Quakers upset by Big Red

Some things you just cannot teach in practice, no matter how hard or often you try. One of those things is consistency, and the lack of it can cripple even the most talented of teams. That lacking plagued the Penn women's lacrosse team, which fought a hard yet frustrating battle up in Big Red territory Saturday. Cornell came away with a 10-8 victory. "We were on and off at times," Penn attacker Amy Tarr said. "Our offense and defense was on in spurts. They just never connected." At first, the game was neck-in-neck. Cornell began the scoring on a free position goal in the second minute of play, but Penn junior Amy Shapiro tied the game a minute and a half later. After that however, Cornell (1-0, 1-0 Ivy League) took the lead and refused to relinquish it. By halftime, the Big Red was winning 6-2, with two goals coming from senior Tara Lamb. Penn (1-3, 0-2) tried desperately to fight back, racking up four goals by the midpoint of the second half and making it a one-point game. Cornell quickly regained its composure, however, and scored two goals in under a minute to make the score 9-6 and put the contest out of reach. After a 4-10 1994 season, Cornell clearly was pumped up for this game, and it combined solid defense with an equally efficient attack. The Big Red was clicking on all gears. An additional factor in Penn's loss may have been the fact it was playing on the road. "[No. 5] Loyola was our first home game, and we played excellent at Franklin Field," Tarr said. "But we're not up to that caliber on the road. It's all psychological." Knowing they could play better, team members were somewhat dismayed with the performance in Ithaca. "Personally, I feel empty. I can't believe we lost. They weren't that good," junior Jess Gilhorn said. "They just came out hard and played well. Compared to our Loyola game, we were two different teams." Despite the loss, there were several who played relatively well for the Quakers. Goalie Alexis Seth kept her pace for the season, stopping just under 50 percent of shots on goal. Along with Seth, freshman Darah Ross played well, coming off the bench to score a goal and dish out an assist. "It wasn't a whole team effort," Gilhorn said. "As the game went on, it seemed like we were playing for personal achievement." Gilhorn, who scored two goals this weekend, also felt the team may have pre-judged the Big Red squad. "In order to improve, no matter who the opponent is, we have to treat them like they're No. 1. We went in thinking it would be an easy game, or no game at all," she said.