of the league schedule. "One of the things that's been noticeable in both the games [against ranked teams] is being able to persevere and pull it out in the end," Hecht said. "That gives us the confidence that no matter what happens in the game, we can still win."

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