M. Soccer looks to keep momentum against Lehigh

What a difference a week makes. On the eve of last Wednesday's matchup against La Salle, the Penn men's soccer team had yet to win its first game. After losing their season opener to Philadelphia Textile, the Quakers received a painful 9-3 drubbing at the hands of Seton Hall and failed to score at all in the Ivy opener against Cornell. The team had started to make a habit of getting behind early and then scrambling to catch up. Penn has turned things around in the last week. The Quakers (1-3-1) haven't lost since, beating La Salle and tying Villanova to improve their record and their confidence. They hope to carry this momentum into today's 4 p.m. game against Lehigh at Rhodes Field. Ivy League rules prevented the Quakers from starting their season as early as some of their opponents. Now it looks like the Red and Blue have started to feel comfortable on the field. "I think we've become more cohesive," senior Dave Choi said. A year ago today, the Quakers eked out a 1-0 win over the Engineers, who would go on to win only three games over the course of the season. This year, Lehigh has a different look. Although the varsity squad lost seven players, including its top two goaltenders, to graduation, it kept its three top scorers and regained junior midfielder Will Orben, who spent the last year abroad. Lehigh has looked strong so far this year, with a couple of early wins and two close losses against Brown and Princeton. Scoring may have been a problem for the Engineers last year, but the sophomore combination of Mario Monfardini and Matt Senkowski should provide a solid one-two punch from the front line. Scoring has been a problem Penn hopes to solve today. The Quakers have only scored eight times in four games, while their opponents have found the net 16 times. In last Saturday's tie against Villanova, the Quakers were only able to convert one of their seven shots into a goal. "Once we start finishing some goals off, we'll be in contention," sophomore Brad Copeland said. They're working on it. The Quakers have been trying to get more scoring from the forward line by working the ball out of the back. They also may attempt a new formation, one in which many of the Quakers have played at other levels. "We want to drop a guy back to sweeper," senior co-captain Steve Marcinkiewicz said. "There will be more cushion back there." Penn needs to score early and often. In their first three games, the Quakers had problems recovering after their opponent took the early lead. They showed they could come from behind last Wednesday against La Salle. Have they started to find a groove? "We're getting it," Copeland said. "We're playing aggressively and the desire to win is back."