W. Soccer returns home for LaSalle

The Penn women's soccer team, coming off a hard-fought 1-0 shutout victory over American, prepares to meet the La Salle Explorers Sunday at 2 p.m. on Rhodes Field. The travel-weary Quakers (5-4-1) return home for the first time in three games. While the road trip that took them from Cambridge, Mass., to Washington, D.C., was draining both physically and mentally. Penn managed to win two of three, shutting out both Columbia and American. The lone loss on the trip was 6-2 to perennial powerhouse Harvard. Fortunately, the Red and Blue drew some positive things from that defeat. "I think Harvard exposed some of our weaknesses?.We made adjustments that should really improve our play for the remainder of the season," Penn coach Patrick Baker said. Penn put those adjustments to good use Oct. 11 against American. "I think our back four played their best soccer of the season. Now we have to be concerned with the midfield forward," Baker said. The Quakers' inability to finish in front of the net has been their nemesis in virtually every game this year. "We have a good bit of work to do in front of the net," Baker said. The team took the day off yesterday to regroup and will hit the field today to work on this problem. The Explorers (4-6-2) come to Penn in the midst of a lengthy winless streak. La Salle is 0-6-1 in their last seven matches, having gone without a goal in the same span. The Quakers should be wary of letting a sense of overconfidence creep up on them. "They're not going to be pushovers," Baker said. "We just have to keep our level of play in front of the net consistent and we should be all right."