W. Soccer awaits Cornell

The Penn women's soccer team is bringing something into tomorrow's Ivy League opener it never has brought before. When the opening whistle blows for their match against Cornell at Rhodes Field, the Quakers will be sporting a gaudy 2-1 record, the first winning record in the five-year history of the program. It seems second-year head coach Patrick Baker may be guiding the program out of the Ivy cellar. Last year heading into Ithaca, the team was licking its wounds after losses against West Chester and Villanova. This year, on the other hand, they have beaten West Chester 3-1, lost in the final minute of overtime against the Wildcats, an impressive Big East squad, and have thrown in a victory versus Old Dominion for good measure. So you might conclude this is a veteran team finally coming together. In fact, by all accounts, this year's freshmen are Penn's best recruiting class. The early returns support this assertion, as all but one of the Quakers' goals have been scored by freshmen. Not that the team lacks for quality returnees. Three honorable mention all- Ivy League selections will take the field against Cornell, including last year's leading scorer, sophomore Darah Ross. Junior midfielder Yuka Morita, the school's all-time leading scorer, and senior defender Meg Kinney joined her as honorees. Kinney and fellow defender Heike Krippendorff form the backbone of a stingy veteran defensive unit that has not allowed more than a single goal in regulation this season. You can be sure that Cornell, 4-0 victors a year ago, has taken note of that. Baker describes them as "very good" and "well-coached." These terms that fit nicely with the Big Red's history of contention in the Ivy League, which features nationally-ranked teams Harvard, Dartmouth and Brown. Tomorrow marks the beginning of a new league campaign, with hope in every Ivy town. But it may also be the start of Penn's rise into women's soccer respectability. Perhaps Baker's "great group of freshman" will combine with the returnees to give the seniors the send-off they deserve after three years of struggle.