W. Lax ready to challenge Rams

Quakers continue long road saga Playing even two straight games on the road can be a challenge for any athletic team. So imagine the state of the Penn women's lacrosse team. The squad is currently in the middle of a wearying stretch of six consecutive away games, all against dangerous opponents. So far the Quakers (5-3) have not fared badly away from Franklin Field. After a disappointing and perhaps eye-opening loss to Rutgers, Penn rebounded with an important Ivy win at Yale Saturday. Good things continued Tuesday with a 10-8 victory at Lehigh. But it wasn't easy. The Quakers were behind 5-4 at halftime before mounting a second-half rally, led by junior attacker Melissa Sage (4 goals, 1 assist). Now Penn must travel again -- this afternoon the squad heads to West Chester to take on the Golden Rams (1-1). "The drain of all these away games, you can feel it coming," Sage said. "We had a good practice [yesterday], and it was nice to be back on turf again." Penn will once again be on unfamiliar turf today. However, it might not matter for the Quakers, who have won four of their last five contests. The team seems to be coming together, even if the Quakers are playing on the road, after a shaky 1-2 start. "We all played together last year," Penn junior Lori Frutkin said. "We're getting to know each other better. Each game we're getting better, we're getting more confident and we're just clicking." If Penn can click against West Chester, it should come away with a win, just as it has for the past two years. But this year's edition of the Golden Rams appears to be even more pointing toward today's game than it has been in the past. "I know their coach has been scouting us," Frutkin said. "They seem to be looking forward to playing us." "It's going to be a tough game," Sage said. "They're always ready to take us on." "These are two back-to-back hard games," Sage continued. "They're very competitive, very strong, and very athletic. We have to go out with fire in our eyes and set the tone." Last week Penn was in a situation very similar. The team had come off two straight impressive victories over Cornell and Temple before being upset at Rutgers in a game the Quakers admittedly overlooked. After two wins this week, and with three consecutive Ivy games looming, could the same thing happen at West Chester? The Quakers don't think so. "We overlooked Rutgers," Sage said. "I think we learned a lesson. We're not going to overlook [West Chester]." After all, it will be the closest thing Penn has to a home game for another week.