F. Hockey heads for Cornell

How popular is the Penn field hockey team? So popular that even Philadelphia Flyer great Eric Lindros had to find time to stop by to watch the team practice. The ice hockey legend decided it was time to see what playing on turf is really like. He picked the right team to take lessons from. The talented Penn squad seeks to rebound from a tough loss to No. 10 Temple and get back to its winning ways when it heads north to battle Cornell tomorrow. Penn hopes to pull a page out of Lindros's book of tricks and come up with the game-winning goal. The Quakers (2-0 Ivy League, 7-3 overall) are confident that they can continue to play well and conquer the Big Red (1-1, 4-4). Penn had its fill of Cornell last year as the Big Red played the Quakers tough at Franklin Field before dropping a 2-1 decision. Penn knows the importance of Ivy games and feels ready to live up to the task. "It's kind of disappointing when you play well and lose," Penn coach Anne Sage said. "We had the opportunity to beat a nationally-ranked team [against Temple]. Cornell is always a big game for us. We'll be ready." An advantage that the Quakers take into the contest is that the Big Red also play their home games on turf. This will benefit a Penn attack which relies heavily on quick, sharp passing and team speed. "Our schedule is in our favor," Sage said. "We're playing well together. We're very confident. You have to play hard and play tough." Penn has its lineup set to take on a Big Red attack led by senior forward Liz Goldsmith (3 goals, 2 assists). Joining Goldsmith on the front line to provide help in leading the offense is junior Laurie McCallig (3 goals). On defense the Big Red are anchored by senior goaltender Amy Wright, who has posted a 1.26 goals against average in eight games between the pipes this season. Despite these credentials, the Quakers know that they are a better team and should come away from Ithaca with another crucial Ivy win. If Penn can continue to play with the intensity that it has of late, sooner or later the offense is bound to explode. The Quakers feel that a key to the game will be jumping on the Big Red early to take any thoughts of an upset out of Cornell's mind. "We're really psyched," senior co-captain Franny Maguire said. "We know that we can beat Cornell. We just have to go out and do it. We need to have control and stay poised. We want to get one [goal] early just to settle us." "If we play against the rest of the Ivies like we played against Temple we shouldn't have any problem getting to the tournament," junior goalie Suzy Pures said. "We rebounded off Penn State to beat Harvard. We can lift ourselves up." One area in which the Quakers will try to improve on is communication on the defensive side of the ball. A breakdown hurt Penn late in the game against the Owls and the Quakers have been practicing hard on working with each other. "We're coming off a pretty rotten loss," Pures said. "Our downfall [against Temple] was miscommunication. That's what we have to improve on for [tomorrow]." On the offensive side of the ball Penn will try to convert on a higher percentage of the opportunities that the attack has been creating. If Penn can take advantage of these chances and put the opponent away as Lindros does, the Quakers will be in a great position to take another step up the mountain. "You want to play well win or lose," Sage said. "I think we're learning. We're in good shape right now. We can't underestimate Cornell. Every Ivy game is big for us." And the Quakers hope to come up big against the Big Red.