Field Hockey falls in NCAAs

Spanish River High School '92 Boca Raton, Fla. The Quakers (6-0 Ivy League, 11-5 overall) started the 1993 campaign on a mission. The returning members from the league champion team of 1992 felt that they deserved to qualify for postseason play. Last season's squad finished the year with a No. 13 ranking to go along with its Ivy title, but somehow was left out of the tournament. In order to correct a similar situation from occurring in the future, over the offseason the NCAA decided that the Ivy champion would receive an automatic bid to the postseason. Despite last season's success, this year's Penn team was nowhere to be found in the national preseason poll. However, instead of viewing these factors as means to get down on themselves, the Quakers were possessed to prove that they belonged among the nation's elite. And that's just what they did. "One of the things that motivated the kids was that they seemed to feel that we were robbed of a chance last year to go to the tournament," assistant coach Donna Mulhern said. "They thought we should have gone. I just know that over the summer and in the beginning of the season that that was what they wanted to do." The desire paid off for Penn, which accomplished everything that it initially set out to do. The Quakers controlled the ball and kept their opponents on the defensive all season long. Penn consistently came up with the big win and played sharply on the road, pulling off a key 1-0 victory at Harvard to keep the undefeated season alive. However, the biggest win of the season came at Franklin Field in the year's final Ivy game. This time archrival Princeton fell victim to the potent Penn attack. Junior midfielder Amy Pine's overtime goal propelled the Quakers past the Tigers 2-1 and capped off the perfect league season. "I couldn't ask for more," junior goalie Suzy Pures said. "We got the job done. What we set out to do we got done. We won the Ivies and we made the tournament. Everything we wanted to do has been done."