F. Hockey to play Syracuse in first round

There was no Greg Gumbel announcing the brackets. And there won't be any national TV coverage. But another Penn team is heading north to Syracuse for an NCAA tournament game. This time, it's the Penn field hockey team travelling for a first-round NCAA game against the ninth-ranked Orangewomen. The 12th-ranked Quakers, making their first tournament appearance since 1989, got a mixed bag when the NCAA placed them in the same bracket as top-ranked Penn State and sent them on the road against a 16-3-1 Syracuse team that is 8-0 at home this season. The upside for the Quakers is that the Orangewomen appear eminently beatable. They lost 1-0 to Princeton during the regular season, and Penn beat the Tigers 2-1 in overtime last week. This game is also one of the most closely-matched in the tourney. The Quakers (11-4) are the lowest-ranked tournament team – the Orangewomen are the third-lowest. "I think we're very capable of beating Syracuse," Penn coach Anne Sage said. "It'll be fun now to prepare. I think we have some homework to do – it's a good level of competition. I wish it was at home, though." "We wanted to play at home but we were seeded so low we knew it wouldn't happen," sophomore defender Sue Quinn said. "We're just really excited we got into the tournament." Despite losing 5-1 to the Nittany Lions earlier this season, the Quakers were not unhappy about being placed in Penn State's bracket, as opposed to other bye teams such as Maryland, which beat Penn 4-0 earlier this season. "To have the chance to play Penn State again, that's good news to us," Sage said. The Quakers have traditionally played well against the Nittany Lions, and Penn did score first against Penn State in this season's contest, although the lead did not last long. Syracuse is led by the 26-point tandem of Shelley Magee and Julie Williamson. Magee has nine goals and eight assists, while Williamson has 10 goals and six assists. Orangewomen goalie Cheri Herr has a 0.70 goals against average and a .910 save percentage. "I played with a couple of their players in high school," Quinn said about Syracuse. "And our players are just as good – if not better." Junior midfielder Amy Pine has 25 points on 10 goals for Penn. Junior goalie Suzy Pures, who went 414 minutes in Ivy play without allowing a goal before Princeton scored on her last Tuesday, has a 1.05 GAA and a .857 save percentage. The bid is especially sweet for the Quakers after they were passed over last year in favor of unranked Cal-Berkeley even after winning the Ivy title. The Golden Bears were invited again despite being unranked with a 7-7 record, but this time with the automatic bid for winning the Ivy League championship, Penn wasn't at risk. Eleventh-ranked Ball State was passed over instead this season. Much to Penn's delight, it appears that its season-ending victory over 14th-ranked Princeton helped deny the 11-4 Tigers a spot in the field. Princeton had beaten six of seven ranked foes and was ranked ahead of the Quakers for much of the first half of the season. In other first round games: No. 5 Northwestern duels Cal in Evanston, Ill., for the right to play No. 3 Iowa, No. 10 Boston University travels to No. 6 Massachusetts with the winner playing the No. 2 Terrapins, and No. 7 Old Dominion hosts No. 8 James Madison to determine who plays No. 4 North Carolina. The new rankings are released tomorrow and they should reflect the brackets by the NCAA. Penn should move up into the 10th or 11th position on the strength of its victory over Princeton. The poll, though, takes a background role as the Quakers, undefeated in the Ivy League for the first time since 1982, prepare for the biggest game of their season. "This is the icing, this is the champagne," Sage said. "I don't think this team has scratched their potential. This is a lot of fun."

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