Road troubles doom F. Hockey

NEWARK, Del. -- Though the Delaware field hockey facility is just a short hop down Interstate 95 from Franklin Field, the two fields couldn't be any further apart. The home of the Blue Hens looks like an afterthought -- a couple of aluminum bleachers exiled beyond the intramural fields at a far corner of the Delaware sports complex. It has none of the grandeur of Franklin Field, no rich history captured between stoic stone walls, no storied tradition to call its own. And it has no Astroturf. The last fact weighed most heavily on the Quakers Saturday. Penn suffered a 3-0 loss to a Blue Hen squad on the rise. It was the Quakers' first game of the season on a grass surface. Accustomed to the lightning-fast play and true bounces of the carpet, Penn (2-1) looked out of sync and uncomfortable with the slow, awkward grass game. "We're used to playing on turf where everything's more finesse, it's more controlled," senior midfielder Amy Pine said. "On grass, you never know where the ball's going to go. The drives are so bouncy. "It's a different style of play. On turf, it's not so much work, it's how fast you are. On grass, it's really getting your body behind the ball. It's something we should be able to adjust to, but I don't think we adjusted too well today." The change in surfaces also forced the Quakers to change their game plan and employ the big-ball strategy. Penn hit longer shots which slowed up in the grass. But it was Delaware who executed the game plan more efficiently, beating the Quakers to the ball, time and time again, and physically outmuscling the Penn forwards. "We were a little lethargic," junior sweeper Sue Quinn said. "We practiced big balls on Friday, but we seemed to forget it. We were supposed to hit it deep and run on to it, but we lacked the running aspect today." Despite being outplayed and spending much of the first half on its own end of the field, Penn didn't lack scoring opportunities. The Quakers finished the game having attempted nine shots on goal to Delaware's 12, with both teams' chances coming primarily on corners. Pine, recuperating from an injured knee, had trouble getting off clean shots on corners all afternoon. Neither squad was able to convert until just 34 seconds remained in the first half and Blue Hen senior forward Sue Daddona ran down a loose ball on the right side of the cage. Daddona, with two Quaker defenders on her heels, flipped a bullet past Penn goalkeeper Suzy Pures just inside the left post. The goal was the first Pures has allowed all season. "Delaware created some good scoring opportunities," Penn coach Anne Sage said. "When they got the one goal late in the first half, they really set the tone, and as the game went on, they only got stronger." Penn opened the second half with renewed intensity. But again it was Daddona who seized the momentum only minutes into the period. On a near mirror of her first goal, Daddona came swooping in from the left side of the circle and fired her second unassisted goal into the lower right corner of the cage. "We just came up against a good team," Quinn said. "If they had played on our field, they would have been in our shoes. It just so happened we played them there. " Delaware may also have harbored a vendetta against the Quakers, who defeated the Blue Hens 1-0 last year. "Teams are going to come at us," Sage said. "I think Delaware had something to prove this year and you could see that." Penn, meanwhile, will need to become more multi-dimensional and improve its grass game if it is to remain atop the Ivy League. "I think we have to reorganize," Sage said. "We have a lot of things to work on. Our team was outplayed. I think it's healthy to get kicked sometimes, and against Delaware, we got kicked."