Field Hockey falls in NCAAs

There isn't much debate about which field hockey team has dominated the Ivy League of late. For the second-consecutive season and the seventh time in the past 13 years, the Penn field hockey team captured the Ivy League championship. Except the 1993 Quakers were not your ordinary field hockey squad. Under the guidance of coach Anne Sage, Penn went undefeated in Ivy competition, allowing only a single goal, en route to a No. 12 ranking and an appearance in the NCAA tournament – a 3-0 loss to ninth-ranked Syracuse. 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. That was definitely their motivation." 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." As a result of the team's stellar play, eight Quakers garnered all-Ivy recognition. Representing Penn on the first team were senior forward Franny Maguire, Pine and senior defender Missy Hecht. On the second team were sophomore forwards Amy Shapiro and Kara Philbin, junior midfielder Lily Ma and junior defender Mandy Kauffman. Conspicuously absent from the first two teams was Pures, who was given honorable mention status. The junior goalie posted a remarkable 0.16 goals against average in Ivy play and came within minutes of not allowing a goal all season. Despite her superior play, she was somehow passed over for Cornell goalkeeper Amy Wright (1.72 GAA) and Princeton goalie Melanie Orpen (1.22 GAA). The key ingredient in choosing the all-Ivy goalies was apparently the number of total shots that they faced, because Pures also led the league in save percentage at a remarkable .973. "It was disappointing, but if that's the price I have to pay for having such an incredible defense then it's worth it to me," Pures said. "Their defenses weren't so great, so they had more shots on them. That's what it boiled down to – the number of shots. Anyway in the long run, who's got the ring?" A key reason for Penn's success is that the players have been playing together for a number of years. This has enabled the unit to mature as a group and has improved the on-the-field communication tremendously. The Quakers were able to focus on the task at hand and take command of the situation. That was far from the case way back when this year's two co-captains, Maguire and Hecht, were freshmen. "Over a two-year period now, there's been a consistency of players," Sage said. "We lost three seniors last year, and we'll lose two this year. When Franny was a freshmen, we had to rely on freshmen. Within a period of two years, they turned it around. They had a desire to win." The two seniors and first team all-Ivy selections will take a lot with them when they depart from the team. In addition to their incredible quickness, Maguire and Hecht were the team leaders who brought everyone else together. When the two came to Penn, they never thought they would be playing in an NCAA tournament. In their final game as Quakers, they did. "We're going to miss Missy on defense a lot to say the least," Pures said. "She's fast. We're definitely going to miss her speed and Franny's too. Between the two of them, their speed is going to be missed a lot. They held the team together." Despite losing the outstanding services of these two leaders, the possibility of a three-peat and a return trip to the NCAA tournament is great. With the rest of the team returning, and Pures still between the pipes, Penn should be the overwhelming favorite to win the league again. And the experience of making the NCAA's this season should help to give next year's team the chance to go even further. And continue the Quakers' dominance of the Ivy League.