W. Soccer has winnable game again

The Penn women's soccer team found out just how hard it is to have two goals scored on it in the opening two minutes of play and then attempt to win. Yale, the defending Ivy League Champions, stunned the Quakers with two quick scores and never looked back in their 4-0 triumph in New Haven on Friday. "We were really hoping for a big game," sophomore midfielder Heike Krippendorf said. "We thought we could go there and pull off an upset, but they scored a couple of goals early and we just couldn't get it together after that. They were the better team." Yale senior forward Janet Moore first put the Elis on the board with a shot off a corner kick on Yale's first trip downfield. Then on the ensuing kickoff, Yale senior standout Jen Teti capitalized on an intercepted Quaker pass to net a second goal for the Elis, and just like that the Quakers found themselves in an early hole. Although the Elis scored on a duo of early shots, the Quakers entered the locker room at the half with only that two-goal deficit. They re-emerged in the second half psyched and ready to even the score when a carbon copy of their first mental lapse began to take shape. Again early in the half, the Elis pressed the Quaker defense and netted their third goal of the game. Yale senior Mignon Hess provided that momentum-breaking third goal off yet another corner kick allowed by the Quakers. "After those first two goals in the beginning we played well and contained them for the rest of the half," Krippendorf said. "We wanted to come out and score quickly in the [second half], but they scored and then we couldn't get a handle on the rest of the game." Freshman Jenna Hoge added to the Elis' cause late in the second half when she sealed the victory at 4-0 with an ugly free kick that barely escaped being saved by Quaker freshman and substitute goalie Erin Heffernan. The Quaker offense, routinely led by the freshmen duo of Yuka Morita and Nicole Caruso, was offset by a stellar Yale defense that included three returning all-Ivy players in senior Mignon Hess and juniors Ashley Cimini and Allison Leach. This trio on defense has in 14 games limited the Elis' opposition to less then two goals per contest while Friday's impressive defensive showing ran Yale's number of shutouts to four on the season. On offense, Yale senior and returning Ivy League Player of the Year Jen Teti led a strong front line that harassed the Quakers. Teti, who leads the Ivy League in overall scoring was helped by juniors Amy Busch and Molly Woodroofe, whom also happen to be among the Ivy's Top 10 overall scorers. But still it was the defense which received the most praise from the Quakers. "We were crisp because they were bad and we had a lot of confidence going into the game," Yale senior Dawn Bushnaq said. "It was good since it allowed us to do things we are supposed to do." "We had a couple of really good chances to score," sophomore midfielder Kelly Nolan said. "We are having a terrible time putting the ball in the net, and [Yale's] defense didn't help. They were more pumped up than us and they took us off guard. What else is there to say? It happens." The Quakers also noted that the ride to New Haven was very strenuous and probably attributed to their lack of aggressiveness in the early going of the game. The Quakers end the season with home games against American tomorrow and then take on archrival Princeton on Saturday, both games taking place under the lights of Franklin Field. The Princeton game is the Quakers' last chance this season to end their three-year Ivy League losing streak that is currently at 20 consecutive losses. Penn is optimistic about its chances of avoiding the evil No. 21 as it looms large in the closing days of a long and tough season. "I really don't know a lot about Princeton," Nolan said. "But it's our last game, we're going to keep our heads high, play tough and try to get that first Ivy win under our belt.